Santa Maria, Azores

Santa Maria is the most southern (and eastern) as well as the geological oldest island of the 9 Azorian islands. About 6000 people live on the so called golden island, golden due to the color of the grass which turns golden in summer. We experienced the Island as a true Atlantic pearl, authentic, with beautiful villages and much greener than Porto Santo.

There is also a satellite tracking and receiving station on Santa Maria with one dish dedicated to the tracking of ESA rockets as the 2nd contact for telemetry and health data after launch in Kourou, the European space port in French Guiana. We could not resist to ring the bell and the friendly staff, all from the island, gave us an ad-hoc in-official and very informative tour. Besides for ESA they also provide services for a range of other organisation's and commercial space operators, as e.g. they operate an active radar antenna which allows tracking of space objects (eg debris) down to the size of 10 cm. They even rotated the ESA antenna for us (I was not aware that it rotates so fast). Thanks, really impressive! (see video link here). 

Santa Maria Video

Sailing to the Azores

Leaving Porto Santo - Credit: Christina & Peter, SY Timshal

Finally, we set sail late in the afternoon of the 6th of May after waiting several days for a good weather window. As recommended by the weather routing software we took a course much more west hoping that we could avoid the low wind condition in the centre of the high pressure system. This, unfortunately did not really work out as the elongation of the high pressure system was much larger than predicted. During the first night and also the following day and night we had fantastic sailing conditions with wind between 15 and 22kn some 60 to 80 degrees from starboard. T-Fish was flying with hull speed and somtimes above when surfing down the waves. On the second day the wind fell asleep but came back during the night before dying off completely. In order to maintain a good average speed we used the engine whenever the speed fell below 4kn. We arrived in Santa Maria after 3 days and 21 hrs, more than half of the distance (564 nm) under sail.

The biggest challenge was a malfunctioning autopilot (again) which required continues hand-steering. It is amazing how fast one is loosing course in the open sea without any orientation when not focusing on the compass for a few seconds. This explains our zig-zack course and the milage of 564 nm while the direct distance is only around 491nm.

Here a few impressions: Sailing to the Azores

Waiting for a good weather window

In the meantime Simi, a friend and ex-colleague who will accompany me on the trip to the Azores, has arrived. We finished some smaller boat jobs with the help of some sailors around (anchor light, outbord engine, etc). T-Fish is almost in prestine condition now but we still have to wait a depression north west of the Azores to pass which generates big waves between Madeira and the Azores. The plan is to use the edges of the following High system passing from South West to North East in between Madeira and the Azores. Departure currently is planned around noon of the 6th of May which should provide favorable sailing conditions using a track more southerly than the direct great circle line (535nm instead of 491nm). So far the plan.

Christina and Peter from SY Timshal, very experienced sailors who are in the regions already some years and even married in Porto Santo, showed us the highlights of the little island (indeed a little paradise). We had lot of fun visiting some restaurants, a Poncha bar (luckily no fotos!), organizing a BBQ and having some dinners together on our boats. Thanks Christina and Peter! We really enjoyed your companion and I am sure we will meet again either in Porto Santo or on the Canaries. 

Exploring Porto Santo with Christina and Peter from the SY Timshal

Changing Plans

Besides smaller issues T-Fish is now in almost pristine conditions. I used the last weeks, besides hiking 10 days with my wife on Madeira, to finish many open 'projects'. A problem is only the delivery of spare parts to Porto Santo. Parcels take ages to arrive from the main land (in fact I am still waiting for two outstanding deliveries). 

Sailing friends in Porto Santo adviced me to visit the Azores islands, a must see because of their spectacular nature. They also mentioned that as long as arrive before mid to end of May I should not have problems finding a berth before the bulk of yachts arrive for a stopover on their way from the Caribbean to the Med or Northern Europe. Therefore I decided to sail to the Azores, first and plan to discover the islands in May and June before sailing back to Porto Santo where i will leave T-Fish for the summer before continuing to the Canaries in autumn. So far the new plans.

Landfall on the Azores is planned on Santa Maria, the smallest inhabited and the most southern Azore islands, some 500nm miles from Porto Santo. This time Simon, a old friend and ex- colleague will support which makes night shifts much easier. We plan a 4 days transit leaving beginning of May.

And here the hiking video. My wife and me did  even the PR1, a famous trail from Pico Arieiro to Pico Ruivo and return. This was not only a challenge for me not being free of giddiness but also for our physical condition. The next day we were dead - but we did it! All other hikes along various levadas were easy.

Hiking in Madeira

Fatto!

There are always thousands and one thing to be done at the start of a new sailing Season. I just finished the big jobs and keep smaller jobs when returning from Madeira. Of course pleasant weather helps but there was some time pressure as my wife arrives beginning of April in Madeira. Just this morning I installed one additional solar panel, the last job on the list before I spend some days hiking with my wife in Madeira over the Easter holidays. Now I enjoy a sunny (about 25 degree C) day on the beach in Porto Santo and will sail to Funchal tomorrow.

By the way - you may have noticed that a different link when hitting 'Current Position' is opening now. It is now opening the ham radio position reporting map. As I have installed ham radio on T-Fish, I can email and send position reports via HF Radio even when out of the cellular network. Cool! Isn't it? (p.s. I changed it back to the AIS mirrowing system used by VesselFinder and similar apps as the APRS Sytem was not updating my position although it was sent and the receipt confirmed). 

Still alive!

A couple of weeks ago, a Spanish friend who follows my blog contacted me asking if I am still alive.

Yes - I am! 

Indeed, he is right, I was not very active in blogging recently. Instead, I enjoyed our home and the beautiful Bavarian landscape, also a bit of skiing (not too much due to lack of snow), a lot of cooking and of course planning this year's  cruises. 

I also attended the BOOT fair in Duesseldorf, the biggest boat exhibition worldwide and took advantage being in the vicinity of Cologne to visit my brother, his family and a friend whom I met in Sardinia last year. I bought some new equipment at the fair, a new dinghy, and a Garmin InReach, allowing me texting and being tracked via satellite when I am out of reach of the cellular network. This, together with additional equipment (antifouling, an additional solar panel, new hinges for the skylights, etc, etc) had to be shipped to Porto Santo, Madeira, Portugal which seems to be easy as it is still Europe but in fact proved to be very difficult and costly. As soon as you leave European main land, shipping becomes complex and cumbersome. In fact one parcel did not make it and was sent back which is given me some headaches now. Some additional challenges to sort out.....

Besides this, I also re-discovered landscape photography. Further, I re-activated my ham radio license, DF2RQ, which I plan to use on the boat under DF2RQ/mm (/mm stands or maritime mobile) (this will not only allow me to communicate with fellow sailors on SSB but also to send and receive emails off grid via HF. I did some test in the last weeks with a simple wire antenna. Just with only 10 Watts output, I was able to contact some DX (far distance) station including some rare ones / DXpeditions (Burundi, Western Sahara, Saint Brandon, Angola, Nepal, Trinidad, Belize, ...). Also my morse skills are becoming better again (not yet as fast as I used to be as a teenager but it is coming back).

Next week I will fly back to T-Fish to prepare her for the new season. 

And here some pics from the last months: