It is another world!
25 March 2016
Ulric W3
It has just passed midnight and is the very beginning of Good Friday; the 25th of March 2016. The wind has dropped and moved to the East. I have taken out the last reef of the main. We can head straight to Funchal now, but the speed has dropped too. I slept really well earlier and was quite disorientated when Hans woke me up. I am on a sailing boat. Yes, that was clear, but that it was my watch less so. Had happily stayed on in my bunk, but some coffee and the good news of improved weather and wind fully woke me up.
We are struggling to keep the boat speed up. It is in lighter winds like this that the loss of genoa has its greatest impact. Winds are fluctuating between 10 and 20 knots and quite a bit in direction as well which keep the "on watch" person busy. Our speed is all over the place between 3 and 8.5 knots. The nature reserve Ilhas Desertas which consists of three islands with the highest point of 383m are on our starbord side. They look very evocative; long narrow islands sticking out South of Madeira. Those were my first sighting of the Madeira archipilago at 0700 this morning.
It was beautiful sunshine and smooth seas as we made our final approach to Madeira. Last time in 2009 many yachts had been anchored in Funchal's Harbour, but not this time. I presume Spring is less busy here than the build up to Atlantic Westward crossings in the Autumn. They found space for us in the marina alongside a motor catamaran. The marina attendant had not answered either our phone or radio calls, but he still expected us as he had seen our intended destination on marinetraffic.com.
We spent the afternoon doing jobs on the boat and some top up shopping. The customs came and we had to fill in a form. Hans and I had dinner at the Apolo; the same restaurant as Sven, Magnus and I at the beginning of the first Atlantic Crossing. I remember with happy memories that trip; the beauty of the long Atlantic swell which was a novelty, as well as the visits to both Madeira and Porto Santo.