andromeda of plymouth - The Jetstream Chronicles

The Jetstream Chronicles

andromeda of plymouth

Susan and Andrew Wilson

Wed 25 May 2016 14:02

The Jetstream Chronicles....Part 1

The start of our adventure on Jetstream was in wonderful sunshine and a fine breeze (19^th May). After leaving Cabo St. Vincente to starboard we set off on a course of 240 degrees towards Porto Santo. The wind built on the first night, gusting to 33knots with steep waves, a number of which broke over the deck and the cockpit, leading to several wet bodies! It was quite a tough night but the following two days had lighter winds, some rain, lots of sunshine, some motoring and good sailing. We left at around 2pm on the Thursday, and dropped the anchor off Porto Santo at around 8pm on Sunday, 22^nd May; some 533 “sailed” miles over a GPS distance of 460nm miles. A good, yet challenging trip, despite “George”, the autopilot, deciding he wanted to return to Lagos on at least two occasions! Most of the difference between the “sailed” and GPS distance is due to the current against us, leeway (being pushed sideways by the wind) and George’s antics. We saw several pods of dolphins, 6 turtles and numerous Shearwaters – amazing birds. The AIS showed lots of large commercial vessels around us, but we probably only saw around a dozen over the three day trip.

As we were approaching Porto Santo we saw “Hadar” on the AIS heading back to Lagos. We knew Hadar and Pat, her skipper, as we were all involved in the fun sailing over the 2014/2015 winter season. Pat had then headed down to the Canaries for a year and was now on his way back to Lagos. We had a brief chat on the VHF and exchanged some news before heading in opposite directions. Really great to meet old friends once again and particularly at sea and we are looking forward to catching up with Pat later in the year.

On the Monday (23^rd May) we berthed in the small marina – a bit of a squeeze it must be said, as the marina is pretty full at the moment, with mostly French flagged boats. However Paul and Jackie made landfall and footfall following their first multi-day ocean cruise – fantastic and they were delighted.

Following registration we walked into town – some 20 minutes away – and booked a bus tour of the island for the following day. A walk back along the beach, which is lovely, and after a rather fine chilli courtesy of Ravin from Oasis in Lagos, we caught up with Episode 1 of Series 6 of Game of Thrones – a fine end to the day – yes, we are quite sad.

A day of washing and cleaning and preparing for the wall painting was finished by a 1hr 45 minute bus trip around the island, which is, after all, quite small, but worthwhile doing anyway. Since we were last here 6 years ago we have noticed an increase in the amount of buildings and an improvement in the roads, but it is essentially much the same island we first visited – the port police have a nice new building. EasyJet now fly to the island, though we suspect from Lisbon.

The plan is to head to Madeira on Saturday as the wind and waves are more favourable then – we don’t really want to head into 3 metre waves and 15-20 knot head winds if we can avoid it – the trip is about 45 miles.