I'm in Madrid and it is 2pm already and I can't wait any longer!

Chris & I just wrapped up a 20 day crossing of the Atlantic from Annapolis to Porto, Portugal via the Azores.

The Azores were the highlight of the trip. We only spent 3 days in Horta, but it was fantastic and we can't wait to go back. Porto is looking to be pretty special too and we are looking forward to spending a good amount of time there soon.

We couldn't have hoped for a better trip across. We averaged almost 170nm each day with 3 days over 200nm. The boat sails like a witch and we were just along for the ride, letting the autopilot steer about 3270nm of the 3300nm. I only steered a few times because it was fun with the small spinnaker up in 20 knots doing 10 knots or more. We did have 5 different thunderstorms in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream with torrential rain, lightning and even a water spout that was way, way too close for comfort. After tracking it on a converging course for a couple of minutes we had to adjust course about 90 degrees to pass behind it. Passing within about 500' of it. Not an easy task when it is blowing 30-35.

The biggest surprise to me was the wind. It was just stronger than I was expecting and always stronger than forecast. Not stormy, just strong. In the 20 days we only had 4 days of winds under 15 knots with most of the time spent in 15-25 and a max of 40 a couple of times. The strong winds were always aft of beam so we were hauling, the only question was do we fly the big spinnaker (not often), the little spinnaker (quite often, even at night), just white sails (often), a reef and genoa (about half the trip), or just the genoa or main. We tended to cycle through those choices with very little change in apparent wind direction.

A highlight for me was that we used only 25 gallons of diesel for the entire trip and most of that was approaching/leaving the Azores (Azores High) and approaching the Portuguese coast at nignt (no sea breeze).

I did have to go up the mast to retrieve the main halyard on Day 6 when the shackle came undone in rolling seas and no wind. Lesson remembered. Mouse the shackles with a zip tie in the future. It was rolling so heavily when the shackle let go that we turned on the motor to try and steady the boat with some speed, but even then at times, if I had dropped straight down from the mast I would not have landed on the boat, I would have hit the water.

Anyway, now that the boat is finally in reasonable proximity to us we are looking forward to just relaxing on the boat and doing some coastal cruising for awhile. Next summer we are looking to see (sea?) the Baltic.

One the "wall" in Horta. Our mark on the "wall". The view of Pico from the marina in Horta. If you are interested there are quite a few more pics on our latest blog post (see link below). I have about 8 hours of video too, that I am working on distilling down to a few minutes. Not a fast process, but I'll post that when it is finished.