Past Updates
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May 16, 2001 Update #18
We arrived in St George's, Bermuda at 0910 on Tuesday. Safe and sound. Trip was 847 nm and took 7 days 10 min. After clearing customs we went onto anchor in the harbor. Had "Dark and Stormy" on board to celebrate. Went ashore for an great dinner then back to the boat and SLEEP! We had light winds for much of the trip. We motored or motorsailed about 68% of the trip. Our best day was 132.6nm and worst was 109.4 (as compared to our trip to the Virgin Islands best 190 nm, worst 140nm). Strongest winds were gust of 37 knots. On Monday afternoon with less than 100 nm to go the wind picked up and we did over 8.5 Knots - we had to slow down to time our arrival for daylight hours. It was a little frustrating to have to slow down after so much light wind. It was a good trip, Fred and Don were good crew and companions. We ate well, including a 20-25 pound tuna we caught on Wednesday. Today is rainy in Bermuda. Fred and Don are on their way to the Airport and Marie and I are resting and getting ready for our next leg - to Horta in the Azores 1792.9 nm at 083 degrees magnetic. Terry and Marie
June 12, 2001 Update #19
We arrived safely in Vila da Lajes, Flores, Azores at 5:00pm Sunday June 10. The trip took 13 days to cover the 1675 nm (as the crow flies). After anchoring next to a 200 ft high lava cliff with water falls we shared a bottle of Champaign, ate and went to bed. We will check into the country today. The country is BEAUTIFUL. Birds are nesting in the cliff. The top of the island is covered with lush green fields and hedgerows. Crew is healthy and boat is in good shape. Some sail damage. Zelda did a good job. Herb did a great job of advising us how to steer around bad weather, thanks. Two other boats that left Bermuda with us, TEKA III, a trawler and ROBINLEIGH, another sailboat, are in the harbor with us. We arrived within a half hour of ROBINLEIGH. Pretty amazing after 1675 nm.  Dolphins joined us everyday.  They put on a special show to welcome us to the Azores.  Thanks for your prayers and good wishes. More to follow, Terry, Marie, Horst, Marliese
June 16, 2001 Update #20
We are now in Horta, Faial, one of the islands in the Azores.  It is quite a contrast from Flores, an island that is a quiet, beautiful and friendly.  We met some nice local folks in Flores that helped us tour the island and share with us their local food.  These folks spoke very good English that is certainly the biggest challenge.  Horta is more commercial and certainly more crowded.  It is the main connection point for sailors coming from the Caribbean and elsewhere before making it to mainland Europe.  As for the boating arrangement, there is quite a bit of rafting up (this means you pull up next to another boat and tie up to them; they in turn are tied to another boat, and so on); in fact, we were one of 5 boats in a raft up to a sea wall; tomorrow one of these boats will leave and we will be three until someone new comes in.  This means, jumping over lifelines, etc. to get to the dock.  Even the boats in the marina, where there was no space for us when we checked into customs, are rafted up and are (we think?) paying more but do have water and electricity occasionally available. Whether you are rafted, on anchor or in the marina, you pay a fee to have your boat here. Today was super Mercado day (a little Portuguese/Spanish) where we did some substantial provisioning.  It is challenging to figure out food translations; pictures on packages certainly do help.  Wine is sooooo cheap here; tons of Portuguese wine and good wine. We have had reasonably good tasting wine for only $.75 US per liter and up to $3.  In fact, the $3 wines are quite good. Can't complain about that. The bread and the cheese is unbelievable, as well. Today we had Midatlantic Yacht Services onboard to replace our radar unit; it failed after leaving Bermuda.  Terry is reinstalling our 24-volt alternator that we had rebuilt due to some damage caused by a nut that worked loose during our passage here. We also had to send out our mainsail to a local sail repairman to correct a few of the slugs failed on the trip to the Azores, the damage also included a failure of the headboard.  Isn't life onboard truly exciting, never a dull moment. Yesterday, we said goodbye to good friends we have been sailing with since Bermuda, they are headed up to Ireland and Scotland.  The second boat we have been traveling with also left to visit some of the other Azorean islands.  They, too, are going our way onward to Lisbon and around the coast of Spain and to Gibraltar.  We will catch up to them later since we are still in Horta awaiting completion of the radar installation. Equus, another boat with which we made friends in the VIs is coming this way in a day or two; we hope to connect with them as well.  They are also going into the Med and will plan to sail together. The weather here is quite cool; the locals say they are still waiting for summer to arrive.  We are still trying to adjust to the weather having left the Caribbean 90 degree-days and arriving here with polartec pullovers, pant and socks.  We, too, hope summer arrives. Check out the new photos on the web taken in Flores, one of the Azores.
July 1, 2001 Update #21
We left beautiful Terceira, Azores at 5:30 pm for an overnight sail to our final Azorean island, Sao Miguel.  We loved Terceira; a very quaint, quiet harbor with great shops and an easy walk to produce and supermarket provisioning. The people were most friendly and helpful. The marina, although still in its development stage, had nice facilities. We missed the running of the bulls by a few days but heard that it was quite a sight. We arrived Porto Delgada, Sao Miguel at 11:00 am today, this to be our last Azorean island.  Sao Miguel is certainly a contrast from the other islands in that its harbor is quite busy; landside looks to be very contemporary and built up. We will tour later after settling in. This is a popular stopping point before the big jump to Lisbon, Portugal (about 900 nm from here).  We will stay in this harbor for about a week waiting for a good weather window and to do last minute preparations.  Our next sail to Lisbon will take us about 5 days offshore. Although we have had other crew along the way, we have been sailing alone since Horta, Faial. We are once again meeting up with a few other boats that we have been traveling with off and on since leaving Maine last summer.  Teka III, a trawler, is rafted with us; we rafted with them in Horta.  There are at least 3-4 other familiar sailing yachts going our way. It is amazing how many people are sailing around the world. We have met so many interesting folks from many, many countries. Although we find English to be relatively common, we do find ourselves using sign language when needed--it works. Check out our web page to see some new photos from the Azores. Thanks to my son, Cory, and his girlfriend Carrie, for their webmaster skills. Stay well and stay in touch. Marie & Terry S/V Zelda
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