I arrived in Ponta Delgada, appropriately enough, on Friday the 13th. On trying to leave the marina in Horta, I had found that my clutch wouldn’t engage, so I ended up getting my friend Mike to tow me out. The marina there is quite cramped, so it was a bit scary. I ended up colliding with another boat’s solar panel gantry and damaging my Duogen. However, I managed to get the clutch working later after being becalmed south of Pico, where I took this photo:
The 130 mile sail over here was fairly uneventful, if a bit rough. I was again able to get the propeller turning while sailing, and motored into the marina around dinner time. I’d already decided to get the gearbox fixed here, and had ordered the clutch cone to be delivered from the UK. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the gearbox out in the water, so the boat had to be lifted out again, which required another tow round to the boatyard. Even more unfortunately, the boatyard staff and I cocked the manoeuvre up in various ways and I ended up ramming the wall with a fair amount of force, crushing my anchor and damaging my stem fitting:
I was able to remove the gearbox fairly easily, and a local mechanic Adriano fixed it for me very quickly. I removed the stem fitting, resealed it to the deck and reattached it with new bolts. I then bent it back straight with a scary-looking weapon lent to me by Thomas in the marina chandlery:
He also made a new pin for me, so it’s now pretty much all back to normal, apart from the anchor, which I wanted to replace anyway, and which should still work for the time being hopefully. I’ve also replaced the faulty anchor windlass buttons with a new remote control. The boat’s been put back in the water today without incident, and the clutch worked perfectly on the way back round to the marina, which was a great relief.
Meanwhile, I’ve been enjoying my time in this beautiful city very much. It’s much bigger than Horta, and has very impressive architecture, good restaurants and excellent drinking establishments. I’ve also repaired my bike and been on one long ride to the northern caldera. Here’s a photo (there are a few more on my photo page):
I’m planning to go on an all-day ride to a place called Furnas tomorrow or the next day. It’s a beautiful lake with a famous gothic church, surrounded by mountains.
At the moment the weather doesn’t look ideal for getting home, with mostly north winds. The last time I checked it looked like the middle of next week might be possible, but I’ll need to wait and see. I’ll update the blog before I leave. X
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