Valent

After 9 1/2 days from Horta, Valent docked at 22:00 in Falmouth at Port Pendennis. About a third of the trip was sailing in almost perfect conditions. Another third was undertaken in challenging wind and seas with at one point a triple reefed main and staysail as the wind gusted to 38kts. The genoa had been been stowed long before. The rest was motor sailing in light winds. The sun put in very few appearances – the only visible sunsets being the first and last. Any chance to practice my AstroNav was thwarted. Probably a good job we did not have to rely on it like the boats of only 40 years ago before the advent of GPS.

Fishing proved to be elusive – we caught 1 lovely Mahi Mahi on day 1 and lost 2 big fish early on. The middle section was too rough for fishing and then we were either too fast and eventually we were in cold water where the Tuna and Mahi Mahi don’t want to be.

Arrival was celebrated with muted drinks – trying to get a decent pint at 11pm in Falmouth proved tricky. First stop was a strange Rum Bar – still we had a Dark ‘n’ Stormy to toast or return and remind us of departure drinks on 5 May at Shirley Heights in Antigua – seems a long time ago; well 3,746 nm of sailing at any rate.

Valent in Falmouth, looking small behind the superyacht.

Sunday has been a quiet start. Getting some laundry done, completing our entry back to the UK and generally reacquainting to life ashore. This is the first time we have been on shore power for over a month and the batteries are enjoying a good charge. The crew enjoyed a celebratory Sunday Roast at the boathouse, though all rather subdued. I think that we remain rather exhausted. Shaun (our USA crew member) has now departed and gone to see the delights of London before spending a few days in Europe.

The happy crew and empty plates. From L-R, Sean, Alex, Noah, Will

Valent is now going to do a couple of passages across the channel, primarily to allow Noah to do 2 skippered passages to prepare him for his Yachtmaster exam. For me, it is an opportunity to get cheap fuel in Guernsey and then to spend that saving on Wine, Cheese and lovely French food in Cherbourg. We will end up in the Cowes/Haslar area in time for Noah and Alex to participate in the annual Round The Island Race.

With special thanks to Sean, Alex and Noah for making the trip so enjoyable, safe and easy for me. We have sailed 3,746nm and spent 26 nights at sea together. We have supped in Antigua, St Martin, Horta (Faial Azores) and Falmouth. Thank you again. Fair winds in your next sailing adventures.

We’ve now completed 6 nights at sea and have around 500nm (4 nights) left depending on where we choose to make our first port of call. Falmouth is our target, but early indications are that they will not have a berth available for us. In that case we will need to go the extra 30 miles or so to Plymouth. The weather has been kind to us on this leg – yes we have had some windy, bumpy and damp days, but all manageable and could have been a lot worse. Wind continues to be forecast and we expect to see F5 North Westerly/Westerly as we approach the Channel.

Within a few hours of leaving Horta it was very obvious that we were on our way back to Northern Europe and the UK in particular. It got me thinking what are the tell tale signs that we are nearing the UK – here are my Top 10

1. No Sun for 5 days – the weather forecast is depressing – cold, damp and a lack of sun.
2. Sea colour – no longer blue but a grey/green
3. Tomatoes don’t go off when kept out of the fridge
4. Butter needs to be melted to bake a cake – and if left goes solid again
5. Watchkeepers enjoying Cup-a-Soup
6. Hot Lunches
7. Needing to remember where I stowed the duvets and duvet covers
8. Sleeping in socks
9. No enthusiasm for Al Fresco Showers and no more Hands to Bathe
10. Many layers of clothing and damp clothing around the boat.

Other changes include preparing the tide tables; have not worried about tides for a year now, getting out the Shell Channel Pilot and interacting with UK Border Force (though only on-line so far).

Baking has gone well, with the Apple Cake being a particular hit – rationing was required to ensure it made it to day 2. Tomorrow we will make a final banana cake, Caribbean style (just add rum) to remind us of a few weeks ago though it seems a lot longer.

Valent is currently at sea on the way from the Azores to the UK, but their Starlink connection is currently quite unstable, so just a quick reminder that you can still follow their progress using the Yellow Brick tracker. On our blog under Menu, go to the page How to Follow us at Sea, and click on the first link. This updates their position every six hours, and they have also been posting short blog updates there every day or so. The latest update this morning is:

“A breezy and bumpy night. A lot cooler as well. Sailing with heavily reefed main and stay sail. All good on board if a little uncomfortable.”

