St. Peter Port, Guernsey, UK

Well yes, we are still in Guernsey. The weather has been very blowy with easterlies to 30 kts. plus. It's much quieter this morning and we are going on the hard to have our gel coat repaired and the perpetrator is going to pay for it.
We still do not have the bowthruster parts so that isn't working. We have a weather window for London on Saturday so we have to get this stuff done. Next week there are strong easterlies again.
Here are some photos of Guernsey,

some serious 10m. spring tides

the breakwater and lighthouse on a blustery day

lobsters from M and L fishmongers at St. Sampson $10/pound. They made the ultimate sacrifice

gangway at spring low tide

the High street Guernsey

Drinks with the yachties at the Royal Channel Islands YC

street fair, St. Peter Port

Victor Hugo's house

Serious boat envy. A Russian Amel 55 just showed up. I want one of these

St. PeterPort, Guernsey, UK

Callisto arrived in St. Peterport last Thursday after 9 days at sea in all kinds of conditions. We had some NE breeze initially and had to do some considerable northing until the high pressure system went east. We were then able to motor to rhumb line foe about 24 hours until we picked up the bottom end on a very strong low pressure front. We had winds of about F5-6 for the next few days but fortunately from the SW and we had all of our working sails and so made good progress. Much better to have a functioning main sail and genoa!
Crossing the shipping lane just south of  the north western corner of France was exciting as hundreds of ships pass through this area every day. The weather has been cold and grey for days and we have not seen the full moon since we left the Azores. The tide was with us for the first 5 hours into the English Channel and the weather cleared considerably.
It was good to reach Guernsey after so many miles and thus ends our circumnavigation. It's a little anticlimactic but very good to be able to take a little rest.
On entry into St. Peter Port my bowthruster gave up the ghost but fortunately we were able to dock without any mishaps.
The Admiral and Marie-Luce (Ian's wife) arrived in the afternoon and we spent the time tearing apart the bowthruster. It will need some spare parts, a new solenoid and control unit as well as new brushes and springs. These were ordered express from France but it would appear that they got lost in transit somewhere and the order had to be put in again.
There are worse places to be stuck than Guernsey and we have been enjoying the fine weather  and the sights of the island.
Our parts are still not here as of today and the next weather window is Friday, we hope to be underway by then but who knows.
It's blowing hard from the north east again so we would not have been able to leave anyway.
It's also turned very cold again. The joys of a so called English summer!
Last night at 0200H we heard a bump in the night, in fact several of them. Once up on deck, in the cold and 25 kts. of wind we discovered the source. One of the visiting boats decided to slip his berth and try to enter the inner marina. He got all his lines and fenders ready but neglected to replace his steering wheel and once he slipped his lines and put the boat into gear he discovered he had no control.
Unfortunately, Callisto stopped his lateral movement until he finally got control his boat. In addition to everything else, I have a few scratches and dings that will need to be taken care of. The boat owner seems to be a stand up guy and has offered to take care of the problem, either here or in London.
We will have to wait and see about the local GRP guys and when I get my bowthruster parts.
Nothing is ever easy.
Ron left for the US last Saturday in order to organize his wife's birthday party. He was a great help with all the mechanical problems we have had over the past 2 months. He will be missed.
Some photos will follow.

Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores

It looks like we have a fair weather window for leaving tomorrow. Will probably have to go upwind for a day or two but behind us after that.

We have spent the day getting the boat ready and finally finished the repair on the outhaul gear box so we should have all sails working on the last leg home.

A quick trip to the fruit and veggie market, clear out and take on fuel and we are out the door.

It should take 8-9 days to get to Guernsey and then only 200 miles to London.

we had a very pleasant tour of the tall ship "Danemark" 

A fully rigged ship used for training  merchant marine sailors

about 200 feet long built in 1932 and had 80 trainees and 15 officers aboard

Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores

The Admiral arrived last Saturday and although the weather has been cloudy and cool, we have had a good time touring the island of Sao Miguel and getting many boat chores sorted. Oil changes have been done and the boat cleaned inside and out. The local go to guy is called Thomas Dargel and he was able to get the genoa swivel down from the top of the forestay and he also recharged one of the fridges with gas. The admiral bought an outhaul gearbox from Amel but it did not fit. They then sent another which arrived 3 days ago and it doesn't fit either. Getting the old gearbox off the outhaul shaft was very difficult but finally achieved using a puller, borrowed from Thomas. We can still unfurl the mainsail manually. We rented a car an toured the volcanic lakes of the island for 2 days and have probably visited every eatery on this island at least once.

