Position 30.89,-15.46 at 10:43 BST. Northerly force 5 with a 3 meter swell.

We have a rule about making ground coffee when the boat is moving around a lot. We have kept to it so far this trip but with double normal supervision managed a pot for breakfast. I still keep to my GI diet breakfast of oats and fruit with skimmed milk. Mary has yogurt and fruit. It was harder to find good oats in Spain but Portuguese obviously like oats as it was half the price and Scottish quality.

Almost exactly half way to the northeren tip of Lanzarote. ETA is still late afternoon Saturday. Canaries on the same time as UK.

David

Left Funchal, Madeira at 12:00. ETA Lanzarote is Saturday evening 25th October. We are heading for the north end at present. Position at 18:24 (BST) Thursday is 32.27,-16.40 some 10 miles south of the off lying Ilhas Desertas.

Wind has done most things since we left which is about the height of Madeira and the way the winds come around the island. Settled now to force 5/6 from the NE.

We can see the Balmoral cruise liner has left Funchal and is on its way to Tenerife. When you buy a cruise liner make sure it already has a booking confirmed for Madeira. Everyday we have been in port a liner comes in at 09:00 and leaves at 17:30 and there is only room for 1.

Arrived at Madeira. Took the bus and just about got away from the tourists. We must outnumber the locals horribly. Impressive denists. Mary had her filling replaced less than 12 hours after loosing one! Off to Canaries tomorrow. Ewan and Jane will be with us on Lanzarote next week and Sheana and Tom the week after. We think we will go to Cape Verde Islands soon after that.

Leixoes and a couple of days on Giselle, getting ready for the next bit. Chatted to a couple of guys from France on their way to Cape Verde islands and to the African mainland, in a 26 foot boat! If you want to practise your French then look at www.uneiledeuxportraits.over-blog.com which is their website. We left Leixoes with the right weather window, but not the right view. Thick thick thick fog, radar on (to see the fishing boats and other sailing boats), AIS on (that’s the great machine that tells you where all the big boats are, how fast they are going and how long before they hit you!) and fog horn on, one long blast every two minutes (yes we were motoring). We finally cleared, and eventually started to sail. [Read more →]

Reporting safe arrival at Porto Santo. Pouring rain to put down the anchor at 03:00 but still warm at 20’C. 480mile trip took 3.5 days thats 5.65 knot average with only motor for electricity generation. At anchor at 33.0585,-16.3215.

At few days now on Madeira and then we start for the Canaries on Thursday ready to meet Ewan and Jane on Sunday or Monday.

David and Mary

No sun today yet. Can see rain on the radar. It is 26’C below, 23’C on deck.

Feels like the start of the adventure with lots of things very different to the UK sailing. Sea is an inky blue and very clear. No wildlife, No fishing boats. (Well nearly none, did see a 2 mile long net this morning and one bird last night.) Tea shirts OK for night watch. Dawn and dusk very fast.

Had full moonlit nights for the whole trip but I guess you know that though.

ETA Porto Santo still 06:00 Saturday.

34.086,-15.361 with NW force 2 at 13:30 today.

David and Mary

Outside all countries 200 mile zone of territorial waters, but will soon be within 200 miles of Madeira. Current position 35.723,-13.524 with N force 3. We haven’t seen any fishing boats which is excellent but there is a surprising amount of cargo vessels. The AIS gives you their destination and I don’t think we have had two vessels with the same destination yet. We have had Durban, St Petersburg, Port Said, Barcelona, Vigo, Dakar, Montreal, Rotterdam, Mersin, Emden and Rio Grande to mention a few.

Had a long spinnaker run in the light airs yesterday and the wind got a little when we took it down for night fall so the average is still good at just under 6 knots. 5 knot average from here will get us in at 06:00 on Saturday Morning.

Saw a storm petrel at 37.00, -12.02 yesterday. I make that 150 miles from the nearest land.

Temperature rising. Didn’t drop below 20’C last night and the sea is up another 1.5’C at about 22’C.

David and Mary.

Got the engine on to charge the batteries so a chance to send an e-mail.

Expect to have done about 144 miles in the first 24 hours at 14:00 Wed 15th (37.31,-11.80) and now NNW of the Gorringe ridge so making straight for Porto Santo which is 336 miles away.

We had a large group of Striped Dolphins this morning, may be as many as 100. Sea was very clear and turquoise blue so they were easy to underwater. Water here is very deep at 5000m and has warmed up some 4’C to 21’C. Winds only 2-3 as forecast so progress will be slower. I’ll put up the pink crusing chute when I stop the engine to help us along.

Striped dolphins are similar in size and behaviour to common dolphins but have light grey on the flanks not the hourglass pattern of yellowish tan.

David and Mary

We have started our first ocean passage together. Cascais (just west of Lisbon) to Porto Santo, Madeira. Just the one waypoint to avoid the Gorringe Bank at 36.527,-11.566 (you can enter this format of lat and long straight into google maps “-” equals west). Porto Santo is at 33.063,-16.317.

Windpilot is steering us silently at 7.5 to 8.5 knots as I speak with NNW force 4 and a calm sea. Forecast is for northerly 2-3 which may make for a slow passage. By the time I get this away on the radio I expect us to be just 17 miles from Cascais but off the continental shelf with 1000m of water below us (38.50,-9.692). Hopefully this will mean very few fishing boats.

David and Mary.

Photos of Lisbon now in the gallery. Tuesday 14th October we plan to statr for Madeira. The windpilot will be doing the autopilot duties silently which will be good. May even be time to complete the story of Lisbon – Fado; Lisbonwalker and dried cod.