On this page we will share updates daily about our progress and the situation onboard. They will be posted when time allows.

As the weather in the Atlantic seemed to stabilize a bit, we decided it was time for us to sail forward toward Ireland. We will aim to Kinsale that is the nearest harbor in Ireland when coming from the Azores but, depending on the weather, the tide and how we feel, we might decide to prolonge the journey a bit to Dublin or even Belfast.

The distances for a direct passage are as per below. We will probably not be able to take the shortest way but make some detours to follow the wind :

Distance from Horta (Azores) to Kinsale (Ireland): 1150 Nm, approximately 10 days at 5 knots.

Additional distance from Kinsale to Dublin / Dun Laoghaire (Ireland): 160 Nm, approximately 1.5 day.
Additional distance from Dublin to Belfast / Bangor (Northern Ireland): 90 Nm, approximately 1 day.

Here is what we have foreseen for this passage:

Food: We have quite a lot of cans remaining from previous passage that we can rely on. It is quite easy to get fresh food at reasonable price in the Azores compared with how it was in the Caribbean so we have brought more fresh food this time.

Water: We are leaving with full tank of water (200L) from the harbour and we still carry our emergency reserve of 22 sealed 1.5L mineral water bottles.

Fuel: We are leaving with nearly full tank of diesel, about 125L and we have 100L of diesel in jerrycans stored on deck. This corresponds approximately to 8,5 days at 1200 rpm or 5 days at 1700 rpm. We estimate we can cover max 770 Nm if we run the engine at low rpm.

We will transmit our position via Satellite with our Iridium GO every hour and it will appear on our PredictWind tracker.

Wish us fair winds !

Day 1

We left the harbor of Velas at 8:30 in the morning on June 7. Looking forward to this new adventure.

Day 2

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Update June 8 at 08:30 GMT+0
Position: N40.3342 W26.9041
Distance sailed during the last 24 hours: 126 Nm.
Distance to Kinsale: 1024 Nm.

2 hours on engine against the wind along the coast of São Jorge. Nice winds afterwards, between 6 and 9 m/s, broad reach.
Cloudy and a bit cold, especially during the night.
No fish on the hook, not even sargasso, but a Cory’s shearwater instead. Maria took it by the wing to free it from the hook. The bird had no injury.
Interesting to see that while we dragged it toward the boat, the rest of the group gathered around their friend, visibly concerned.

The crew is fine, but it is not easy to get back into the rhythm. We have the company of dolphins day and night.
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Update June 8 at 09:35 GMT+0
Position: N40.4024 W26.8157
Just crossed the path of a pod of killer whales. Two came close to the stern, maybe 10 m, and it was not really fun when they get that close.
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