Friday, June 5, 2009

Landfall in Portugal





























After 17 days without the sight of land, Portugal's Faial Island looked beautiful to us all.***
Our cycle of 4 hours shifts followed by 6 hours off duty were so ingrained that the trip moved rythmycially along under all conditions. When are you on next? Did you sleep well? These were the common questions answered by all. The biggest events were Suzanne's Sunday pot roast and Sunday meat loaf dinners.***
The open Atlantic has hours of beautiful emptyness punctuated by moments of sightings like porpoise, whale, jellyfish, a freighter or a fishing boat. The porpoise joined us so a picture is included. They jelly fish don't move so we included a pictue. The whales however, were bound elsewhere and did not stop for a picture. The boats were visible at night moving away.***
The nights without moonlight were erily dark and when the night was cloudy it was difficlut to orient yourself. The horizon disappeared and you floated in an empty darkness impossible to describe.***
We have moved into a small group of people who have made the crossing. You have watched us make the trip and know what only a small group of people have experienced. The middle 3 pictures are a sample of our daily views.***
Did you know anything about the Azores before this trip? let us know. Did you look them up. Is Portugal a new place for you as it is for us?***
The finish time was 1:31pm eastern daylight savings time at the waypoint. We actually docked for fuel and customs at 1:52pm eastern daylight savings time. 5:42pm portugal time.*** More about the Azores later. The locals use a short a sound and the o is pronounced like a u.***
Your comments are appreciated.

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations! What an accomplishment; it has been exciting to 'follow' you, and it's great to see pictures.
    Betty

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  2. I have been checking the updates everyday of you guys. Looks like you missed the first tropical storm the east coast had this season and the missing Air France plane that went down flying from Rio to Paris on your ventures. I google earthed the port of Horta yesterday and the marina looks nice. I get more and more jealous everytime I read the blog, trip of a lifetime. Keep having fun and the updates coming!

    Steve

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  3. I'm glad you had a safe trip,watching everyday of your progress, the guy's in tooling have been following also,at first we was wondering if you drank all your beverages all at once do to your course you were sailing.Yea right i'm sure you had that covered.Glad to see you made it safe,have a nice stay on land enjoy.Where are you headed next? Tell everyone Hi and get a good nights rest i'm sure you all need it. Dawg

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  4. Glad to hear you're safe and sound. What a great trip and experience. Pics are great as well. We would have like to be there:)

    Burns'

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  5. Fantastic! Can't wait to hear about the adventure in person. BTW, what did I win? :-)

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  6. This is an amazing experience, thanks for all the updates and pictures. It makes me dream during another study day :). I look forward seeing you.

    Pieter

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  7. We, too, checked every day and prayed that you would safely make it across. Alec was a source of more updates which we appreciated. I know that he is proud of the accomplishment.

    Congratulations!!

    Ronald & Glenda Davis

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