Pic: Finishing off sewing the dinghy cover, it's looking very tatty which is a good thing - makes it look less attractive to thieves!

Rabat  to Madeira

Kate departs for the airport returning back home, after a brief stop for drinks with Helen at Marseille airport. I set off for Madeira by 1200hrs, after waiting for the sniffer dog to arrive. A couple of hours motoring to get away from the coast. Light winds and slow progress. The building swell puts an end to the sailing and the engine went on. By sunset the wind filled in to a steady breeze, the boat settled down and I caught up on some sleep as I have now cleared the coastal shipping lanes. The breeze died away to nothing by 0400 which means motoring for the last 60miles, ugh ! Generally the Spanish and Portuguese forecasters and the Grib files have got this one totally wrong.  It's also been a bad fridge day with the control unit not liking the rolling, this was because it was disturbed in Portomao, roll on the new fridge!

Madeira: The nice thing about Madeira (apart from the friendly people) is that, during the winter, there's a pretty constant 20 degrees. The sea temperature is 20 degrees and the air temperature, day or night, doesn’t vary much from that. It’s nice to be away from the cold nights and mornings of North Africa. Chatting to the guy who helped me moor, he remembers the boat from 2009, because he was kind enough to take me to the hospital to have some stitches in my head, when I fell out of the dinghy onto some rocks!  Shopping for the crossing, topping up gas bottles and laundry and sitting out a southerly gale, not very exciting you would think……

Pic: The square rigger Phoenix flying the flag of Cornwall with RT looking small close by. She is returning home after filming for a movie being shot in the Canaries. The film is to be about the true story that inspired the book Moby Dick .

Pics: Waiting out the gale, spray coming over the harbour wall, and the entrance looking quite unappealing. This is why you really should be a lot further south before December starts ! As always with these photos you always just miss the really big one.

This is the first night I’ve spent moored in a marina where I’ve cat napped on the saloon settee with my grab bag packed.  Talking to the locals, heavy spray over the harbour wall is quite common in bad weather, however, during the afternoon the waves started to top the wall, something that has apparently never happened before. The first few destroyed several hundred metres of pontoon, part of which I was moored to just an hour before. Fortunately I had moved the boat, against the wishes of the marina, to a different berth. As the afternoon wore on things got steadily worse with the marina staff and lots of extras valiantly trying to limit the damage. Around 5am two monster waves came over the wall and rolled along my pontoon burying it several feet under. The boat alongside me parted her stern line and tried to come onboard bending 3 of our stanchions and lifting a section of our toe rail. At this stage there was much talk amongst the uninformed that the sea wall was about to fail. It was obviously getting to be a very dangerous situation and the marina owner who was very much on the job offered everyone living on their boats a night free of charge in the hotel which is part of this development. The forecast had the worse to come in the small hours, there was a real risk that we could all lose our boats if many more waves topped the sea wall! Fortune now took a hand and the wind backed a little several hours before it was due and things started to quiet down some. Well, at least the waves stopped coming over the wall. During the night we broke two mooring lines, which I managed to replace in time to prevent any further damage.

Pic: shows the post marking the pontoon where RT was moored. The Najad in the back ground is moored to a sunken  pontoon and  being rubbed gently by the yellow boat which has a  big hole in the bow.

A view of some of the general carnage, most boats have ripped off cleats, and hull damage of some sort, from the minor like our own,  to the very expensive or total write off.  However, this marina was the only one on Madeira that didn’t have any boats sunk ! There was one death in the harbour along the coast. The boat in the picture without much of a transom is Danish and uninsured ! They live onboard and it's all they have

Several days later, the first day the harbour entrance is truly safe to leave. Ironically, I just need the wind now.

Finally, some proper wind and the sun is shining, got away just after nine and RT is bowling along at 7kts, haven’t seen that for a while. Just would have been nice to have Kate along.

Wind a bit fickle, and even a little motoring, not what is in the forecast. Now that the water has warmed up I’ve started a little fishing, lost my knack though, had two bites but they both got away.

Spent one morning sorting out the damage to the mooring ropes from Madeira. Much cutting and splicing and we have a serviceable set if not quite as long as they once were.

The wind filled in overnight  and we are now making good speed. Tuna curry is back on the menu, set the line just before sun up and, 5 minutes later, I had a skipjack tuna. After a little butchery he produced 4 meal sized lumps. Sun up always seems a good time to catch a fish. Fridge packed up again this morning but I managed to get it back into life….. just a few more weeks and I’ll be rid of the thing.

Gybed off to the west  as we had enough wind and there is supposed to be more further south. Trades fairly well set and gently moderating so good progress being made, passed 2000mls to go late on  Thurs. Set my line at sunrise on Fri and very soon got a bite but he proved too big and broke my 45lb line. No other luck, with several strikes but not taking the lure. No flying fish around , maybe that’s why there is little success with the fishing. In general the weather is overcast and warm and moist with the occasional light shower, not a hint of sun!  

Cloud starts to break just before sun up and it turns into the first really warm and sunny day, wind and boat speed are both down. A small Mauimaui caught for the pot.

The wind is back in the 20kt area and boat speed is back. The weather seems set to deliver an endless stream of squalls, most in the 25 ~ 30kt range but the last one on Christmas morning hit 40 kts. It also brought a change with an end to the squalls and some hot sunshine and a steadier winds, so Happy Christmas! Opened my Christmas stocking, left by Kate!

Very pleasant sailing conditions continue with enough wind to keep the boat moving mostly at 6 kts, clear skies, no squalls and not a lot of sea running. Put the line in and pulled out what I think was an albacore, anyway that’s another 6 meals.

Squally rain showers are back, along with light winds, very tedious fridge is playing up again as well.

Better today, some wind and sunshine. But an awful night of almost continuous squalls, so wet and cold I had to have porridge for breakfast!

New Years Eve After a slow start the day becomes a classic Caribbean sailing day,  20kts of wind with blue seas and skies. Sunset brings the glow of St Barts and St Martin on the horizon. Happy New Year!