After 4 nights recovering in Horta it is time to move on. The original plan was to visit 1 or 2 more islands, but due to the weather forecast we have decided to head to the UK today. There is an OK window at the moment, and that would appear to close for another week or so. Also, the weather in the Azores is wet for the next few days.

Other than sleep, we have explored the vicinity of Horta, visiting amongst other things the Whaling Museum, Scrimshaw Museum, Porto Pico and of course Peter’s Bar. Alex was more adventurous and took the ferry across to Pico and climbed Mt Pico – at 2,351M (7,713ft) it is the highest peak in Portugal.

The whaling museum is housed in the old processing plant. Whale production ceased in the mid 70’s and the primary product was oil. The oil was used throughout the industrial world for lubricating machinery. The whales were towed into the bay and then dragged up through the arch using steam powered winches. The whales would then be butchered by a team of around 10 people.

We have added Valent to the collage of artwork around the marina – hopefully we will remain in posterity for a good 10 years.

Now we are heading towards Falmouth and expect to arrive around 9 Jun. We will then take a few days to move along the South Coast with the aim of arriving in the Portsmouth area on 13/14 June in time for the RTI.

After 15 nights at sea, land was sighted (where it should have been) on Sunday 26 May. We have had a good trip from Fort Louis, St Martin, though large portions have been in very light winds, and other parts in seriously strong winds. We endured a night of terrific thunder and lightening, 2 days and nights of torrential rain and 6 days where we did not see the sun. For the sailing part it was nearly all a broad reach on white sails, but the Bora Parasailor did make a very useful appearance for 9 hours, covering around 40nm as the wind dropped. That 40nm has made all the difference to our ability to motor the last 36 hours in the light airs.

2 am, pitch black and the lightening is awesome and terrifying.

Fishing wise we caught a lovely Mahi Mahi at the beginning of the trip but other than that have failed to land anything else. We did have 2 large fish on, so large that we could not even hold them on the reel, let alone start winding them in. The fish just made a run, stripped the line of the reel and than snap went the line. We also had a stowaway for a couple of days, a small yellow coloured finch. The custom of hands to bathe was followed a few days out whilst the wind was non-existent.

We have suffered relatively little damage on the crossing. Just the big genoa requires looking at. Some of the stitching is coming undone along the seams, a panel is flapping and we can see a few small holes. Luckily the sailmaker in Horta seems confident that they can sort out the issue next week. There is also some bad chafing on the genoa sheets, but that is easily resolved.

Despite all of this, we still had some wonderful sunsets/sunrises, even if we did go 5 days without seeing the sun.

2 sunrises and a sunset – can you tell which is which? (A clue, we are heading in an Easterly direction).

For those that have followed the updates on Yellowbrick our destination in The Azores has changed a few times, but we are now back to Plan A, Horta. We did think it would be pleasant to visit the most Westerly on the islands, Flores, but it is unclear how easy it is to get fuel there and they have very limited facilities. We then thought we would go to Ponta Delgada, the large marina on the most Easterly island. They have plenty of space and it would put us a day closer to the UK. However, a combination of fuel concerns and being turned down by the sailmaker prompted us to revert to Plan A and Horta. Our sail is now in the repair shop and we hope to have it back in a few days. The marina and anchorage at Horta is jam packed. The harbour master took pity on us and allowed us to spend our first night alongside the fuel dock. This made life convenient and also meant that we were first in the queue for fuel the next morning. By the time we were refuelling, there were another 3 boats rafted alongside us all waiting to fill up with diesel and water. We have also deposited a large load of smelly clothes at the serviced laundry.

Dolphins on the last day as Failal appears with Mt Pico above the clouds.

We now intend to spend a few days recovering in Horta, repair the genoa, refuel, charge up the batteries, fill the water tank and get more fresh supplies. We envisage departing Horta around 31 May/1 Jun depending on weather, sail repairs and whether we can squeeze in a short visit to another island. The aim is to get back to the UK in time for the crew to participate in the annual RTI race that commences in Cowes on 15 June.

Valent at anchor Horta with Pico in the background. The crew enjoying a well deserved meal at Peter’s bar after arriving.

For those that like some stats, we spent 15 nights at sea, the total crossing time was 15 Days and 5 Hrs. We covered a distance of around 2,300nm and motored for 136hrs or about 1/3 of the way. This is more than hoped but as expected given the light airs forecast at the start.