We are effectively pinned into the marina. The mountainous seas breaking over the harbour wall represent a challenge to everyone here. We have doubts that, even if we were minded to leave and battle against the winds from the south, Persephone's engine would be able to push us through the oncoming seas, close to the rocky lee shore just outside the marina. It looks feisty, to say the least! Putting sails up in the huge short steep waves will be challenging to impossible with just 2 of us.

So we sit here, like true cruising sailors, waiting for fair winds, or at least some abatement of those we have. Time to catch up on some reading, domestic duties, cleaning and general chat around the marina.

And we watch the unfolding autumnal weather story, through the internet. The very deep low pressure system approaching the Azores from the west is giving us the southerly winds. This looks to be very slow moving, and worse still, followed by an even more severe system next week, currently in the western Atlantic, near Bermuda and headed this way.

Afternoon spectator sport today is watching the airliners negotiate the runway at Madeira Airport, about 11 miles away, descending across the bay in the very gusty conditions. We watch through a dramatic mist created by the waves breaking on the marina breakwater!

Still, it's warm, and Nigel has cleaned the keel from the dinghy using the long handled brush with the articulating scrubbing pad he brought back with him after the recent trip back to blighty….so when we do leave Madeira, we'll have a racing finish on the bottom….