Category: Portugal Page 9 of 24

Lines are fixed with the help of the Mariniero and John from Ireland, my neighbour for the next few days.
It is exactly on the day, one year ago, 18th Sept 21, when Susan and myself arrived here first time coming from Porto. Funchal is the place I have most often visited within this one year followed by Porto Calero. Not sure what that tells you. 😀 Fair winds…

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 9

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 8

After the initial hick-ups around the wind and the chaotic waves yesterday evening it got better with the hour. Three hours of motorsailing to stabilize the lady and get her from Rock’n Roll to some kind of more harmonic dance like waltz. I found it amazing how often the wave pattern can change on such a passage. From huge wobbling football fields (very pleasant) to significant steep climbs and falls in no time. I have observed changing patterns before wihtout any changes to the wind but on this passage it was special. I wonder, if Hurricane Earl has not contributed to this but also understand, how difficutlt it is for the metereologists to predict waves on the ocean.

Luckily the wind picked up to 15-20kn over night and the wave/swell combination got back to normal. The rest of the night was uneventufull, just clocking miles at good speed and get closer to our destination. I felt it was a bit colder than the nights before and needed an extra layer. Spent a cosy night in the cockpit taking rest getting some sleep. No other ships seen.

Two squalls hit us in the last 12 hours. First one last night, when I was talking to Jan from SY Sutje on the Marine Radio at 8:00 UTC. Our connection yesterday was very good but then it started to shake and I had to take full attention to the boat, Although I was already in reef #2 on the mainsail for the night, I quickly furled in the foresail to reef #1 and we got through the short period of time quite well with only 10-15kn of gusts on top of the 10kn wind we had at that time while motorsailing. It takes about 15min as these squalls move extremely fast. I can see them on the radar coming and also get an indication how much rain they imply. Easy during the day, but bit more difficult during the night and for this the radar is a good helper. It also give you a chance to slow down and let a potential squall pass your courseline ahead of you. Their impact is very local. The second one came this morning and was less significant.

Looking forward to another stop-over in Funchal Madeira.

Fair winds…

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 7

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 6

On September 17, 2022

The night was accompanied with comfortable winds and good rest. With the first reef in the main we made good progress towards Madeira. As per the forecast it has now picked up a bit to 25kn and I hope it will stay there as this is the value predicted by Menno after looking at his raw data. I have put another reef in the foresail and we are flying along with 6kn boat speed.

The wind came with the clouds and one of them passed through 2-3 miles ahead of us deploying some rain. It was our fortune, that we missed the rain by such a short distance. In a few hours the wind will get back to 15kn and we can reef out again.

There are two sailing manouvers planned for today. We will first get the foresail shifted to enjoy some butterfly sailing for a while and then I expect in the afternoon hours to gybe the main sail and take the spinnaker pole back in. This will then bring us to the western tip of Madeira where the – by then notherly winds – will drop to zero and we will motor the last 20nm into Funchal. At least we have a plan.

Fair winds…&…bon weekend.

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 4

On September 16, 2022

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 3

On September 16, 2022

It is 6:30am UTC after the second night at sea on this passage. The wind picked up a tiny little bit early in the night to around 13-15kn and veered around 40 degree to 260 TWA as predicted. Good progress under very pleasant conditions. Had good rest and wait for the day to break light. At 6:00 am UTC I will download latest weather updates to see how the rest of the journey will look like. I do not expect any changes but it is always good to check at least once per day.

I am currently not in a position to check the status concerning rain and thunder while at sea and when I left Vila do Porto there was a small concern on some light thunder coming through in the night from Friday to Saturday. During my call with Sutje-Jan yesterday evening on the Marine Radio, I have asked to check on this aspect and it seems, that it should all be clear now on our passage. Good to know and good to have sailing mates, who are sailing with us. Thank you. I will need to study on how this information can be retrieved while on longer passages and without internet connection. Intermar is another option to get this information but I was not able to connect with them since I have left. HF Technology at its best!

There were three encounters this night. Two commercial vessels and one sailing yacht. I could only see them on AIS, no navigation lights. They were too far way, around 15nm but it shows, that keeping watch even out here in the middle of nowhere is a MUST.

As there was little rest the night before, I was now tired enough now to catch good sleep in my 20 to 30min power nap routines. Still working on this but I feel pretty fresh and excited to enjoy another day on the ocean.

Time to prepare the first liter of tea.

Fair winds…

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 2

On September 15, 2022

We are cruising along in 10kn of wind which gives us 4kn of speed…plus 0.4kn from the Northatlantic current pushing us South. I have just finished dinner in the cockpit and it almost feels like sitting on the boat while parked on the hard in one of the boatyard’s hall. Bit of wind whistling around. Splashing water now and then. That*s it. No movements. You can walk through the boat as if you are at one of these boat fairs, no hands needed. The waves have taken an interesting pattern. While there is neglegible wind wave, we got swell 1, swell 2 and perhaps even swell 3. These swells are huge flat monsters in form of a football field moving around. Well, now there are football fields moving around from three different directions but it does not matter because you, we, and finally only me, as the moving spectator, are not feeling these moving football fields. We can only see them at daylight but now…it*s dark. No chance you feel these wobbling masses of water around you. It is not always like this. If you have ever been in an elevator and suddenly it stops and the nice voice is telling you that you arrived on floor 55, sounds familiar, you know what I am talking about in terms of the boat cruising through these football fields. You don*t feel the movement of 4.4kn through the water like you do not feel how the elevator brought up in no time. Amazing nature and technology. Enough now.

I heard about Chorizo before. Arriving in Spain, I tried them. Not bad. Arriving in the Azores Susan bought them at the butchery market in Sao Miguel. Even better. I had one left, which went into a mixture of regional vegetables for dinner tonight (Azores is considered regional) and it proves again that good incrediants can replace a bad cook. I finished it all.

It is warm out here. I have not put up the cockpit tent yet because it is still pleasant to rest outside. With a pitch dark sky we can see million of stars before the moon rises around 22:30 and will give the sky and the ocean a completely new appearance. You will then be able to sea waves, clouds if any, perhaps birds but for sure the horizon. Sitting in the boatyard’s hall you can not even figure out which boat is next to you at the very moment but soon you will see, ups only one boat in the hall and that’s us. Only one boat here on the ocean…

Well, I better get my dishwashing done now.

Fair winds & good night.

PS: This logblog entry has been published via Winlink knot 8P6BWS located on the island of Barbados.

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 1

On September 15, 2022