Passage to Madeira - Day1
Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Tue 28 Sep 2010 09:57
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28:09.10,
36:58.86N 11:24.27W
We had a couple of false starts trying to leave the
portuguese mainland - on Saturday we planned to start our trip to Madeira, we
left the anchorage on a hot sunny day with light winds - only took us about 5
miles to hit 30knot winds and 3.5 metre waves despite the forecast for half that
. . . . so we went back to Cascais, an hour later we were sat back in the
anchorage - at least it isn't a bad place to be!
Next day we tried again - but had a bailout plan of
going to Sesimbra - the forecast was still for force 5 winds but we had
constant 6's and the direction would have meant a soggy and tiring ride so off
south about 20 miles to Sesimbra we went. We had a night anchored in the
bay there (the only boat) listening to the wind howling down the
mountainside, but by morning it was calm and time for attempt number 3.. .
. . .
Set off at 10 o'clock yesterday morning with the
wind as predicted - force 5 all day and a nice 4/5 overnight we were shooting
along but much more comfortably as the waves had dropped to a couple of
metres. Last night we had about a 3/4 moon and it never really got dark
which was good - the moon so bright that it was casting shadows, this
morning the wind has dropped off and it is a hot sunny day - unfortunately we
have just had to put the engine on for a bit as the wind is too light to sail
but it should pick up later. We have been trying to get far enough
west to miss a sea-mount that is marked on the chart - it is 20 metres deep so
no danger of us hitting it - but it must be better to avoid it as the sea at
this point goes from 4000 metres to 20 metres in the space of a few miles - it
must be some mountain!
We haven't done bad on covering ground - 140 miles
in last 24 hours. Just had fried egg and
veggie sausage sarnies for breakfast, and susie is about to go to bed for a few
hours. Lets hope the nice weather stays with us!
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