Lisbon to Madeira
23rd September to 3 October
Steve and Annie arrived at the marina at midnight with their
luggage soaked from the thunderstorm while it was being unloaded from the
plane. It was the last day of the two weeks of thunderstorms we had suffered but
now the weather would no longer be a constraint on when we left for Madeira.
Steve arrived full of enthusiasm and in UK work mode. He
would have left the next morning to sail to Madeira if we had not slowed him
down. My plan was to make sure that we were all ready for the journey and had
allowed three days preparation for so that everyone was comfortable with the
journey ahead - 500 miles over 4 days out into the Atlantic.
We agreed the menus for 6 days (to allow for contingency)
and spent the first afternoon shopping. It needed all four of us to carry the
shopping back onto the boat. It was even more difficult to find places to put
all the shopping and meant rearranging half the boat to make space that would
be accessible on passage. A well-deserved beer and some tapas in the marina
restaurant that evening which turned out to be the best meal we had in Portugal.
I had scheduled the Wednesday for finishing off jobs on the
boat, the most important of which was to get the water maker in full service so
we could use it on passage. We had to put in some diverter valves into two of
the pipes (inlet and outlet), run some cleaning chemicals through it and then
sample the water. It did not go well!
Firstly, we put one of the diverter valves in the wrong
pipe. I say we because it makes me feel better but it meant that we did not
have enough pipe to correct the problem and so we sent Catherine and Annie into
Lisbon to find some replacement pipe – an hour to get there, an hour to find the
shop and an hour to get back just to get 2m of pipe.
Then we cleaned the water maker with the special chemical
and it made no difference to the smell of the water – it had a distinct diesel
smell although was crystal clear. And finally we found a leak in the water
maker high pressure system which would mean taking the whole unit out of the
boat. Not something to be done before we set sail on Friday.
We did some other jobs which did go well but was over
shadowed by the water maker so it was not a good day and the meal in the
evening did not help either. The restaurant was an old railway car which looked
fabulous. When we asked the waiter for any recommendations to eat, he suggested
the cold meat and cheese. That should have told us something (like the chef
could not cook) but we went ahead and ordered from the menu. The food was more
interesting than edible and we should have gone with the waiter’s
recommendation – not much you can do to cold meat and cheese!
The shake down sail on Thursday ensured that we were comfortable with
the boat and try some man over board manoeuvres before we sailed to Cascais for
the night.
Steve and Annie in relaxed mode |
On Friday morning (26th), Catherine and I took
the boat out of Cascais while Steve and Annie slept in until they were due on
watch. We sailed in a good wind for the first 6 hours before it died almost
completely and we were on engine once again. In fact we motored for the next 24
hours with some gentle waves and light winds which was a good introduction to
ocean sailing for Catherine, Steve and Annie.
Next afternoon, the wind picked up and we were under sail
once more. We had to put in two reefs overnight as the wind steadied at Force 6
overnight with the wind on the quarter but now we also had a further set of waves
on the beam which were steep and made the boat rock uncomfortably – it was like
sleeping in a washing machine. The crew looked wrecked after the last night
shift and both Steve and Annie fell asleep in the Saloon after finishing their
watch. Waves died down the next morning and we were back to pleasant sailing
conditions until the Sunday morning when once again we forced to motor due to
light winds.
Skipper ready for action |
Everyone more relaxed on the Sunday as we had got through
one bad night unscathed and the boat came through it without any drama. In fact
the boat seemed to relish the bad weather and it was only the crew who were
shaken, if not a little stirred by the motion.
On Monday morning, Catherine asked why we were not stopping
at Porto Santo on the way as it had a good write up in the Pilot Guide. It made
a lot of sense to stop there since we would arrive at 8pm and in the light
rather than at 1am in the dark into Madeira. What a good decision. We arrived
at 7:30 and by 8pm we had ordered the taxi after having a gin and tonic on the
boat.
The restaurant we eat in was excellent, the fish was the
best we had eaten for a long time and we sitting out in tee shirt and shorts.
We even found a nice bar for drinks afterwards and we made up for the last 4
days of not drinking at all.
Up late the next morning as we were all tired and had headaches
which we put down to dehydration (rather than the late night drinking). Sorted
out Steve and Annie’s flight back from Tenerife which we decided would be the
best island to head for and we walked around the town in the afternoon. Back to
the same restaurant in the evening and a different bar for late night drinks.
No taxis around when we left so walked back to the marina.
Steve attracted a couple of dogs who followed us on the way back with such
enthusiasm they were not going to be given the slip. Steve tried to lose them
by running down to the beach down a long ramp, wait and then run back while they
were not looking. The dogs did not follow Steve up the ramp and we thought we
had lost them until they came up the steps just in front of us so we carried
on. They ended up sitting on the pontoon staring at Steve’s cabin with great
expectation that he was going to come out and play but they we gone by morning.
On the Wednesday morning we sailed to Madeira in force 5/6
and boat sailed beautifully despite the steep waves from behind. It was a
really enjoyable sail and we arrived at Quinta do Lorde marina at 4:30pm. Nice
marina but understaffed and it took an hour and half to complete the check-in.
Holiday village attached to the marina is a ghost town – looks nice but no-one
is there. We checked out all the restaurants but it felt like an imposition to
be the only people in the restaurant for the night so we eat on board.
North Side of Madeira |
Our final day we spent in Funchal which is the capital. One
day was not really enough to see everything we wanted to but we visited the
market and the old part of the capital as well as many of the other tourist
attractions. One day more would have been nice and two days too much.
Off to Tenerife the next day so we had a relatively early
night and we were all relaxed about the 300 miles journey south.
Congratulations on making the long sail. What foody delights did you have on the crossing? did anyone catch any fish to supplement it?!
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