SY Hullu Poro

Boating & Biking Adventures

Category: Portugal Page 23 of 24

🙋‍♂️Leaving for Funchal…

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On September 13, 2021

In Portugal

Good-bye Porto! Great city, no doubt.

We are leaving Porto today with destination Funchal/Madeira. The planned shortest distance is 672nm, a 5-6 days trip. During the passage, we will receive updated weather reports to adjust the routing as and when required. The net controls from Intermar e.V. will offer twice a day verbal communication via HAM Radio, which we will be part of. Very nice!

It is our first longer passage and we are obviously a bit nervous but also confident we will be able to complete this passage in safety, comfort and style. Preparations have been completed and it is now time to throw the lines. Accompany from other TO yachts is not foreseen this time but there will be plenty of traffic on this route to deal with.

Some text updates (no photos) on this blog via Winlink can be expected as we did during our Biscay crossing before.

Fair winds…

🧐 Weather Routing with qtVlm…

By

On September 13, 2021

In Intermar e.V., Portugal

Our abo with www.wetterwelt.de provides good weather information (Grib files) but is weak on WeatherRouting, which is key to ensure sailing in safety, comfort and style. Actually their software SeamanPro does not generate any optimised route between selected starting point A and ending point E. It will only show the weather conditions over cruising time based on an imported fixed route. That is not what we are looking for in nowadays century.

A program called qtVlm has been introduced to me by Hans-Uwe from Intermar e.V. and I am quite impressed by the comprehensive approach this freeware (French development, you name it!) provides to the sailors. Especially the weather routing is amazing.

One of the features, which impressed me, was the catalogue on their server to choose the polar-diagram for the individual boat under journey. Obviously you need to tell the software how fast the boat will go under which wind conditions. Together with the grib files it will then optimise the best routing for your travel plans and sametime generate waypoints for the routing to follow. Continuous updates while on voyage are possible based on actual boat position and updated weather information at any given point in time. Excellent!

I have simulated three routes to Funchal/Madeira the other day based on three different weather models provided by Saildoc, Wetterwelt and XyGrib. As you can see in the chart above, Saildoc and Wetterwelt result in the same routing, the only difference is the arrival time, Saildoc is 1 hour and 35min later. Routing based on XyGrib is slightly further North but about the same arrival time as Saildoc. I lose my confidence a bit looking at the “Nb of Tacks and Gybes” in the table! With a sharp eye you can see the prop in the top rigth quadrant nest to the routing line. Engine hours are calculated to around 4.5 hours at the time the boat speed by sail drops below 3kts. Amazing but Let’s see, it’s all theory anyway! 😉

Mother nature will tell us the truth and I am sure it will be quite different but it helps to optimze the journey and manage expectations!

Besides that I look forward to good discussions with the Intermar e.V. Netcontrols on 14.313kHz twice a day during our times out on the ocean.

Fair winds…

☝️Position reporting – offshore

By

On September 12, 2021

In Portugal, Technical

We are planning to go on passage soon and the position reporting via VHF (e.g. Marinetraffic, Vesselfinder, etc. based on AIS) will not work anymore. Therefore the following systems have been set-up to track our routing even while out on the ocean…

1. Noforeignland via HF Ham Radio (updated min. once per day)
2. Winlink via HF HAM Radio (updated min. once per day)
3. Garmin Explore via Iridium (updated every 10minutes)

All going well, these three sites will report our postion with a different timebase. To me it is more a safety feature than anything else.

Click on the image and it shall bring you directly to the latest recorded position.
Click on the image and perhaps zoom out a bit for the right scale. You might move the mouse on the position to see some short messages as well.
Click on the image and perhaps zoom in to get to the latest recorded position.

☝️IC-M94D Marine Radio

By

On September 12, 2021

In Portugal, Technical

The IC-M94D is the world’s first VHF handheld marine radio, which combines AIS and DSC functionality. This will give some redundancy, if the main AIS system installed onboard fails to operate but also some extra comfort in case you need to abandon the ship heading towards your life raft. These were the two factors, which convinced me to invest into this latest technology radio.

Fair winds…

🍷…Port wine…🍷

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On September 11, 2021

In Cooking, Portugal

Port wine originates from Porto, Sherry from Spain and Madeira from Madeira. Three different fortified wine products with different names.  This and a lot more we learned during a  Port wine tasting today along the old lodges of River Douro, the place where it all started in the year 1756! Arranged by the Douro Marina, we enjoyed good accompany from Kate from Churchills Ports, who took us through the whole program. After 2.5 hours and lightly tipsy we placed our order and proceeded with strolling through this lovely city…

The world has two more Port wine fans. The unfiltered LBV was very tasty, the Vintage from 1997 was my favourite but is perhaps less affordable.

☕️ Afurada – fishing village

By

On September 10, 2021

In Portugal

It has become a habit now that I have morning coffee and a small piece of pastry in Afurada – the old fishing village here at the South banks of River Douro. It is just 5 minutes walk from the marina. These little cafes in Portugal are the “synonym“ for pubs in England – social meeting points of the locals to meet and chat!

The little cafe called Cristina and it’s friendly staff have now started to teach me some words in Portuguese every morning I turn up and try to place my order. In the evening the village turns into special street food atmosphere with simple restaurant arrangements serving seafood prepared on smoking charcoal grills next to the tables placed along the streets.

I enjoy my days at this historical spot in Porto away from the main tourist crowd and look very much forward to welcome Susan tonight here in Portugal.

Fair winds…

Porto – City strolling…🚴‍♂️

By

On September 7, 2021

In B(H)iking, Portugal

🚴‍♂️…shift lever needed…

By

On September 7, 2021

In B(H)iking, Portugal

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My left hand shift lever is playing dirty for a while, so I went to a Specialized distributor  to get it checked – confirmed, replacement best option. Unfortunately they did not have stock, so the journey went on to another bike shop…no success apart  from almost 30km city ride, up and down, more or less cobbles and another project at hands…was not in the mood for photos on this trip…but I know for sure: Porto is a not a biking city! 😉

🚦Traffic light system🚦

By

On September 7, 2021

In Portugal

Portugal's coastline has a traffic light system and depending on the sea conditions, restrictions to enter or leave a port or marina are in place. This impacts all size of vessels including leisure crafts. This website is only in Portuguese but any online translator will do.

☝️Hurricane Larry…🤔

By

On September 4, 2021

In Portugal

Hurricane Larry is today forecasted as shown on the two photos for Monday, 13th September, our planned departure date from Porto. It is amazing how the direction of Larry’s movement impacts our conditions here in Porto. While the wind direction with 18kts from North would be perfect, the waves and swell with max 2.8m coming from Larry would not be pleasant. The swell period with up to 20.4s is very long but also means that it is even more difficult to see the buoyage from the fishermen. Weather and time are the tow keys to sailing in safety, comfort and style. We will keep watching…🧐

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