Marie-Luce and the Admiral left for the UK yesterday and we would have gone today but the wind is blowing hard from the NE for the next few days and I think it would be better to wait for a more favourable window. We have plenty to do until then.

The Admiral enjoying the warm thermal baths

Lunch in Ribiera

Ribiera

overlooking Lagoa das Furnas

Lagoa das Furnas

feral cats keeping warm

fumaroles Lagoa das Furnas very smelly

steam and boiling water Lagoa das Furnas

stews being placed in the thermal pools and then served in the local hostelries

tea plantation south shore. The only one in Europe we were told

Overlooking Lagoas Azul and Verde on a misty morning

A novel WC made from a boat hull

Looking down on the fishing dock in Capelas on the north shore

The Danish training tallship the Danemark

Ponta Delgada at sunset

Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores

An Account of the leg between Cape Verdes and the Azores
We left Praia, Cape Verdes on May 1st on a nice clear morning and motored in the lee of the island of Santiago. The  trade winds came on strong soon after that and it went quiet again due to the wind shadow cast by Ilha de San Vincente and Santa Luzia. There was a wild 2 hours when the breeze screamed though gap between Vincente and Santo Antonio and complete quiet and tidal rips in the lee of Santa Antonio.
Once around the corner we got into a lot of wind up to 40 kts. which I think was due to a compression effect of the high northern face of Santa Antonio. This continued until the following morning when the NE trades settled down to about 15-20 kts.
We were making very nice progress until we lost halyard tension on the genoa and down it came.Fortunately, the breeze was light and we were able to secure it on deck without problem. The light line holding the genoa to the swivel had frayed through and we could not get the swivel down the forestay. I thought that the knot tying the swivel to the halyard had jammed into the masthead sheave and sent Ian up the mast to free it. He freed the knot but the swivel was tightly jammed at the top of the forestay and would not come down.
This effectively put the genoa, our main power sail out of commission and we thought about going back to Mindelo to try and fix it. In the end we decided to persevere and continue on using the staysail in heavy wind and the cruising spinnaker in light air.
This we did for a number of days. The wind stayed quite light and then backed to the NW and we were able to make slow but steady progress. We had some problems with plugged up fuel filters which required regular cleaning and/or changing. I think this was due to the fuel tank having been cleaned and the fuel treated in Capetown. I was warned that any remaining algae from the corners of the tank and suspended in the fuel would potentially plug up the Racors and the primary fuel filter and this did in fact happen.
As we proceeded north, we saw a significant low pressure system barreling across the  Azores and there was no way to avoid it, so we motorsailed as fast as possible to take advantage of the SW breeze ahead of it. It was indeed a strong weather front and we had wind of between F5 and F8 for two days. We decided to put in at Santa Maria, the most southerly island in the group as the front had already passed through and we were concerned that the wind would veer to the north.
It was just as well we did as about 50 miles out the motor quit due the propshaft brake engaging. Further investigation revealed a leak in the transmission oil cooler heat exchanger and all our transmission fluid was going into the exhaust at a significant rate. Fortunately, we had plenty of transmission oil and we replaced 3 litres right away. This only lasted an hour and it all leaked out again. We shut the engine down and sailed to within one mile of the harbour on Santa Maria, put another 3 litres of ATF in and managed to get in without frying the transmission leaving a trail of red oil behind us. It was a filthy, rainy night with wind to 25 kts and we were very pleased to be tied up and safe after 11 days of hard sailing.
The weather improved over the next day and we thought that we might have many days in Santa Maria getting a replacement transmission oil cooler. There is a very good yard in Santa Maria with a 65 ton travel lift and a very good technician called Ricardo who managed to find us a used one that we could modify to fit. We got that done without problem and after spending a pleasant couple of days on Santa Maria, we made the 50 mile run to Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel.
Ian's wife, Marie Luce was on the dock to greet us and the Admiral was due on Saturday. We all  looked forward to a little R and R in Punta Delgada.

Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores

We are now in Ponta Delgada, Azores and very pleasant it is too. Some photos of the Capetown -St Helena cruise. More photos and comments about the recent leg to follow!

