33:03.7N 16:18.9W

Porto Santo 17 Oct 08

Set off from Caiscais faced with about 500 NM of 'Ocean' passage to Porto Santo & Madeira, the longest trip for most of us for a while and for Clare the first time at longer than a Channel crossing. I'll be brief: It was alsmost idyllic - moderate winds, fairly flat seas, sunshine, moonlight, roses? no I mean dolphins, loads of them, day and night. Tony was flashing his sextant, and despite or efforts and bouncing a sun off the horizon, came up with some good latitudes. We had a 36h spinnaker run and could have done more, but the black clouds looked ominous so down it came at 22.00h to allow a peaceful night. We arrived at Porto Santo at about 22.00 on 17 Oct - Clare seemed amazed (and pleased) that we'd found such a small dot in a vast ocean - the wonders of GPS. If Chris Columbus had the advantages of GPS he may never have discovered America, now there's a thought.

A brief run ashore in Porto Santo - nice feel to it, but expensive marina, and then we were off to Madeira to meet Tony's wife Di, who was joining us for some R & R based in Funchal.