Ilhas Desertas off Madeira
Nusquama Sailing Blog
Fri 18 Aug 2023 08:02
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Carina and Peter have just joined us, so together with Rupert we are now 5. We set off from Madeira at 1600 this afternoon setting off with a NE wind towards the amazing Ilhas Desertas 17 NM away in the SE. The islands are uninhabited and a nature reserve
- you have to get a permit to anchor and land. You are asked to contact the islands, Doca Bay, as you arrive on channel 16 which we did but without response. So absolutely gorgeous - nobody else in the anchorage apart from one v small fishing boat. The
water was warm and some of us swam to the shore.
The sail over was also epic - code zero for the entire passage. We were joined by a shoal of yellow-fin tuna - at first we thought they were dolphins but couldn’t understand why they weren’t jumping out of the sea. They seemed huge with very
clear yellow fins - seemed like they were a metre in length but it is hard to judge.
We thought about putting out our fishing line but it was too terrifying a thought - the idea of landing something like that. And fishing is prohibited by these islands.
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