Greetings from windy Porto Santo

Porto Santo,. As I’m sure you all know, is the Northernmost island of the Madeira archipelago, about 20 miles north of Madeira itself. The anchorage is secure, but the boat was rolling a lot in the swell, so we came in to the marina to get a good night’s kip. The wind is blowing force 5 to 6 and is due to stay until Monday, so we will as well. It’s about 30 miles to the first anchorage in Madeira, where we’ll head to once we leave here.

We arrived Porto Santo on Thursday evening (20th) after an 81 hour sail from Portimao in the Algarve. The trip, at 450 nautical miles, was our longest yet, but aside from the occasional pod of dolphins that paused to say hello, it was uneventful. It was non stop sailing from the time we left, we only had the engine on for about 10 hours, and half of that was in neutral – just to recharge the batteries because of a power hungry autohelm. The last five hours of the trip was under engine too, to make sure we arrived before dark.

For the first couple of nights under way we were either trying to get to sleep when we were off watch, or trying to stay awake when we were on. But by the third day we were getting into the rhythm, appetites started to return, and we were pretty well adjusted. Also, on the first night we were crossing the entrance to the Cape St Vincent Traffic Separation Zone (that’s the area of sea designated for big ships coming in and out of the Med), which was fairly busy so we had to stay alert. After that we only saw two or three ships a day, so by the third night we were relaxed enough to take catnaps while on watch, happy that the instruments (radar & AIS) would alert us to any danger if we overslept.

The weather was also good for the trip. The first night the wind got up to about force 5 or 6, and I was cursing myself for not reefing before it got dark. The swell was up to about 3 metres, but the waves weren’t breaking so there was no danger. It did make for something of a bumpy ride, and no help for the off-watch trying to sleep below. The next evening I made no such oversight, and put a reef in the mainsail just before dark. Typically, the wind never got above force 3 after that. We didn’t mind, after the excitement of the first 36 hours banging along at seven to eight knots, it was a relief to do some easy sailing at five or six knots.

So what else can I tell you about Porto Santo. I’ve already said it’s about 450 miles from Portugal, it’s also about 350 miles from the Moroccan coast, Agadir being almost directly East, and about 250 miles North of the Canary islands. My ladybird history of the place - it was discovered uninhabited by accident in the late fourteenth century when a Portuguese ship got knocked off course during a storm and took shelter in the lee of the Island. The Portuguese came back to take over the place, and while they were at it took Madeira too. About 7 miles long by 4 miles wide, 5% the size of Madeira, population about 3,500, only one town in the island, but has an airport and a daily ferry service to Funchal in Madeira. The early settlers here found it was good for growing sugar cane, and a sugar merchant who came to live here (and married the governor’s daughter), went by the name of Christopher Columbus. That was before he came to the conclusion that he could get to India by sailing West. His house is still standing (or has been restored) and is now a museum. We were there today.

One other feature of the place is the harbour wall. Apparently it’s tradition for boats passing through to leave their graffiti on the wall. In true parochial Paddy fashion I went looking for the Irish boats. I found seven in all, but the first two I recognised, Jilliana of Galway, the Pender’s boat, listed Dave Gerrard (my VHF instructor) on their crew list, and then I found Yacht Pala, belonging to my pals Johnny and Emer (on this mailing list). For the record, the other five are Joyster of Galway, Saoirse, Murphy’s Law, and two Belfast boats, Breakaway and Bláth na Mara. Catherine, being the Artist on board, will be making our contribution, but that will have to wait until Monday when the hardware shop opens (not having any green or orange paint on board).

As for our plans, well as always they may change at a moments notice, (a few of you are expecting us to be in Morocco, we were going but had a change of heart when we realized that our time there would coincide with Ramadan, so we’ll leave our Moroccan cruising for another time). However, for now we intend to spend a week or so between here and Madeira (or correctly Madeira Grande), then head South 160 miles to the uninhabited Salvage Islands just for a couple of days, and then a further 100 miles to the Canary islands. Once we get to the Canaries we’re thinking that we’ll spend some time there, island hopping as the mood and wind takes us. We’ve been told that once there an Atlantic crossing is hard to resist, as so many boats are passing through the Canaries en-route to the Caribbean, but while I’d be tempted, the practicalities of getting back terrify me, so we’ll see!

We’ll also be home for a few weeks from the end of October, we have flights already booked from Tenerife, so we’re hoping to have the boat all tucked up in a marina there for the duration.