Position 33:07.727N 016:19.946W

Saturday November 8^th

13h15

Wind E Force 5

Sea State 1-2M

Visibility Good

Heading 203 T°

Under: Full Sail

Speed 5 Kts

96 hours 51 mins later . We have arrived in Porto Santo the northernmost of the Madeira Archipelago .

First sight of land was at dawn, accompanied by a pod of dolphins, we were 20 miles from the coast. Porto Santo rises sharply out of the atlantic in true volcanic style and jagged like a sharks tooth. 10 Miles out we were still in water over 3 kms deep at too miles it is still 1000 m. What a mountain this is.

No signs of life until we are very close to the shore, the island looks desolate.

The marina is two miles from an attractive yet touristy pueblo. All is very quiet here, the tourists are gone for the winter and the oversupply of services is now blatant. Looks to me like there are more immaculate Merc taxis here than people. There is a stark contrast between the people in the street here and what we have seen in the rest of Portugal (inc. Porto) very well dressed and good looking people. It has to be pointed out though that we have only been in the north of Portugal and I think from Lisbon down things might be quite different. Things are more expensive here though.

Have met Charisma (Skipper Constantine), Germany. Swan 41 on ARC also. German overboard today in the marina.

On the walls surrounding us there many boats have made their marks over the past few years with quite good artwork in brightly coloured paint including Jilliana of Galway 2006. We, unfortunately have neither the time, the artistic talent or the paint to leave our mark. I will pee on the wall tonight instead.

Picked up our email today and some bad news for the trip. Tom, our third and last person, cannot now make it and so we are alone. We had thought we would be able to pick up a fourth to replace Brian who also had to pull out and would have been OK with three. If the current circumstances remain unchanged we will have to reconsider. U and I on our own can easily handle a week at sea but three weeks alone would be too much.

We debated going to bed for the afternoon as we are pretty wrecked however opted for a strong coffee instead and an early night with DVD as we plan to move on tomorrow. Good Night.