Passage to Madeira update from quarantine
29 August 2021
by Ann MacNeill
We are in COVID quarantine but hopefully for an hour. The marina guy is off with our papers (boat and COVID). Already hot here. French boat next door has two collies on board. Both being groomed and clipped in the cockpit. Then out with the hoover to tidy up. Last night the large German yacht in front appeared to have a candle lit bbq on deck. Yacht restless crew had a well deserved “e” numbers feast of curry, Nan bread and chick peas washed down with beer and wine. Yes, there was a malt chaser, it had been a busy passage.
Days one on leaving Lagos was breezy. We had to reduce sail down to the last mainsail reef. Our reefs are green for the first, amber for the second and red for the third and final. It was blowing 29knots at 1400 recorded in the log. The main challenge for us was crossing 5 shipping lanes off cape st Vincent. These are like big ship motorways, 3 southbound and two north. No place for a small yacht and your duty is to cross quickly ,horizontally and keep out of the way. Tankers are moving at 20 knots and appear quickly. Luckily AIS helps us with a bit of advance notice and by 2000 we were across all lanes without any trouble. The first overnight was rough and rock and roll but manageable. Next day Tuesday was great. Sunny sailing with dolphins. Still big boat traffic and we saw the one yacht of the whole journey. A big ketch going the other way. It is worrying when you are the only small yacht. You get a sense maybe you shouldn’t take be there. There may be a few times that feeling will be right. Overnight into Wednesday still plenty of wind. 25 knots and reefs in. This was a magical night. Not a full moon but very bright. Whizzing along in the moonlight was fantastic. When sailing at night you see phosphorescence in the water. Glitter to you or me but Tim assures me it is small creatures getting excited by boat motion and emitting light. As I say the water had glitter in. By Wednesday as forecast the winds dropped and we were almost stopped. We motored a bit when just wallowing. This was when we had our first visitor a lovely small bird, insect eaters beak Tim confirmed, landed first on a line and then joined us in the cockpit. He hopped about for ages, ignoring the bread as you might expect. Anecdote but we once saw a seal in the Firth of Forth and lobbed a cheese scone at it by way of helping it survive. I suspect Sherry had been taken. Going back to the bird it was a confident type. It flew below not in any panic, seeming curious. After a short time I had to go below. On the pilot berth shelf, binoculars,torches, small bird. He seemed happy, rested for a bit, later rejoining us in the cockpit and flying off. It made me think of all those tiny birds that migrate for thousands of miles sleeping on the wing. How can they do that? Maybe like being in a work meeting..there and doing it...but only sort of. We later had another bird sail with us for a bit. A less confident character who stayed outboard. I didn’t lob bread, I think I am learning. Nature wise, apart from dolphins there were few sea birds. Some that look like shearwaters but on steroids, big hefty things. Also birds similar to gannets. Again seen fixing with dolphins. The water is beautifully blue. The breeze filed in and we were sailing again. I will do a separate entry about the phantom ship as it was important. Thursday we couldn’t get the course right. At the outset we expected the winds to change into the north so hoisted the 110% furling sail not the 140%. We probably should have changed sails during the journey but lowering and folding sails in a big swell isn’t fun, so our failure to do that slowed us down. With the bigger sail we could have taken a more direct route higher into the wind. Saturday morning brought out evidence of thiughtful provisioning. We don’t run the fridge which uses too much power. Nothing fresh keeps well. Our breakfast of eggy bread, warmed oranges segmented neatly and maple syrup was amazing. Who needs a tin of all day breakfast with that quality of nosh on offfer. We have done well with our fresh food even if tomato and onion salad every day may not be to everyone’s taste. On Saturday we lost the wind again but were motoring towards Madeira, cue mini chaos of lights and alarm a. What a fright. We switched off the engine and saw the fan belt broken. No engine and no wind is not a great situation. By luck Tim and I had discussed how to change it even noting spanner sizes etc. We changed it pretty quickly and were relieved to be under way. It was a long slop trip as we only motor at 5 knots. Not pushing the engine hard is our choice, we had almost 3 knots of tide against us was a surprise. The almanac said max 1.5 at springs I recall. Before Madeira there is Porto Santo a dramatic volcanic island. Madiera itself had stacks and jaggy teeth of rock visible for miles. The marina is set against a high cliff. The rock looks unusual. It is actually volcanic ash with seams of volcanic rock it looks amazing.
Quick update. Marina man Carlos is back. Our papers are emailed to Funchal for quarantine decision. We need to move the boat to a smaller space. As usual we choose a berthing slot that could cater for a super tanker. We need a bit of extra space in case of mooring mistakes. We have been allowed out to visit our.p new berth which is in a great spot near the showers and office. The water is super clear with lots of fish and A LIZARD on the pontoon. How exciting. Something of a mega blog. Got to get ready to move. Will tell you about phantom ghost ship later. Tim also has photos which he may share. He is checking the engine just now. We need to hose the salt off the boat. Speak later.
Comments