DAY 1
Archive source: https://archive.59-north.com/blog/2023/11/11/fog-amp-light-wind-in-portugal-portugal-sail-training-day-1
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Foggy morning in Lagos on Portugal’s Algarve coast. Mia, Alex, and mate-in-training Manot are onboard FALKEN this morning, getting started with the standard safety and pre-departure briefings. I’m writing from the hotel adjacent to J Dock, where I stayed last night in an attempt to sleep off the last lingering effects of a cold I picked up back in the USA.
This afternoon we’ll sail. Well, hope to sail anyway. Lagos is sitting smack in the middle of the end of a long axis of high pressure, so there’s not much air moving around in the marina. The ‘Azores High’ is stretched out and has reached the coast here. Typically, you see the high centered further west, and along the coast of Portugal you tend to get northerlies, the ‘Portuguese Tradewinds’. Unlucky for us, we’re not in a typical pattern right now.
This week is a bit different from our normal A-B passages, so we have options. We’re going to end up back here in Lagos after a week of sail training, with a mix of inshore cruising and offshore, nonstop sailing. The plan this afternoon is to head over to Sagres, a beautiful little surfing town right at the very southwest tip of Portugal, tucked inside the high cliffs of Cabo Sao Vincente. We anchored there with some friends in 2018 aboard ISBJØRN, so I’m familiar with the small harbor. Back then, we got the anchor chain inextricably wrapped around some sunken junk on the bottom, having to get the local dive shop guys to come out and extricate us. So hoping to avoid that this time!
Alex, Mia, and I have a long list of lectures planned for the week, interspersed with the actual sailing, so if there truly is no wind we’ll spend a lot more time talking about weather routing and forecasting, break out the sextant for some celestial practice, and do any number of other fun lessons aboard FALKEN this week.
This is our last trip of 2023, and the first that Mia and I are sailing together since early 2020, before Axel was born! It’s nice to be back on the boat together in a professional capacity.
HOLD FAST! — Andy
andy@59-north.com
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The Penultimate Blog from Adrienne II
After 20 days, and 3000+ nautical miles, we're back on land. The motley crew of Adrienne II, consisting of 7 happy amateurs supported by 3 professionals, have completed an epic journey many dream of but few realize. So much of this trip has been about being present - with nature, with each other, with this boat. My biggest takeaway from this trip is the amazing crossing of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone). We all hope you've enjoyed the blog as much as we've enjoyed creating it.
Mother Nature, you’ve outdone yourself!
It’s been a great experience to have a non-traditional trans-Atlantic, as it’s been packed with genuinely cool features. The Doldrums!! A place sailors have been talking about for centuries. The unpredictability is what made it such an exhilarating experience. While some might be frightened or alarmed by this kind of weather, I was embodied with a sense of calm and awe. There’s something wildly beautiful about being reminded how small you are, while feeling so incredibly alive.
A Heavenly High
As you have probably figured out at this point, the drug of choice on board is, of course, celestial navigation- an art which has hooked offshore sailors for centuries. Once addicted, navigators will emerge from down below only to get their fixes two times per day, and spend the rest of their days and nights down below doing complex spherical mathematics. On Adrienne II, our skipper is our dealer. I must confess that I myself gave in to the strange urge which I’ve felt witnessing my crewmates practice this fine art, and yesterday felt an amazing sensation as I was able to wield the sextant for the first time and with it, bring down the tip of our starboard spreader to the top of our front sprayhood, presicely measuring the angle between the two (35deg, 38,8’ min). This afternoon, Naxo then showed me how to get my fix from the very sun itself - and I now fear there is no turning back.