S/V ZEPHYR - Outbound 46, Hull #69 Crosses Atlantic to the Azores

We took delivery of Zephyr, our Outbound 46 in the Spring of 2019 with the intention of spending one season costal cruising in New England, our home waters and then crossing the Atlantic in 2020. We spilt our time spending half the year on Zephyr and the other half in our hailing port of Jackson, Wyoming.

We entered the Newport to Bermuda race and lined up crew to join Gwen and myself for the race and then our crossing to the Azores and eventually the west coast of Europe. With Covid, plans changed and we spent the past two seasons cruising from Virginia to Cape Bretton Nova Scotia.

"In June of 2022 the world aligned, slight change of plan and we prepared to sail from Newport, Rhode Island to the Azores in early June."

Joining us for the passage were Bennett, a fellow Outbound owner living in Rhode Island and Sturt a lifelong sailor out of Hingham, Massachusetts. Final preparations were facilitated by Josh and Tiffany who lent us their kitchen in Barrington, RI where we spent 2 nights under their tutelage cooking our offshore meals and vacuum bagging before being deposited into our freezer.

This being our first ocean crossing, we engaged the services of Commander Weather to provide us with departure planning and daily weather and routing advice. As backup we also used Predict Wind, all accessible from our Iridium GO. We set a departure date and ended up delaying 2 days due to the first named tropical storm of the season crossing Florida and then moving northwest of Bermuda, our intended track.

On Tuesday June 7th, we headed to the fuel dock and were greeted by Skip and his wife Maddie with goodies and a sendoff. Skip was my salesman when we bought Zephyr and had guided me though the process of specing out a new yacht. We motored out to Bretton Reef and set sail on starboard tack. For 2,000 miles we never left starboard tack. Over the next 9 days we saw consistent winds out of the southwest to west ranging from 15 to 35 knots. Though on starboard tack, we saw every point of sail from pole out with the jib, broad reaching with spinnaker and close hauled with our genoa or solent jib.

"Our route took us south of the Vineyard and Nantucket with the intention of getting off shore and into the gulf stream. Upon getting offshore we were greeted by a pod of 20+ whales."

Our route took us south of the Vineyard and Nantucket with the intention of getting off shore and into the gulf stream. Upon getting offshore we were greeted by a pod of 20+ whales with one in particular engaged in to us, some unusual behavior of continually displaying and slapping his tail in and out of the water.

Within the first 24 hours we came across the NE fishing fleet on Georges Bank where we counted 19 fishing boats on the AIS. The VHF came alive as the captains coordinated their courses to avoid any entanglements. Around the same time, we briefly encounter water temperatures of 75 degrees an indication of our being in an eddy of the Gulf Stream.

We fell into the rhythms of the 24-hour watch system, sleeping when given the opportunity. While on watch we encountered more whales, jumping tuna being chased out of the water by dolphins and of course dolphins playing on our bow wave.

"The dramatic moment of the passage, the breakage on Friday of our solent furling line while sailing in spicy conditions, 8 to 15 foot seas and 30 knot winds with gusts into the mid 30s."

The issue, the solent was partially deployed and the furling line had chaffed on the furling drum. Though we were slightly over canvased, the boat was sailing along quite happy. However, our weather guy had advised us that today would be our big wind and wave day of the passage and that we could see gusts of up to 40 knots. With that in my mind, we chose to Hove to, something I had never done on Zephyr in such conditions. Immediately thie boat stopped, became dry and stable and a platform the allowed us to safely go on the bow and rig a new furling line. Our GPS track showed us drifting north during this period with no forward motion.

With repairs made, we continued reaching while doing 8 to 10 knots. Conditions moderated on Saturday, the sun came out and we started the process of drying out and taking showers. I became a little obsessed with calculating our 24 hour averages and noted that for the passage we were getting close to 8 knots for the trip. On June 18th I noted in the log, that for the trip up to that point we had averaged 8.014 knots.

"We were now in perfect sailing conditions with not a cloud in the sky and 20 knots of wind from behind the beam. When winds dropped below 15 knots, we put the spinnaker up and with that we started to register our first 200 mile day."

As we approached the western most island of the Azores our wind started to die and due to not wanting to enter Horta, our port of entry on the Island of Faial, we chose to drop anchor in a quiet mountainous bay lined with bamboo trees on the Island of Flores. A nap and a quick trip to the rocky beach and we were again off for our final night at sea. Our passage had been a very fast one, arriving in Faial, Azores in just under 10 days. My routing program had predicted a 10+ day passage and I was skeptical, assuming it was spewing out garbage.

"Our passage had been a very fast one, arriving in Faial, Azores in just under 10 days."

We arrived in Horta on June 19th at 8:45 AM. Horta is an eye opening place, the third busiest harbor in the world for transient yachts. There are boats rafted up three deep on every inch of dock. The anchorage is full and there are boats with flags from all over the world. Our plan, spend the next few weeks exploring the Azores and then head to Dublin for part 2 of our summer and a circumnavigation of Ireland.