Madeira via Porto Santo – whales, dolphins and tuna on the menu

Our longest single passage to date, over 500 miles across the Atlantic from Cascais in Portugal to Funchal in Madeira. We crossed the Iberian Orca migration route on the way out, hopefully for the last time for another year or so, until we return with Cassini to Europe.

A good forecast for the five-day passage, with North Easterly Trade winds dominating, veering to Easterlies should see us nicely into the next landfall by the end of the week.

Settling into a longer passage routine is different to the day hops we’ve been doing most of the way. Sleep is important and when you can only take three hours at a time, you need to make sure you do. Preparing as much in advance is important too. We’d had our last day alongside in Cascais marina, making maximum use of the services there to completely recharge the batteries, fill up with water and prepare four meals for the passage that would just need re-heating enroute. We top up our batteries from the Watt+Sea generator and solar mostly and run the water maker to keep the tanks topped up. Pretty much self-sufficient.

The wind followed the forecast soon after we cleared the coast and propelled us into the open ocean. The engine, after three days at sea has so far been on for 30 minutes, just to get us out of Cascais; feels like a bonus but it shouldn’t.

As we crossed from shallow to deeper water (+1000m) we were lucky enough to spot a humpback whale surfacing briefly and blowing air – never seen one before so a special treat for me.

Overnight, we split into three-hour watches, with Mildred our hydrovane self-steering taking strain. It’s something of a fiddle to set up, with two lines to control the angle of the vane to the wind, which in turn moves the small rudder maintaining our course relative to the wind direction. Everyone’s had a go with this and we’re becoming proficient, at least in these conditions.

Sailing overnight is one of the great wonders of sailing for me. Starlit heavens, moonlight on the waves, glistening phosphorescence in the boat’s wake; just magical. Add to this, we were frequently joined by pods of dolphins – I can never tire of them. What’s really funny, inside the boat, is that you can hear them chattering away to each other through the hull, a mixture of chirps and clicks… wonder what they’re saying… ain’t nature marvelous?

After three days with nothing to show for our fishing, Sally finally caught five of them today. All blue fin tuna. One unlucky fellow was snagged in a hook by his tail! Well they all count. All cleaned up on the bathing platform on the back, before Sally set to work on preparing raw fish, cured like you’d make gravadlax and bags of steaks put away for later. So, in a change to tonight’s menu, it’s fresh tuna.

Everyone is doing really well on the passage. This morning we passed the halfway mark, and as I write on Wednesday afternoon, 227 miles to go. All being well, we’ll be in Porto Santo, a small island off Madeira on Friday.

Simon

Pictures to follow, but not over a satellite link 300 miles off the coast today!

Out of regular communications this week but back online on Friday