Not Lanzarote

So - off we set for Lanzarote  - 9am Sunday morning forecast 15 to 20 knots of wind from the quarter. Ha - 30 - 35 knots on the beam.. Soon we were getting stronger gusts and when the wind instrument read over 40 knots, Scruffbag looked at me and said, "Back?" I concurred so we returned to port.

2pm same day and the wind appeared to be dropping so we set off again (hindsight is a wonderful thing and with it we would not have set off). The winds were still strong but were forecast to drop to practically nothing by Monday so we were confident that if we went south for a while to be more comfortable then we could turn and head for Lanzarote once they dropped a bit.

Sunday night - strong winds
Monday - strong winds
Monday night - strong winds
Tuesday morning - dropped a bit but still over 20 knots

Flying fish commits suicide by jumping on to deck

 By now we were closer to the southern part of the island chain and setting a good course for La Gomera, whilst Lanzarote was still 218 miles upwind.

Abandon passage to Lanzarote and head for La Gomera. Agreed.

Winds did not really drop till Tuesday evening and  later that night we slowed right down in order not to arrive in the dark. We were worried as we had not booked a berth and we had been told the marinas get pretty full this time of year but Scruffbag knew of a good anchorage if we could not get into the marina.

Tennerife looked good as we passed it at sunrise.

Fortunately our fears were groundless and we booked into the marina for 15 days. Friends  told us this island is better than Lanzarote and Scruffbag loved it when he was here 18 years ago so here we are in the hot sun ready to enjoy it.

A second ocean sail over - another windy and stressful time for me but another delightful island at journey's end.

A week in Madeira

After the  strong winds and fun times of the sail to Porto Santo, the gentle winds and motor sail to Madeira was a bit of a walk in the park. The only thing of note was the very rude crew of the cargo ship we encountered. When we wanted to change course and head for the marina here at Quinta do Lorde on the eastern tip of the island, I tried to call up a cargo ship which had been behind us and gaining on us for a while since we were about to change course and cut across his bow. This would have involved him in a slight course change. Clearly this was too much trouble for him and he (rightly) assumed that if he ignored us we would just have to slow right down and let him pass. In this case size clearly mattered!


So - Madeira - a truly beautiful island - hot but often humid and more rain than we have seen in a while but so verdant. I had never really thought before but I guess all our garden plants are native somewhere. Here we have hydrangeas, agapanthus, lillies of all varieties, swathes of cammomile to name but a few and it is not even flower season. Terraces are cultivated everywhere and the mountain scenery is stunning.

 We went up in a cable car from the centre of Funchal, which called upon all my courage.

At least we walked down rather than pay 30 euros (skinflints ever) for a sled and were glad when we realised the sleds only went one third of the way down anyway. Our calves paid the price and I would like to say ah huge thank you to the two young women in the car who gave us a much needed lift for most of the last two thirds of the way,

Further challenges followed - an 11km walk along the levada ( complex system of irrigation channels. around the mountains, constantly maintained). For those of us who suffer from vertigo, the narrow paths with their steep drops presented a huge challenge.

This was, however, amply rewarded by the views and the glorious scenery

Today we visited a whaling museum to learn about the island's history of hunting the sperm whales from 1941 to 1981 - a horrible industry but one which thankfully has not existed for some time and has now been replaced by education and conservation.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here and look forward to our next stop - Lanzarote - with hopes for fair (and not too strong) winds.

How to make tea for 2 in strong winds

• Take 2 cups and place them in the sink (this means spillage is contained)
• Add teabags (only attempting to open cupboards in a lull to avoid bruising)
• Boil kettle
• Pour water into cups (you need a lot of water as much will go directly down the sink)
• Add milk (don't be too fussy as to how much - some is good)
• If you take sugar make sure you have stolen some sachets from cafes as these are much easier to manipulate
• Hand tea to person in cockpit one cup at a time. Make sure he has kitchen roll to hand.Make sure you have kitchen roll to hand. Kitchen roll is your friend -have a huge supply.

As you can see our crossing from Portugal to Porto Santo was a bit of a rough ride with unforecast top end of force 6 gusting 7 quite often. That in itself would not have been bad but the waves were large and the underwater topography meant that they were quite confused. Sleep was not really an option and we realised that our preparations were lacking as we stuffed towels into cupboards to stop bangings and rattlings. By the end of day 3 things had calmed down but we were too tired to enjoy what could have been a reasonable end to the sail.

We arrived at Porto Santo to find that the 2 yachts we had set off with had arrived a few hours before us and were there to welcome us and take our lines as we berthed alongside one of them - the crew - Bernie and Gerda are great company. If I had a euro for every time  Bernie says, "this is such a good life", I would be a rich woman.

Porto Santo is a dramatic, volcanic island with a small town about 20 minutes walk from the marina. As we go south it gets warmer and, finally , now the sea is warm. We have been walking swimming and drinking with friends and generally having a great time, though my right arm has not yet recovered from the bruising it sustained on the journey here.

Bus trip round the island later today and 35 miles to Madeira tomorrow where we will spend a fair bit of time at anchor.

Last stop in mainland Europe

The journey to Sines was fine - the compulsory lobster pots all over and light winds with several pods of dolphins to smile at. Also our first flying fish of the trip followed by said dolphins.

Sines is great - a really nice Portuguese town, friendly marina and helpful people. Rui, who is an electronics expert who has a boat here and works at the hospital, came over in his lunch hour and spent 2 hours fixing the AIS connections and then returned in the evening to complete the job. He would not accept payment and he was really good company too. Hence our last bottle of good malt whisky went to a good cause and we were happy to part with it.

Scruffbag fixed the loose wire in the alternator so that it can recharge the domestic battery and a new ariel from UK arrived so we now have main GPS working too.

We returned to Porto Covo, where we spent a happy summer 33 years ago and found that the fishing village had become a tourist town mainly catering foe surfers and camper vans as well as lots of Portuguese tourists. It was very tasteful and retained a lot of its character. We found our beach unchanged and we spent a happy afternoon jumping the Atlantic breakers as we did when we were younger and slimmer.Happy memories and thoughts of a close friend who died a few weeks after we left.

Tomorrow we are off to Porto Santo - a 500 mile sail. $ other boats leave Sines at the same time headed for the same place so no doubt we will all meet again. Our Hungarian friend left today - they live on Lanzarote and have given us lots of information about their island and its anchorages.We look forward to warmer seasas they think I am crazy for swimming here/