Fizz arrives in Horta

As dawn broke on our last day at sea, we were hoping to catch sight of the mountain on Pico, the highest mountain in the Azores chain. However, with low cloud and rain in evidence, there was no chance of seeing even ½ mile ahead. It was still blowing 30 kts, and Fizz was in her element, broad reaching up to 9 kts at times. Eventually at 10:30 in the morning, with the rain starting to clear, the south western tip of Faial appeared out of the mist just 4 miles off the port side. We could see the huge Atlantic waves crashing against the rocky coastline sending spray 30 ft in the air. While Stu and I focussed on sailing Fizz towards the finish line, Alec was on the VHF reporting in to ARC Europe Rally control in Horta giving them our ETA at the finish line. Chef Pierre was practising his flag etiquette raising the various flags needed for arrival in the Azores. At 10 minutes to 2 we rounded the southeastern tip of Faial and lined up for the final ½ mile sprint to the finish line . We were fully expecting to see Alma de Sal also lining up for the finish, as we had spoken with them on the VHF the previous evening and they were 10 miles ahead of us at that time.  However, there was no sign of them as we made the final dash for the line. We crossed the finish line at 1 minute to 2 to a fair amount of whooping and hollering and started getting Fizz ready to enter Horta, just a few hundred yards ahead. After a heart-stopping moment when the engine wouldn’t start (it would have been a bit of a downer getting a tow into port) , the engine ignition switch eventually kicked into life, and to the strains of Rule Britannia booming out of the cockpit speakers we motored in to our berth on the sea wall, alongside Splendido, the first boat in. As it turned out, we were 2^nd across the line, so we were well pleased with the result. Alma de Sal followed us in about 2 hours later. It was great to see Lyle and Rob from ARC Europe there to greet us as we tied up. The last time we had seen Lyle was as we left Bermuda 11 days ago. As it had started to rain again, (it rains a lot here apparently) we had a quick tidy round on deck and down below before heading over to the first bar we could find. This was followed by dinner in a local restaurant before heading back to Fizz where we put the world to right with the help of some rum, whiskey and vodka. I seem to recall at some stage of the evening we also serenaded our neighbouring boats with some choice rugby songs, but I can’t be sure.

I have asked Stu, Alec and Peter to write a short blog each , but they are still working on them, so will post this and revert with the team effort shortly.

Chris Willis

Fizz of Cowes

This entry was posted on 31/05/2010 at 03:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.