Across the blue to Porto Santo, Madeira
Walkabout has gone Sailing
Andrew and Traci Roantree
Sun 19 Sep 2021 08:49
Thank you Oeiras Marina - you have been one of the best marinas we have ever visited. Friendly, great facilities and you get a bonus delivery each morning of 2 bread rolls per person per day! Not bad huh?
We left the marina with a wave farewell from Kate and Iain (Intrepid Bear) who came and saw us off as we headed up the coast back to Cascais and rendezvoused with Susie and John (Casamara) before the crossing.
It’s now Saturday 18 September and it was ‘Land Ahoy’ a few hours ago!
You might just see a slip of land, well actually it’s rather three huge mountains that first caught our eyes!
The crossing has been another huge learning for us both with boat performance, sail choice, what we do if something doesn’t work (generator!!) and how we are coping with night shift patterns.
We saw our first flying fish!!
Albeit sadly no longer with us xx
We also found a small squid of some kind, sadly we gave him/her a sea burial too xx
The biggest and best part of our passage across the Atlantic was that my beautiful and gorgeous husband turned 60! Yup folks Andrew is 60 years old and I’m married to a pensioner!! ;)
Birthday candle blow-out and birthday stew for supper!
We both found it amazing how BLUE the sea is. Not just any blue but the bluest of blues. It’s amazingly blue and photos don’t do it justice!
These are our night-vision lights in the cockpit enabling us to see for plotting etc without loosing night-vision. Recently installed by my super-skilled husband! (thank you to Ade & Bev for the great idea xxx).
So overall the last three nights have been great! We have both felt more able and alert following night watches enjoying the passage and eating well too!
Just over 500 NM clocked up - all under sail. At an average of 6.5 knots. Pretty good going. Our little flotilla all chose to leave at this time because it has been the first few days of the ‘Portuguese Trade Winds’ for quite a time. That has meant getting used to predominantly downwind sailing. Whilst there are benefits, there are also challenges. And getting the right sail set up, which doesn’t risk accidental gybes is a big challenge. Particularly overnight when there is only one of us on watch and we are very limited as to what we can do (it just isn’t safe).
It’s now 0930 Sunday 19 September, we arrived at 2000 last night, dropped anchor and was immediately invited to join Susie and John on Casamara for arrival drinks! Pretty good welcome I’d say!!