Azores > Portugal - Arrived in Lagos

At 2.00pm on 1st June we arrived Lagos. Over 4000 miles sailed.

"The Crew", Diorbhail, Gill, me and Seamus, with MackenSea in the background. over 4000 miles sailed

I have to give a big shout out to the crew: Diorbhal, Gill and Seamus who were superb. They have all had experience on the "Clipper", round the world race. Hat's off to Clipper who clearly trained them well, especially on safety practices, nobody needed to be reminded to clip in, and also reefing and sail handling in rough conditions. Seamus also races, so he was always trimming the sails to get us an extra half knot of boat speed. And lastly a big thank you to the ever present crew member Cheryl, your prepared meals saw us through the entire month long journey. We still have some left, amazing!

Now the statistics: 1st May, 2025: Departed St Martin, Caribbean. Destination Bermuda

• Six and a half days sailing

• 905 Nautical Miles

• Average Speed: 6.7 knots

• Maximum Speed 16.7 knots

• Incidents: Failure of the Code Zero sail due to a manufacturing defect in the crimp at the head of the sail. The sail ended up in the water, wrapped around the propeller. This occurred at 1:00 AM. We stopped the boat overnight, and in the morning, I put on a mask, snorkel, and flippers to cut the sail free from the prop.

  
  

  Remnants of the sail remained in the saildrive, rendering that engine inoperable. Fortunately, we have two engines—one of the advantages of a catamaran.

  
  

  This incident also left the halyard at the top of the mast. I attempted to climb the mast to retrieve it, but had to abandon the effort due to excessive swinging as I went higher. I ended up with a few bruises as I gave my best impression of a Cirque du Soleil performer!

  
  

  The bruises have healed, and the sail is being replaced under warranty.

7th May, 2025: Arrived, St Georges, Bermuda

On arrival in Bermuda, our first priority was getting the sail repaired. I had emailed, Ocean Sails, the sail shop in Bermuda ahead of time so they were prepared for it. The repair was going to take 5 days, this gave us time to explore Bermuda. It did not really delay us as we had to wit for a favourable weather window anyway.

The people of Bermuda are happy contented and very friendly, we could all learn a lot from them. Examples of what we experienced; people would call you over for a chat; riding the bus system with school kids from 5 to 16, every one of them would politely thank the bus driver on exiting the bus; It was mothers day and as you walked the streets you would hear constant calls of, "Wish your mother happy mothers day from me". The local specialty is a fish sandwich made with raisin bread. It sounds all wrong—but somehow, it tastes amazing.

i did not realize that there are direct flights to Bermuda from Toronto, and it is a very short flight. Unfortunately it is expensive, so i'd need to check hotel prices, if reasonably unreasonable, I'd highly recommend it.

13th May, Departed Bermuda, Destination The Azores

• Ten and a half days sailing

• 1919 Nautical Miles

• Average Speed: 7.6 knots

• Maximum Speed 19.4 knots

• Incidents: Failure of the Code Zero repair. Not so much drama here. We simply fulled it and put it away. Ocean Sails in Bermuda gave me a full refund ($2800 CDN).

23th May, Arrived Horta, Azores

We anchored in the outer harbour. The Azores are stunning. Lush green islands with volcanic peaks. We only spent a couple of days here so did not get a lot of time to explore, but we didd go out on a whale watching trip and got to see lots of whales. Another destination I would highly recommend and you do not need to be concerned about high costs here.

25th May, Departed Azores, Destination Portugal

• Three days sailing, three and a half days motoring

• 976 Nautical Miles

• Average Speed: 5.9 knots

• Maximum Speed 11.8 knots

• Incidents: None!

1st June, Arrived Lagos Portugal

We dropped the sails and pulled into the channel leading to Marina del Lagos at 2.00pm on Sunday 1st June. The narrow channel is incredibly busy with lots of tour boats coming and going. I knew that the Marina was full, but we were hoping to tie up at the reception dock for the night. However, when we got to the reception dock it was full. So we had to turn around and head out to the bay to Anchor.

It is early in the season so there was only one other other boat at anchor. The bay is huge, 3 or 4 meters deep, with a sandy bottom. The wind was blowing on shore so it was a little bumpy, but ok.

Gill and Diorbhail were departing in the evening, catching a train to Faro, staying at airBnB for two nights before catching their flights back to Scotland. We planned to have a fairwell lunch on shore before they caught their train. Because it was a bit choppy we decided to do two dinghy runs. Seamus, Gill and the luggage did the first run, then Seamus was then going to come back and pick-up Diorbhail and I. Luckily when Seamus and Gill got in, a boat had left the check-in dock and they were able to reserve that spot for us. So, Diorbhail and I raised the anchor and headed back in. Seamus and Gill were waiting on the dock to catch a line. With the boat snugged up on the dock we headed to the old town for a farewell meal. By this time it was for dinner, not lunch. There are so many restaurants to choose from, we picked a casual spot a little bit off the touristy area. It turned out to be a great choice and we shared a delicious selection of tapas. After dinner we returned to the boat, Gill and Diorbhail picked up their bags and we all walked to the very conveniently located train station. Having seen "the girls" off, Seamus and I headed back to the boat for a sleep on a bed that was not rocking. This is the first time MackenSea had been tied to a dock since we were hauled out in Martinique, back in January!