The boat the Killary Flyer had been in La Corna in Spain for the winter getting repaired and work done. The crew flew down around the 8th of March and after a day or two of getting everything sorted set sail for the Azores. The wind was aft to the beam so we did a lot of running so to speak down to the Azores. With fine weather for most of it an a collection of wildlife from; By the wind sailors, Portuguese man of war, dolphins, whales, and quite the collection of sea birds to migratory birds that took a rest on the boat.

We reached the Azores after 5 days of sailing and a little bit of motor sailing when the wind refused to blow and the sea calmed enough that we could go for a swim in the ocean.

Once we reached the Azores after a day of rest it was down to business. We visited the Tea plantation, tasted the tea we were going to buy, and left with a deal. The next day we went to visit other potential business opportunities for next time. Which was a construction company that had branched out trying to reduce its waste and create a more circular production line rather than just logging wood using the leftovers to create essential oils and other products. Some crew did a small tour of the island and the next day the tea was delivered. Sadly Paddy and Charlie had to leaves us due to prior work commitments, and Aaron and Ben were able to join us. Due to contrary weather and wind we had to leave a couple of days later than anticipated and were living life on the lean, so to speak, on the wind the whole way. Instead of straight to Ireland like we had hoped we have now stopped off in Portugal. Aaron will leave us for a work commitment as the journey is taking longer and Bill has joined us with another potential crew to join tomorrow. We are hoping to sail Thursday morning and head to Ireland with maybe a brief stop off in Cork depending on weather.

 After we make Landfall in Ireland, we then plan to sell the tea from the month we get back so if anyone has any interest in organic tea with almost no carbon miles sailed from the Azores please contact us on Instagram, Facebook @seol.voyage or via email at seol.voyage@gmail.com please do and keep an eye out for updates. You can follow the boat on AIS on maritime traffic, look for the Killary Flyer.

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The Journey so far has happened in three parts,

Part 1: La Coruna to the Azores,

After 5 days at sea, we reached our destination. One of those days was so calm that at one stage we only reached half a knot of sailing, so Charlie decided to go for a swim, while we did some boat maintenance. But the weather picked up after two days, and we sailed down to the Azores. At one stage reaching up to 18 knots of speed, which was exciting, but also meant we quickly put a reef in our sail. We did pass some interesting wildlife, but not as many wales as some of us would hope for.

When we were in the Azores, we went to visit the Tea Plantation, where we tried numerous different types of tea to decide which ones would come home with us. We settled on 6 different types of tea.
50kg of Moinha Preto- Exotic blend of Black Teas
12kg of Pekoe- Black Tea
50kg of Broken Leaf- Black Tea
50kg of Hysson-Green Tea
13kg Hysson/Hortela-Green Tea and peppermint
13kg Broken/Hortela-Black tea and peppermint.

After waiting a day or two it was delivered to the Marina we were staying in and, we loaded it onto the  boat.
Our two crew members Charlie and Paddy left us for work commitments, and two new crew joined us, Ben and Aaron, Aaron who had never sailed a day in his life, was very excited to sail with us.

 

Part 2: Azores to Porto

Weather was not on our side and we ended up staying an extra day or two in the Azores, waiting for a weather system in the Atlantic to pass. We were plagued with winds from the north for the month of April. When we set sail, we lived life on the lean, meaning that because of the tack we were on the boat was on a constant tilt. The journey was less smooth sailing, with bigger swell, we had a reef in our sail constantly. We were trying for Ireland, but unfortunately, we couldn’t point the boat far enough North, so we aimed for first Morocco and slowly brought the degrees up to Portugal where we made Landfall in Porto.
We took a breather in Porto for 2 days where Aaron had to fly home and two more crew joined us, Grace and Billy, both who had little to no experience but were very keen.

Part 3: Porto to Kinsale.

It has been an adventure on each leg of this journey that has brought new members of crew but the most exciting was the trip from Porto to Kinsale. Where half way through the journey and just 200 miles from the south west coast of Ireland, one of the stays on the mast broke, late at night. It was all crew on deck taking down all the sails and turning on the motor. We motored for a couple of hours but with the swell so big we were using to much fuel for the speed we were doing so we turned it of and had to heave to. We drifted backward for a day and night, then the next day the swell had calmed so we were able to motor home, and but up our stay sail, a smaller sail on the front of the boat, that puts less strain on the boat. It was an exciting 24hours. We arrived into Kinsale, and as we were coming around the head, we were met with dolphins and basking sharks, which was a very nice welcome.

The boat now rests in Kinsale harbour, and it will make a final trip from Kinsale to Killary harbour at a later date.

Now all that’s left to do is sell the tea…..

This journey was a proof of concept voyage, yes not everything went perfectly but it is possible to purchase goods in one European country and sail them to another. Sail trading is possible and we hope that this voyage will inspire many others like us who are looking for solutions rather than just pointing out problems.