Tuesday 6th November 2012  29:49.83N 015:56.47W

We left Madeira yesterday morning anticipating the return of north easterly winds to take us down to the Canary Islands.  It seemed at first as though we had misjudged the weather as we were soaked by torrential rain and spun round by winds in the squalls which continually changed direction.   Then, after motoring away from the island, the rain started to dissipate and the wind settled into a strong north easterly, driving us south at 8 knots for the next 24 hours, even with two reefs in the sails.

 

We reached Selvagem Grande, the largest of the Selvagem (Salvage) Islands at 11.00 this morning and marvelled at the clouds of shearwaters flying around us effortlessly skimming the sea’s surface. Selvagem Grande holds important breeding colonies of both shearwaters and petrels, protected by two resident wardens. Unfortunately, the large swells made it impossible to contemplate going ashore in the dinghy, and even anchoring for a few hours close to the rocks would have been a nerve wracking experience.  So we continued towards the Canary Islands.  Another visiting yacht came to the same conclusion.

 

Having arrived in the benign influence of north-easterly winds, we were disappointed to find ourselves motoring south in almost no wind, accompanied again by heavy rain showers. Thus ends our visit to Portugal which has been very mixed.  From the happy optimism of graduating students in Peniche to the empty houses and apartments of the Quinto do Lorde marina development in Madeira: The Madeira Archipelago was saving its sunnier disposition for another time, but had allowed us a taste of good sailing and friendly people.