SY Hullu Poro

Harbour Master Sérgio personally and myself received the lines from Babs and René shortly after midnight completing the passage from Horta to Funchal. A lot to chat about after a short night of sleep for all.

Fair winds…

Good Morning Funchal

By Bernd

On September 19, 2022

I feel fully recovered this morning having my second coffee. Damned good sleep until 6am. There is a bit on my list. Made a lemon cake first thing in the morning still in my pyjama, 9am is laundry time, 10am I expect Toribio to come. He is the local Sailmaker & Rigger and helped me out last time on the broken halyard. This time I need a few repair stitches (thanks to Danielle) to the bimini cover and perhaps he can also give an overall check on the foresail before we head on. Thereafter the lady needs a shampoo, shower and conditioner treatment. Also need to investigate a squeaky noise on the steering system, which comes and goes, etc. etc.

Nothing is more boring than getting older bored.

Fair winds…

Lines fixed in Funchal

By Bernd

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 5

On September 16, 2022

In Uncategorized

It was a day pure bluewater sailing today with ”Fair winds and following seas” in our favour. I kept working on the trim and sails optimisation under various aspects. Eliminating noise coming out of the boom and its connections and ensuring the Hydrovane has minimum work to do by optimized balance of the sails and the main rudder. I kept the apparent wind angle (AWA) at 120 ° not being keen to go much higher in these rolling waves as this will reduce the risk to get into an uncontrolled gybe. Besides running the preventer line for the boom at outer sailing position I have found a mechanism to fix it a lower angles and same time reducing the cracking noise. A line from the boom end to the after cleat back to our spare winch is a good additional fix operated from the cockpit.

The snapshot above shows the forecast for the night. Should all be pleasant as I am convineced that the gusts for tomorrow early morning hours are a mistake while transferring data from one system to the next. Going back to the root data, it shows gusts up to 25kn. I have therefore reefed the mainsail and reduced speed to get comfortably through the night. It might cost me my arrival in Funchal at daylight hours but so be it. Better slow and safe.

It was interesting to listen to the GGR community on Marine Radio, channel CH 6-3. Not sure, who it was but will listen in tomorrow evening as well to explore more. They are somewhere on the way to Rubicon/Lanzarote for a photo stop but I will probably mis them anyway.

Well, time for me to get some dinner prepared. Time is flying.

Fair winds..

Azores to Madeira – Logblog 4

On September 16, 2022