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