We have now been in Lagos since 29^th Sept, waiting for a suitable 5 day break in the weather which will give us Northerly based winds in order to set sail for Madeira. It is approximately 450NM to Porto Santo (just this side of the main island of Madeira) which should take us about 4 whole days and nights. Since we have been here we have only had 2 days at a time of northerlies and now we are predicted a S/SW gale from tomorrow onwards with something called “rain”. (Perhaps someone could define this to us at some time?). Hopefully there may be a weather window forming from Tues onwards.

Meanwhile we wait. Derrick is being kept busy with little boat jobs on our and various other people’s boats, which he thoroughly enjoys. Martin and Jean, on Freedom 2 (first met in Sines after Martin’s serious emergency op) asked D to help derig their boat but then needed someone to go to the top of the mast to sort out a niggle. I was volunteered! We thought that we could offer ourselves as a team to people who don’t like climbing their masts!

Whilst D has been pottering about I have also been doing jobs, (no escape from washing unfortunately) and enjoying the lovely rocky cliffs, caves and coves, exploring by swimming and snorkelling.

 We met a very nice man, Karl who came to admire the boat and he mentioned that he was doing a diving course. This sounded very interesting, and as we were certainly not going to be moving in the following few days, the instructor, a bubbly German girl agreed to start me off on a Padi Open Water course. This comprises 2 very full days of theory, pool work and an exam. After this would come 4 open water dives of varying difficulty. I had one to one tuition which was great except that she would keep exclaiming that I was doing very well for a 50 year old! I was surprised at how difficult it was to swim properly with all the gear on.Tiring but enjoyable. Unless we are stuck here for too much longer, I hope to complete the course in the Canaries or Caribbean.

We have met lots of people and the social calendar has been quite full. This week I think, we will only have had one evening to ourselves. If we have to be stuck in a place, this is a lovely place to be.

We had hoped that a window was opening to cross to Madeira this coming week but after a careful look at the conditions this again seems unlikely. 6 -7 m swells at the mo, 2 days of N winds followed by SW winds caused by a gale near to Madeira. We think that we will visit a few more places along this coast while waiting.

Under Way!

Rigging anyone?