Grown Ups Gap Year

Cacais to Porto Santo

The facts of the sail are as follows:
Distance Sailed 528 NM
Average Speed 4.67 Knots (a very fast walk!)
Time Taken 113 hours
6.4 hours of engines use

We arrived at 02:30 UTC on Friday morning after the 113 hours at sea. This was our first experience of true two up ocean sailing as channel hops etc. don't really count. It must be said that it is a true test of your strength of character, patience, love and understanding, mutual respect, trust and endurance. It's thought provoking, soul searching, thrilling, exciting, overwhelmingly exhausting, and at times your favourite place is definitely your sea berth but others it is the cockpit with the views. Talking of beds I know my place at sea I sleep in the 'Cabin Boys' single bunk bolstered by pillows either side of me to prevent me from rolling and the use of the lee cloth. Paul on the other hand, likes to spread so sleeps across our bed head to starboard and feet to port in the 'Captains' berth!

I have total respect for the captain (Perfect Peter) 95% of the time he is just that! I am a very good first mate. I keep the place clean and tidy, make the meals and do the washing up. I ensure the food is inspected daily and rations topped up and the fridge restocked when needed. Paul, on the other hand, keeps the boats maintained, inspects the rigging and moving parts daily including lubricating as needed as well as checking and cleaning the bilges as needed. He also does the usual engine checks and keeps the stern gland primed and greased as required. But his most important role is as navigator from the route planning and weather analysis of forecasts and then the subsequent changes to routes during the sail as what was forecast doesn't always materialise. Meteorological data is received in a variety of ways for inspection and the routing is planned, in conjunction with 'course2steer', and other tools. Course2Steer is a route planning piece of software written from first principles by our friend Jim (sailed with us from Weymouth to A Coruna) and takes in the measured performance data of Mirage, tidal data, wind data and land to perform a whole lot of complicated maths using a differential evolution sorting method (I don't know what this is eiiter and not sure I understands Paul's explanation about a scatter and tune method!) to provide us with a suggested route to sail.

It's a disciplined routine which is essential and we each play our roles in the day to day running of Mirage during our passages. Whilst at sea we run a 'dry' boat for safety reasons, as most of you know Paul doesn't alcohol, but I look forward to celebratory drink upon safe arrival to port. We have to remember that is a year adventure for us and not just a two week holiday and have to budget accordingly. We eat out occasionally as a treat but make the most of local ingredients for our meals. We mainly stay at anchor for free, but we also preferred the peace and tranquillity of an anchorage over a marina which can be noisy. Obviously in severe weather conditions the safety of a marina is important. Marina cost have so far been cheaper than those of the UK as quite a few are run by sailing clubs and not a large businesses having to pay shareholders and management costs.

We have a gas cooker with twin burners, grill and oven and also a thermal cooker which cuts down on the gas usage. We eat well and try to keep to normal meal time together with light snacks to keep us going on night watches. It's important for body and sole to have exciting rations and definitely, for Paul, to keep the sweetie cupboard stocked but strictly rationed! With Paul's high metabolism his level of happiness under pressure defiantly improves with a sugar rush. I, on the other hand, have no stress, so have to be very careful that I don't gain a stone in weight on every passage! Just as well we don't have a freezer on board so my ice cream fix has to wait for land

Without having mains power we rely on naturally power generation with the occasional top up from the engine. Our navigation equipment, navigation lighting and fridge are a constant drain of power but both essential on long passages. In day light we have three methods of green energy generation solar, wind and towed. At night we rely on the tow and wind generation but minimising the use of lights by using our solar rechargeable lights given to us a Bon Voyage presents, rechargeable head torches and beanie style hat with built in head torch.

As mentioned earlier in our blogs we have a Hydrovane wind steerage system so we don't have to stay on the helm all the time or use the electrical auto pilot and its associated energy drain. On the whole 'Heidi' steers well to course as long as the sails are balanced needing only the occasional tweak from us.

Our toilets (heads) are flushed with seawater and toilet paper put into nappy sacks to prevent blockages. We have a holding tank that can be used in an anchorage which can either be pumped out in most marinas or emptied when a long way offshore.

We try to recycle as much rubbish as possible. We reuse plastic bags given to us whilst shopping for fruit and veg to put our rubbish into and everyday we condense, secure ready for disposal saving glass, tins, plastic, paper, etc for disposal at the next port. Any compostable waste is fed to the fish overboard.

Unfortunately we have no direct source of hot water unless running the engine therefore we have 2 solar showers which when the sun is out heat up very quickly. We have 360 litres of water when full so need to avoid unnecessary wastage. We top up our fresh water tanks in marinas and add sterilisation tablets so we are not reliant on bottled water to drink. We add squash to four water bottles and rotate through the fridge to have on board and when we go ashore.

We run a relaxed watch system finding it better for us. Unfortunately when I get tired I get sick and despite travel sickness the only way to cope is to go to bed. I try to do more of the night watches as this suits me better when there is less need for his presence. During the day we try to maximise our sailing potential so a more frequent tweaking of sail and sail combinations to maximise performance. We only run the safer 'white sails' at night and not the colourful faster sails.

