Vulcanos

Oct. 28^th Today Rutger and I rented a car and explored the Island a bit.

We drove to the South and checked out the bay we'll be anchoring this weekend. It looked really nice and, for he first time we won't be the only boat anchoring...

We'll be staying over for the weekend and return to Puerto Calero on Monday to have the rigging of the genoa halliard fixed. Antonio in Lagos suggested to use the uphaul as a halliard for the genoa and that worked out very well. However, I can't use the originally halliard as a uphaul for the spinnaker pole. So when I went over to check on how to refill the gas canister, I saw this van with all this advertisement about rigging, electronics, fitting and stuff. I asked the guy if he could help me with the rigging. The boss was a German technician and came down to have a look. He suggested a better way so I didn't actually had to rig a new halliard and he could help me... only not before Monday. He also told me that with the ARC and stuff, I would not have a chance to get somebody at Grand Canaria to fix it. Anyway, if we leave Lanzarote Monday, we'll still be in time for Andy to catch his plane, so that's what we'll gonna do then.

Also, we can get together with Phil Sommervile and his partner. They happen to fly in on Sunday for a short holiday. Phil was our instructor at Cornish Cruising and was also in the picture to join us for the crossing of Bisquay, so that would be nice.

Anyway, after having checked out the bay, we drove up North to the national park with the vulcanos. The drive itself was along the coastline with the swell breaking spectacular on the rocks.

After a while we came at the national park where we did a 40 minutes bus tour through an amazing landscape. Just black lava stones and rumble with no vegetation at all. The rocks were even darker then the asphalt of the road.

We ended at the restaurant where there were several holes in the ground down to the still very hot lava. To show that, they poured water into one of them and a few seconds later it turned into a geyser. In another hole they threw a bunch of twigs that was set on fire a few seconds later. At one point you could see the reddish glow of the lava. Over it they had mounted a rack and used it for a barbeque. You couldn't really look into it because of the heat.

The whole Island is just one big lump of lava with none to very little vegetation. That's also because it hardly ever rains. Not even enough to provide drinking water for the inhabitants.

Anyway, it was a very interesting tour in a moonlike landscape :-)

Puerto Calero

We made landfall at Lazarote in Puerto Calero, a great marina with all the facilities we were up to like excellent showers and a laundry :-)

After the storm was over, we had a really great sail. With a 10 to 15 kts wind on a beam reach we made 7 to 8 kts in speed over ground. The plan was that Rutger would do the cooking at least once on this trip and with the sea state calmed down he made a great carbonare!

As the gribfiles indicated, the wind decreased to 5 kts, backing to SW. With still a 60 nm to go we decided to start the engine and set it at 1500 rpm so that we would make landfall next morning instead of in the middle of the night.

At around 9.30-ish we got into the marina. Time is getting confusing. The Canaries are on UT time but they're actually a bit too far west for that. When I checked in I also had to ask the receptionist what date it was.. When you're at sea for 5 or 6 days, you loose track of days and dates.

Anyway. Today, Rutger and I will rent a car to explore the Island. Andy has a real trouble with his foot so he'll stay on the boat. He has to see a doctor fort that as soon as he gets home.

By the way, the fish we couldn't identify turned out to be a dolphin fish.

On our way to Lanzarote - Canary Islands

Oct. 24th @ 22:45hrs - Position: 31°10.907N/012°47.826W

We're 5 days at sea now since we left Lagos, Portugal. All is fine and we are having a great time.


As posted earlier, we had to change our plan of destination because of the low that was coming in from the Azores. The best course was going South. That way we would be on the best side of the depression. That course was directly heading for the Canaries. We waited until the evening to decide whether we would keep this course or tack to get to Madeira. When I downloaded a new gribfile it showed that we would have to steer directly into the depression if we would tack to get to Madeira so we decided to keep our course to the Canaries.

