Porto Santo to Madeira
Ile Jeudi
Bob and Lin Griffiths
Tue 31 Jul 2012 18:13
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Tuesday 31 July 2012
Distance Run 28 Miles
Having arrived back from a wonderful dinner at La
Siesta last night we discovered my email account had been hacked and
spam had been sent out. I stayed up trying to resolve it well
into the night/morning and got there in the end. Passwords changed so
should be OK again.
I changed a few more passwords this morning and we
set off for Madeira about 1130am. The wind was from the north and we were
in the shelter of the island so we continued under engine until we were
clear. Two boats ahead of us were also heading the same way. Once
clear of Porto Santo we had a good sail in about 14 knots of wind - enough to
get us going reasonably well downwind but not at 'full chat'. A pleasant
sail and we reached the southeast tip of Madeira at 4pm. We motored up to
Baia da Abra where we anchored at about 4.45pm in the company of a French
catamaran. The sea was quiet in the bay but the pilot book warned us that
the winds can accelerate over a dip in the hills. Well, it can and it
does.
Another boat came into the bay shortly after
us. A French owned Bavaria Vision 50 which had moored behind us at Porto
Santo. They launched their dinghy and explored the bay for a while then
came over to invite us for aperitifs. They could see we hadn't launched
our dinghy so offered to take us there and back. We spent a nice couple of
hours with Gerard, Veronica and their crew Mark speaking pidgin French and
English to eachother. It's surprising how well you can
communicate with limited vocabulary and sign language when you share a
common interest in boats and cruising. They are on a 5 week cruise,
starting from the Morbihan in France, then Vigo in Spain and directly from there
to Porto Santo. They will sail back up to the Azores (northwest of here)
before returning to France because that gives them a better angle against the
north - northeast winds. But they might just nip down on the 3 day passage
to the Canaries first! If they do they certainly face an unpleasant slog
back.
They showed us around their Bavaria Vision before
taking us back. This is a modern take on our boat, with 'raised saloon'
type saloon windows but with an aft cockpit. The styling has been updated
but it is still recognisibly a Bavaria down below.
Approaching Madeira:-
 Although Madeira is a green island on the whole the
east end is arid and volcanic. There were a dozen or so people on this
grey/black stony beach when we arrived but only a couple by the time this
was taken:-
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