The first few hours after leaving Cascais was frustrating as the forecast winds did not materialise and we had weak winds from the south. Just after leaving we celebrated making our first 1000 NM and a dance on the deck! Once we had cleared the land and the day had stabilised the winds swung to the north and we raised the cruising chute and started to head south and at a better rate. Our planned route was to head south broadly following the coast of Portugal but gradually drifting further offshore before swinging west after being west of Gibraltar and aiming for Porto Santo. Although this is not the shortest route it meant we didn't hopefully suffer from the zero wind conditions caused by the Azores high. If you look at the map showing our routing we accomplished this reasonably well but had a slow period when the 'high' shifted due to a deep depression hitting the UK causing it to move further east and break apart right where we were.

Paul had the fishing rod out in an attempt to catch a fish for our dinner and as we crossed the continental shelf and had a couple of strikes but due to us being unprepared the first fish managed to jump the hook and the second yanked the hook off the lure but at least left the lure behind. We did catch a couple of fish later on in the voyage but we are not sure what they are but they cooked nicely and produced a couple of delicious meals. We had added a photo so if you know what they are can you let us know!

I always find the first night at sea a wonderful experience as, with a clear sky, the stars are a wonderful sight without street lights to hide the fainter stars and the misty effect of the milky way. We were still able to see the glow of the city lights from Cascais through to Lisoa when we were more than 50 miles from shore. We saw dolphins on the first day but saw very few during the journey when in the deeper water other than one night when we had a small group producing phosphorescence trails round the boat. As we sailed further south the nights have become noticeably warmer and as we started swing west, now parallel with the Moroccan coast the sea has also warmed up significantly and is around 20 degC. Looking forward to a swim! The wind during the first night was probably the best we had during the whole trip giving us a good constant speed around 6 knots even without the cruising chute and with very little swell remained set well and requiring very little trimming. I felt sick today but not sure if it is sea sickness or from too much sun.

Day Two was a 'Pinch punch first day of the month' as we moved into October. At dawn the winds started to die away and Paul struggled to fill the sails so we launched the cruising chute and got back to around 3.5 knots over ground. The quick release shackle at the clew of the sail managed to come undone and after a bit of a struggle we managed to get the sheet reattached. Probably due to the light winds and the sail not remaining filled all the time the shackle may have caught itself on the guard rail netting and undone itself. We spent the day making slow but steady progress using Heidi. Paul rewired the tow/wind generator regulator so the power only goes to the domestic batteries and not shared with the engine battery. I felt much better today and have made sure I have drunk lots to keep hydrated. The winds remained light overnight but still progressing southwards.

Day Three - As dawn broke the sky looked a bit threatening and initially Paul set the stay sail and Genoa up rather than risking getting the cruising chute wet. Once the risk had cleared we went back to the cruising chute and our speed improved for a few hours. Around lunchtime the wind dropped completely and we dropped all the sails and started the engine. We motored for a couple of hour giving us hot water to wash with tonight. When the wind returned we relaunched the cruising chute and started sailing again. It is always amazing when the engine is switched off and return to the quietness of just sailing! Typically with Paul sleeping whilst off watch in the afternoon we caught a fish and Paul came up to reel it in. Our first FISH caught! Paul had just managed to get back to sleep when we caught our second fish. This one was much bigger than the first one a made a lovely steamed fish meal a couple days later. My first challenge of fish filleting at sea whilst coping with the swell. I felt a bit nauseated but not sure if it was the emotions of killing the fish for food, the smell of the filleting process or just plain sea sickness from being below with a swell from the beam. Neither of us ate tonight as we had we are not truly used to a watch system and we were both exhausted. As time went on we improved with our bodies getting used to the watch system again. It is always said to take 4/5 days for the body to adjust.

Day Four - With a low wind front firmly behind us we had a good days sailing with minimal swell with the wind and the day starting with Mirage producing a wake of phosphorescence. We saw our first dolphins since day one but they were not interested in playing with Mirage. We only saw a couple of ships during the day so we had a feeling of almost isolation. When we dropped the cruising chute in the evening we used the stay sail and the Genoa to help maintain speed for the night giving Paul the opportunity to sleep more as previously mentioned. He managed his first 4 hour sleep so shows that sticking to a regimented watch system doesn't work with us as I had had a longer sleep the previous night after feeling sick. We had a Thai fish dinner tonight thanks to our catch, delicious.

On the final day at sea we had a period of very mixed winds with the majority of the time, albeit light, the wind was just after the beam but then would suddenly veer by 30 to 40 degrees, get warm, then return to sitting just after the beam. This would typically only last for 20-30 seconds and was further exasperated by the swell coming from two directions. One direction was associated with the wind and the other with the depression that had effected the high pressure. The majestic extinct volcanoes of Porto Santo were spotted just after 17:30 UTC exactly where it was expected and was an amazing sight as it suddenly appeared out of the cloud on the horizon but still leaving us 35 NM to go! Was this a mirage or reality! We motored the final 2 hours when the wind dropped in to the small harbour in Porto Santo using the lights to guide us it finally arriving 01:30 UTC somewhat exhausted but elated at our achievement. With us anchored securely it was time for bed and our first night together since Cascais both sleeping like babies with the anchor drift tool monitoring us!