Loading ...
« 1st landfall made! | Main | Life in the Canaries »
It´s getting warm!!
By Duncan | November 1, 2008
Well we promised a media filled update next, filled with photo galleries and videos….and after almost a week in Madeira, erm, well, we haven’t really gotten around to doing loads of website work (though no doubt as you have all noticed there is one new photo gallery available). However, generating raw information in the form of hundreds of photos (well more than 2) as well as filming some amusing videos has been done, so when there is some bad weather in the Canaries we shall update the website and load up the vast number of banterous videos that Al has been studiously recording, starting with “Life and 45 degrees watch”.
Still onto the actual update - we left Lisbon after a rapid 36 hour stop, dropping off Sean and picking up Mike Atlantic, who (as the name suggests - not his real name either) is joining up for the Atlantic passage. Our departure from Lisbon was delayed doing a last minute hunt for meths to power our stove and finally found a stereotypical ‘general store’ tended by the ubiquitous little old lady who seemed slightly concerned at our purchase of 12 litres of meths.
We finally left around 4pm ish, and all was quite pleasant, until nightfall, whereupon we encountered 30+kts and some 5 metre chop. Sailing was thus restricted to a double reefed main and no jib, oscillating between 7 and 12 knots reaching top speeds when effectively falling of the oft rather steep waves and turning our home into a surf board. The top speed crown was taken from Duncan with a cliff drop speed of 13.7 knots, and although Duncan fought back valiantly, resorting at one point to going for the spinnaker (though was effectively wrestled to the ground by the rest of the crew), he only managed 13.1 knots, though still maintains the paddle wheel was under-reading as there is no way 15 seconds surfing down a 4 metre wave with 10+foot of spray flying up on either side of the boat in the middle of the night could only reach a little over 13 knots. Mix this in with the occasional rogue wave smashing into the beam of the boat every now and again, covering the boat and crew on watch in 6 inches of water and shifting the boat a good foot sideways, I think it is fair to say it was an interesting night. Mike did not fare too well, and stoutly insisted on doing a 7.5 hour watch, although spent a large period of that time returning his dinner to the sea. The next day the wind died, and so we carried on in 18-25kts of wind, in lessening seas on a broad reach under a blue sky and >20 degrees celsius - all pretty pleasant….
We arrived in Madeira just after nightfall and entered the Marina, well known for being very hard for foreign boats to get into, fortunately we arrived 30 seconds before another boat left, allowing us to rather cheekily jump the queue and tie up in the marina. The next day we investigated the local bars, enjoyed blue skies and over 20 degree celsius temperatures, and err that was about a week ago…We did hire a car and go for a drive around the island, took some pictures, and didn’t crash! Also went for a tour around one of the Madeira breweries, and drank some Madeira.
So onto the Canaries, we made an aborted attempt to leave today (I don’t know what day it is, or when this will make it to the website, but in the recent past anyway), however 3 mins out of the harbour the wind exceeded 30kts and the waves got a bit punchy, so with one of the crew feeding the fish we turned tail and sheepishly headed back into the Marina. Will take a look at the weather tomorrow, and probably head off to the Canaries.
Topics: The Voyage - Leg 1 |