Passage report written on board Ramprasad on Tue 22nd May 2001  in about 37 03N 30 05W - about 100 miles SSW of the Azores.

Greetings! We left St Martin on Saturday 5thMay after about 6 months cruising up and down the Eastern Caribbean and it looks like we shall arrive in Horta in the Azores tomorrow. This passage has so far been reasonably quick and so far without major problems. We are on Day 18 today which with an arrival tomorrow would make an 18 day passage (because I call the departure day "Day 1"). The rhumb line distance is about 2240 miles and so far we have logged 2253 miles by GPS and have 108 miles to go. Days runs have been in the range 110-150miles with plenty in the higher part of this range. Up until this morning engine running has been limited to 2 runs, a short one of 1.6 hours on day 9 and a long one of 18.7 hours on Days 12/13. This will compare very well with the frustrating passage from Bermuda to the Azores 2 years ago when the shorter distance of 1800 miles was covered in 28 days. On that occasion at least we had the consolation that "Riverdancer" completed the same passage a few days later also in 28 days! Rauni flew back to Finland on 3rd May from St Martin after sailing with me all the way from England. She left me very adequately crewed with Tom and Matt both friends from Brighton Sailing Club. She had not slept properly on the outward Atlantic crossing and consequently preferred the idea of re-crossing the Atlantic more quickly on an aeroplane.

We have been checking in with Herb the weather man every day and following his advice. For the 1st week we managed to stay just ahead of an advancing weather front and consequently kept a good South-Easterly. It was a bit strong (and consequently a bit wet) on day 3 but we consider ourselves lucky to have had and kept such a wind for so long. "Barbary Duck", another ARC 2000 boat, left Antigua a day behind us, are now a day and a half behind and they have done an awful lot of motoring (- something like 200 hours!) something like twice as much as we carry fuel for! After the first week we have had more varied wind directions but mostly North-Westerleys, South-Westerleys and some Southerleys. Often Herb has warned us away from going North where there has been a great deal of unsettled weather up in the 40N region. We are only now approaching those latitudes from the South having done a big curve South of our rhumb line. As Guy and Annika of "Street Legal" said, Herb deserves a medal (and a lot more) for his efforts in guiding yachtsmen safely around the North Atlantic. He is on the radio every night for about 3 hours and must spend quite a lot more time downloading and interpreting weather data in great detail every day.

After our first North-Westerley we felt the temperature drop significantly for the 1st time since arriving in the Caribbean. OK spending the winter there does make you a bit soft! but I really don't object to a return to the cooler temperatures of Europe. At least returning to Europe in the early summer gives one a chance to gradually adapt to the different climate. The SSB radio which I installed for this trip has so far proved to be a success, not only for talking to Herb and others but also for radio email. In the ARC there were many who had bought a commercial radio email system which proved very disappointing. But having arrived in St Lucia I was introduced to the Airmail software with which to link up to the amateur radio Winlink network which has proved very satisfactory even if sometimes frustratingly slow. Certainly at sea this has worked well and it has a good position reporting system through which friends can track one's progress across the ocean or around the islands. The major pre-requisite for using this system is of course that one is a licensed radio amateur, the exams including morse code proficiency, are a bit of a hurdle to cross, but to me it seems now to have been a well rewarded effort.

So far today has been wet, calm and miserable but perfectly fine for charging the batteries, baking bread and writing on this laptop (Thanks Bill). Tom and Matt have also been having a go at it and today at least there is no shortage of power. 

Making Landfall at Faial from the South-West on the morning of 23rd May

PS Arrived yesterday Wednesday 23rd May in very wet calm conditions. Had a busy time doing all the arrival things. Noticed that Simeon's Ramprasad painting of 2 years ago is still clearly to be seen on the harbour wall very close to where we are now moored.

The 1999 Ramprasad painting on the harbour wall at Horta after 2 years of wear

 We met Simon and others from "Roxi", a Swan 38, who had done the ARC and been present at the Mount Gay Rum party in Antigua, and had a few beers with them in the Cafe Sport and then had a large buffet meal at Capote's restaurant.