Let them eat wake! Fast run from Cape Town to St Helena (9 days 20 hrs)

Land Ho! St Helena

Our island guide Robert Peters. He gave us 60 years of history of St. Helena mostly as related to him

Napoleon's Residence

Napolean's Tomb

Central part of St. Helena

looking north

the Governor's Residence

light air under cruising chute

and mizzen staysail

Dolphin come to greet us

The world famous banana braed

Ian amusing himself with flying fish

Callisto on mooring ball at St Helena

The mooring field St Helena

One of the local hostelries. The served a good full English

A view of Jamestown

Descending  Jacob's ladder

Jacob's ladder 600+ steps from the ground to the fort above Jamestown

Praia, Ilha de Santiago, Cap Verdes Islands

We arrived in the Cap Verdes Islands on Tuesday evening on April 28, having covered 3800 miles since leaving Cape Town. We had very good wind and a fast passage initially in strong southerlies. The trades were a bit light and died to less than 10 kts approaching St Helena and we had to motor for a bit but we had a fast passage of less than ten days.
There were plenty of moorings available but still many cruising boats were there on their way to the Caribbean. We arrived on a calm day so we launched the dinghy and crossed the mooring field to the dinghy landing. Very difficult to do, due to the dozens of local boats.
There was little swell at the landing and we got ashore without problem. Clearing in was easy and convenient. I must say, the island was quite delightful and is well worth the visit. Jamestown has one of the last remaining examples of original Georgian architecture and has a fascinating history. The people are extremely friendly and have a most peculiar accent and way of speaking.
We did all the touristy things. We climbed Jacob's ladder and went on a tour of the island with Robert Peters in his rickety VW van. He is strongly recommended if you visit the island. We saw Napoleon's house and his tomb, the Governor's house and his giant tortoises. It was a very long day.
We got some laundry done and some fresh vegetables and fruit and some excellent yellowfin tuna. Fueling was also simple and efficient but quite expensive at about $1.75 /liter.
We left on Monday, April 13 in what was forecast to be strong trades but were in fact quite light. We proceeded under our double headed rig as we could not burn fuel until much later in the leg.
We had some very nice easy sailing even into the doldrums, the weather getting hotter every day. We did eventually have to motor in the calms, interspersed with line squalls and thunder showers. We had a problem with the watermaker. The high pressure pump would not start up intermittently and I suspect that the start capacitors are failing. On shutting the watermaker down the rinse cycle went on but then would not shut off. I serious problem as the watermaker was then dumping our freshly made water out through the sea water side of the watermaker. We took the solenoid that controls the rinse cycle apart and it was stuck in the open position. Some careful cleaning remedied the problem but spares are on their way to the Azores.
We got into a brief thunderstorm in the doldrums which lasted about 3 hours with winds in the 40 kt. range. A steel bolt on the mainsail traveler gave way and needed repair with some bits and pieces I had on board. Bad things usually happen in threes and the third thing happened soon after. The main sail out haul drive started to make a very bad noise and would only turn though one revolution and then stop. We suspect that there is a broken tooth in the gearbox that turns the mechanism. We are now in the process of taking the drive apart but it will probably require replacement.
Fortunately, we are able to unfurl the sail manually.
After the doldrums we got into the NE trades and as these were quite light, we were able to motor sail quite effectively for some of the time. Mostly though, it was motoring slowly into light headwinds and adverse current.
We got into Praia with 300 liters to spare.
This leg took just over 2 weeks and was quite tedious. In retrospect, it might have been better to swing out well west of the cap verdes and go straight on to the Azores but hindsight is always 20/20
Praia is much as expected. A desperately poor, third world country without much infrastructure.
We have the obligatory boat boy facilitator and even though I am paying him too much he has been helpful in getting the clear in process done and getting us 600 liters of fuel at a very good price. 70 cents a liter delivered by truck to the dock!. The process took all day and required a fair amount of trust. He took me by cab to a shell gas station where the posted price for diesel was $1/ liter and I paid cash for 600 liters ( about $420) and they told me the tanker truck would arrive at 1500 hours.
The boat boy, whose name is George by the way, said there might be a problem bringing the boat into the harbor as the dockmaster needed to do paperwork and charges would be involved. A $20 bribe made that go away. I'm not sure who the bribe went to or if I got shaken down again by George but we did tie up along side and the tanker truck did show up at about 1800H which is 1500H on local island time. Anyway the fueling got done with only minimal spillage and we were anchored up again as it was getting dark. The watermaker is again working well.
Taking the outhaul drive is proving a bit difficult but I am sure that Ron will prevail.
We are carefully looking at the weather around the Azores and note the low pressure systems marching eastward at regular intervals. With a bit of luck and planning we should be able to slide in between them.
Photos to follow.