Left Greenland Oct. 2^nd  with some good beam seas, but after 3 days of lay-up we were all anxious to put to sea again. 

From Ice Bergs to palm trees, it took 9 days and 2 hours for 1612 nm from Greenland.  We’ve learned a lot about storms at sea and how to deal with them.  But we’re still novices and there is a lot more to learn.  We knew the North Atlantic is not good in October.  The northern gales are getting stronger and this is the time for hurricanes that come north and then swing across the Atlantic.  Twice we’ve been associated with weather systems with hurricane force winds.  Both times they were down graded when they got near us.  The first one was off the tip of Greenland and we decided to wait it out in Narsaq, the second crossed just north of us just after we got to Azores.  The reason we went when we did is to avoid waiting until next June.

We need to get another storm drogue to slow us down.  One night in 45 kts we were surfing the forward side of waves many times above 18 kts, and up to 24.6 kts.  We always had good control and no green water over the bulwarks.  Most of the trip the wind was above 20 kts so it was good experience.   Everyone aboard felt fine although not much cooking.                                                                           

Nice to have Russ Beattie aboard, he is a natural seaman with no qualms about rough seas or dragging anchors in a storm at night.  Also he is taking my turn at the helm so I can enjoy other duties.

Ben’s the only one that has done a long crossing before.  At Azores we have sailed 9,098 nm, (10,463 sm or 16,740 km) since launch at Dunvegan Alberta, May 24^th.

Idlewild is a mess.  It was a long grind through the Arctic with a lot of people, so things are a bit dirty.  We've been driving hard since we left Gjoa Haven about Sept 1st.   Its been a fantastic trip but that don’t get away from a bit of cleanup.  Books and storage under the beds is damp and molding too, so we'll air that at Horta.  And the hold is a mess too but we’ll get it sorted out. 

Nothing is as exciting as coming to a new and exotic place by sea.  So much to learn, its always different than you thought.   What a fabulous experience it must have been to early explorers who didn’t have advance information. 

Horta, Azores is a small out of the way place, and a dream place for any sailor with many days at sea.  The people are very nice, friendly and helpful, the weather is great and the women are beautiful.  What more could a sailor dream of?  This is the off season here and still there are more tourists than we are accustomed to.  Prices are reasonable even though exchange is 1.50 per Euro.

Azores of Portugal tourism

Peter’s