La Promesse NED7576

What a final! We had to decide if we’d take the west side or the east side of the island. And we needed a plan to beat Frida who had sailed almost the entire race about eight to ten miles ahead of us but which we had already caught up with.
For the western corner we had to sail very close to the wind which is not what La Promesse is good at. So it looked like we had to make some tacks to come around.
Another thing we had to consider was the wind that would decrease from noo and finally dissapear in late afternoon and evening. Very light winds around an island with higher mountains at every corner. Challenging.
Although the western end seemed more logical in an airflow from the west we decided different. Actually Wouter did. The plan was to sail at a better angle and thus much faster to the east side to be there in time to start the 25 nm upwind final leg to Ponta Delgada.
The winds would decrease more and earlier in the west than in the east during the day. And in very light winds 10 kts and less we better have them on the nose than from the back. And so we did.
It remained exciting till the finish. First of all to get there ourselves. Slower, slower, slowest. And besides that we had not expected the wind to die almost completely at the west end so soon. We expected Frida at the horizon every moment.
But we managed and were welcomed by the committee and a couple of kayaks or canoes. Very warm welcome. 2nd boat in. 1st in class! We beat the imoca on irc handicap. Nice!

Cold beers. Decent food and a good sleep!

Looking forward to the start for the return leg at june 20th.

With love from the island of Sao Miguel,

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (housekeeper)

We have a sad day today. Birdie Nam nam died. Birds are very sensible to stress and too much stress is live threatening. That’s what I learned in my course first aid for animals volunteer. We think birdie nam nam likes the wind, likes the sea, likes to fly and sail. She liked our boat and her own cabin. But we think the stress of racing was too much. She might have passed away while we were shouting and running over the boat trying to get our exploded spi down below. RIP birdie nam nam. We’ll try to win the race for you!

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (priest)

What a fuck up! Gust from nowhere made us broach. Had to release all sheets fully to get her upright again. Single reefed main with Code5 on. Sailing an awa of 145. Blasting! Even. The dolphins had to do their best.
Gust appeared to be a sudden increase of the wind. “Ready to furl? Yeess!” But while half way furling the sail zipped from luff to leech horizontally. So the rest of the sail would not furl anymore and we had to take her down flying. That was a hell of a job on the foredeck but we managed. Pfffftt!

No Code5 anymore. Pity. Cause that’s a good size for downwind sailing in stronger winds. The only sail we had not been replaced for new in the preps for TWOSTAR…

Wouter (Captain) & JanKees (still recovering)

In this foodstore which we emtied we keep the birdie nam nam as we call it. She’s alive and kicking. “Tjirp tjirp”. We’ll take her (back?) to the Acores and set her free. If we try that here in the middle I’m sure she’ll stay. Bed and breakfast for two days. Lucky bird!!

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (Zoo)

Believe it or not, but we have a new crew member on board. A nice cute but totally exhausted zwaluw landed on deck and tried to come down below into the cabin. That seemed no good idea to us so we build her a nice nest with towel, some bread and some water. But she persisted on more comfort and kept on trying to get in. So we had to close the door and come up with a plan b.
Wouter (captain) ordered me (volunteer at the animal ambulance amsterdam) to catch and cage the bird. And so we did.
We emptied our food store on port side (hanging bag), made a little cozy couch in it with the towel, some bread and some water.
Little birdie is in there and tjilps now and then. We’ll see how she is tomorrow by daylight and if we have to hold her one more day on board or even take her to the Azores. Keep you posted!

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (bird whisperer)

Eggs, bacon, dark yellow mature Cheddar on brown bread.
Following the spinnaker. Frida passed. See if we can catch up again now we have some more wind again.

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (asleep)

TWS (18) up again, orange spinnaker up.
Avg. 9.5 kts, AWA 145 and keeping COG around 230-240.

Eating an apple

Wouter (captain) & Jankees (sitting in the library)