2nd Leg Lagos - Madeira Islands
Catou
Paul and Sylvie Tucker
Thu 23 Sep 2010 15:58
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Thursday 23rd September (Lagos (Southern
Portugal) - Porto Santo (Madeira group))
Firstly, anyone who has 'tuned in' to the blog again,
thank you for continuing to monitor our progress.
Some weeks ago I had booked a B & B close by Bristol
airport, since we had to check in at 0500 for the 'red-eye' to Faro on Monday
(Sept 20th) morning. I had been talking to Kiwi Ben (our
ARC crew) last Friday afternoon - and he had very
kindly offered to drive Sylvie and I to Bristol airport,
"Since he wanted to get started early, and was going that way anyway (to Yeovil)". When I told him the check-in time, he
didn't seem the least concerned. Anyway, many thanks Ben - it was very kind, not
to mention the fact that it saved us a taxi to Bristol and accomodation (equiv
to the cost of a boat fuel tank of diesel!)
So, after 7 weeks away, we returned to the boat on
Monday 20th. First job was to hose off 'Sahara dust' - (or
wherever it had come from), before we could do anything. We stowed gear
and dragged stuff out on deck that had been safely stowed below, and then after
an hours sleep and a shower, we met up with some old friends, David and Melanie
Monks from the Isle of Man, who have a holiday villa close by. We hadn't
seen them for ages, so we went out for dinner in a lovely local restaurant and
saw a little of the old part of Lagos. Very pretty. We had been stuck in
the very modern marina development and really hadn't had time to see the old
town.
On Tuesday morning, our friends Terry and Janet Iles
from Guernsey arrived on a flight from Gatwick, having just come via Italy!
(I think it was some boozy birthday party). So, after lunch ashore,
we had a major shopping expedition to the local supermarket, and then
some jobs on board. David and Melanie were coming on board for a drink
before we all went out for dinner. Then Terry's nephew and his wife rang
Terry (they were also in Lagos on hols). So at 6.15pm we had a large
(and somewhat noisy) drinks party on board (we apologised to our Dutch
neighbour for the noise level!) and out for a great dinner
again.
So Wednesday morning we spend preparing for sea, with a
final shop and trying to sort out a couple of matters on deck. We
slipped moorings at 1400, motored out to the fuelling berth and topped up
our tank with about 100 litres and off we set. We set the sails off the
harbour entrance and went off at a cracking pace, following the
beautiful and rugged limestone cliff coastline to the south
of Lagos. Once around the headland, we set course for the island of Porto
Santo, (some 20 miles to the NE of Madeira) some 450 miles to our
SW. As we cleared the land, so the wind increased, and we
decided to put two reefs in the main. We then set staysail as a
smaller foresail and furled the genoa just in case the night sailing
threw anything nasty at us. But as midnight approached, the wind died, and
on went the engine.
Janet had asked me some weeks ago what the weather was
likely to be. "Northerly winds force 3 - 4 and broad reach sailing
all the way" I told her (as the Atlantic routing chart for September tells
you)! Huh! The little wind we had after midnight was Southerly
1 - 2 and it has stubbornly stayed in the SW (i.e. 'on the nose') all day
Thursday. Anyway, it's given us a good chance to 'shake down' into watches
and the usual routine. We carried out a 'man overboard' drill. I
wanted to use Terry as a live subject, but we opted for two fenders
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