Porto Santo. 33 3.697N 16 18.961W
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Fri 21 Oct 2016 14:28
About 12 miles off Porto Santo, we decided to try and sit and wait til dawn, by hoving to. I have read many articles about this kind of thing; " if you have been at the wheel for too long, and need a simple rest or a cup of tea, why not simply hove too and grab the necessary respite"......etc. We tried it. Sure enough, the motion on the boat was fine, but relaxing, it was not. The main thing was that the main boom kept crashing backwards and forwards as the waves passed under Persephone, and I seriously feared that some kind of damage might ensue. So after 15 or 20 restless minutes, we binned the idea in favour of motoring in, directly into the oncoming waves.
That was ok, in a sense. Very bouncy, and loadsa spray, and the good old VolvoPenta had to have a tad more throttle down than she usually does, to enable us to creep towards the island, and the expected shelter in its lee, at a little under 4 knots over the ground. After a few minutes, the engine started to falter slightly, maybe a few seconds each time before recovering and kicking us forward. Moods darkened on board. Shades of all the fuel problems we had while cruising 4 years ago loomed into my minds eye...and the thouht of changing a filter out here in all this lumpy sea was unedifying to say the least. Anyway, after 3 hours, just as the faint light of the dawn crept into the eastern sky, we puttered into the enchorage outside the marina, dropped the hook and, without putting the sails away or sorting out the boat, we climbed into our bunk and slept until lunchtime!
Then it was up, tidy the boat and refuel ourselves with a superb fry up, bimbling a little on the boat, service the engine, check oil and filters etc....all being good. So the faltering revs must have been air, as the half empty fuel tank was vaulted across the waves, the fuel slopped about and small pockets of air might have been taken up the dip pipe.....not enough to stop the engine, but enough to cause some sickness symptoms.
The top half of the Sigma 38 fuel tank is a lot easier to use than the bottom half, as the hardened racers all know!
Another long sleep to recover, and then we moved into the harbour, dropped the hook and rigged the wind generator....as it was now really starting to howl with 35 knots from the south west.
Next morning, we tried the marina and were offered a space, rafted out alongside 2 large resident yachts. We also hooked up with EnaVigo, a Grand Soleil 45 being cruised by Steve and Jodie, also from Hamble. They are on a 3 year journey which will take them to Brazil and the US via the Caribbean....so we might see a fair bit of them. We have a lot of friends in common! So much so, we were able so spend successive evenings drinking and chatting on our respective boats, plus an eveninng ashore in one of the little restaurants.
We also briefly entertained Oliver, a parisien, sailing a one tonner with his girlfriend, Anna. They left L'Orient only a few weeks ago, sailed direct to Porto, and from Porto to Porto Santo. No languorous sightseeing tour for these two! They are on a mission to sail a circuit, including Greenland, in the space of a year. So their next stop is Cape Verde and then they cross to Martinique....and keep moving....
Their boat is a stripped out racer. No loo, just bucket and chuck it, a small galley, no lockers just open stowage. Everything works, but its all on display...the battery bank is lashed behind the companionway steps and the cabin sole is only partly in place....
Porto Santo has retained all of its charm we discovered 4 years ago...arriving, we noted, 4 years ago to the very day! Its long beach, the delightful pretty town, spotlessly clean. The efficient little supermarket in the town centre and of course the wonderful craggy volcanic rock character of this desert island...the sunny little sister to Madeira.
We walked the beach, explored the town, tried out the restaurants and bars, and spent some time sitting quielly on board reading, on the really windy rainy days which peppered our week long stay. The wind blew in strongly over the weekend, from the south, which made the beach rather exciting, and sent plumes of spray high above the harbour wall, covering everything downwind in a fine mist of salty spray.
Then it was time to leave and open the next chapter...a short sail in balmy calm, to Madeira.
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