PLEASE NOTE THIS WILL BE MY LAST BLOG ON BLOGSTAR - Follow me on www.willymakeit.co.uk

Elmarleen heads for Horta

So after an amazing weeks holiday in Bermuda I have sadly had to leave. Its been very
difficult to go and now I am sitting on the boat with at least two weeks of solo
sailing ahead of me. It was hard as I actually have no reason to leave Bermuda. There
was no start line, no race, no dream to follow. The OSTAR was easy to get fired up for
and there was an aim, but for this trip its just a chore, something that needs to be
completed to get home.

Elmarleen is in Bermuda.

We arrived here on Friday afternoon after a very slow and long slog to get here. It
blew a SW for the majority of the trip and we sailed in excess of 800 miles in order
to get here. Wow, but hasn’t it been worth it. It didn’t take more than about 15
minutes for Matt and I to realize how special a place we had arrived at. A little
island in the middle of the Atlantic that really is paradise. I would recommend to
anyone who does the OSTAR to pop in here on the way home.

Only 60 miles to Bermuda.

It has been a long trip to Bermuda. A trip that we expect to take five days is
going to have taken us over six. The winds were not as initially forecast and have
been onteh nose the whole way. I joke but the island of Bermuda could not have
been laid as a better windward mark by any race committee. The has been no bias or
favoured side, it just been a hard slog and a number of time Matt and I have just
given in and motored directly into it.

I think that Marco has done a fantastic job in providing this site. I, like I am sure many others, found reading the skippers’ blogs during the race fascinating. And it has been a marvellous opportunity for the skippers to keep their families and supporters up to date on their progress.

So here we are again. Its two o’clock in the Western Atlantic ocean. With great
anticipation I download the grib files twice a day a eight o’clock (12UT) in
hope of a slight shift to give us a favourably tack to Bermuda. Oh no, it seems
that the weather is very settled with giving us a steady 15knot south easterly.
Well we are trying a different technique today, its called motoring. Its not
fast directly into a head wind but atleast we are making some VMG to Bermuda.

A very hot slow boat to Bermuda.

I have to admit this is not the trip Matt and I planned to Bermuda. The gulf stream and
weather has decided it is going to deal us a cruel blow. The weather forecast has
completely turned on it head since we left Fairhaven and we now have 15knots of breeze
coming direct from Bermuda. There is no favour tack, its coming straight from where we ant
to go. In the sea state we are tacking through 100 degrees and its looking like the second
half of this trip is going to take 3 or 4 days.

Day 3,

The wind has finally picked up to about 15 knots true. Its on the nose but its better
than nothing. We seem to have finally pulled through the eddy on the gulf stream giving
me 2.5 knots of current against. So running a little behind schedule but still on for a
Thursday arrival. Fingers crossed we don’t loose to much of this wind.

The temperature is 30’c below decks and it to hot to do anything even type so I am going
to stop here.

USA – Bermuda Day 2

We had a cracking first 24 hours and must have average about 6 knots but since midday
today we had only had a puff of wind. We have been sailing at about 3.5 knots of the
last few hours and now that we are not racing you wonder whether it is time to start
using some of the very precious diesel. We have approximately 150 litres which should
give us the best part of 2 and a half days worth. So how slow do you have to be
sailing before you start the engine?

The temperature is 29’c and the humidity is around 61%. The weather was not like this
on the OSTAR.