Bermuda > Azores - Day 1: Anchors up

Tuesday 13th May

We picked up our repaired Code Zero sail yesterday afternoon, we also completed our provisioning and checked out of Bermuda Customs and Immigration.

Bermuda to the Azores is 1800 nautical miles on a great circle route. But on a sailboat you do not take the direct route, we must take a course that has good winds, but also keeps us out of trouble (high waves, storms and fronts). This can add quire a few extra miles so we expect to take at least 10 days to cross.

We wre up and at it before the sun rose ready to set off. We had a slight delay as we had twist in the 2:1 halyard that is used to pull the Code Zero up to the top of the mast. It took about an hour of rope gymnastics to get it to go up twist free. We finally raised the anchor and set off at 7.00am You exit St Georges Bay through a narrow "cut", before going through you must call "Bermuda Radio" on VHF for clearance.

After exiting the cut we hoisted the sails and headed North!

The chart below is a weather routing chart. It shows the best route, based on a numbwer of different weather models. As you can see, opinions vary on which one is the best. We are opting for the more southerly route.