However, there was a secondary low developing rather quickly that wasn't om the gribfile yet. When the wind kept picking up I downloaded a new file and that showed a SW wind increasing to 30 kts. Still this was the best course to steer; you don't want to go West into the northern section of a depression. East was the direction the depression itself was heading and North would take us to the primary depression. And, after all,  South is the best option if you can stay East of the center.

We just made it to stay East of the center but came really close. The barometer stayed just 1 millibar over the lowest on the gribfile. The wind picked up to 35 kts :-o With the second reef in the main and the staysail ½ furled in, the boat was in perfect balance and so we sailed close reach into the night. Dinner was changed to noodles, cooking was no real option anymore. At day break the wind had increased to 40 kts with a spectacular sea state. Good thing that you can't see the waves at night …. :-o

Beating a force 9 in the Atlantic by hand-steering was originally not in the plan but nonetheless quite an experience. I changed the watch system back to 4 on 4 off with Rutger's watch overlapping the last half of Andy's and the first half of my watch every other watch. I slept on the floor of the saloon in case an extra hand was needed. We managed very well and apart from the moments you'd wish someone would turn off the wind for a moment, we were okay.

Next morning I downloaded a new gribfile that showed that we were coming out of the heavy wind section, By noon the wind should have decreased to 15 kts and so it did. By that time we had all the sails back on and were speeding with 8 kts over ground to Lanzarote, the first of the Canary Islands we could get to. After 5 days we all are very well in for a decent shit, shave and shower :-)

Change of Plans.....

Oct. 23rd - Position 33°44.074N/012°52.291W

We were heading for Porto Santo and the sailing was nice after the second day. The wind was fine, about 10 kts and from the perfect direction.

However..... the wind picked up to 25 kts true and veered to SW. As we were on starboard tack to avoid some heavy rain, I downloaded another weatherfax. It showed that the depression that was forecasted for Portugal was indeed heading due East. That would mean that we had to deal with over 30 kts straight on the nose … for another 170 nm.

So we decided to keep going South, avoiding the hardest winds and that was in fact the course to steer to the Canaries. It'll be a bit further but we're good on food and water :-)

So far we have been able to avoid any rain. The plan is to keep it that way, and we'll sail around the Canary Islands for a few days.

On to Porto Santos, Madeira Archipelago

Oct. 22nd, Position 35°16.596N/11°10.899W

After seeing Monique out at the station, right after lunch Andy and I went to the supermarket to get the stuff for the trip, while Rutger cleaned the boat and topped up the water tanks.

It's been 2 days now since we left Lagos and are about half way to Porto Santos, a small island just 20nm NE of Madeira. We didn't spend much time in Lagos so we thought it might be nice to make an extra stop over at Porto Santos.

Just after we left Lagos, we were visited by the Portuguese Coastguard.They called me over the radio and soon after they came over in a dinghy. It was just a routine inspection and they were very polite and friendly. They didn't search the boat or anything, but checked all the documents, licenses, safety equipment and then left again. Over the radio the skipper told me I had to report to the maritime police at Porto Santos or Madeira to buy a tax... I have no idea what kind of tax he was referring to .. I'll see it when I get there...

There is a bit more wind so we had a good sail so far but every now and then we also have to motor a bit. The weather is great, sunny and the nights full of stars until sunrise.. :-)

The storm that was forecasted does seem to move NE after all, but still,I don't want to take any risk. The forecast in general could be a bit more specific. On the navtex there was a gale warining for the area between 25° and 7° W and parallels 35 and 45; that is a huge area, about 600 by 600 nm... Anyway, we're at the far south of this area and lows always move to the North, so we'll be fine.

It's very quiet and peaceful in this part of the ocean. Occasionally a freighter or tanker passes, but in general we have no pings on the sea-me. So we can actually switch the sounder on to watch out for other vessels What a difference with before, if we turned on the sounder then it looked like as if constant Morse code messages were coming in...

So, a good moment to write this short update, killing time of my night watch :-)

Hello and goodbye Lagos

It was a nice trip to Arrifana anchorage. The wind picked up enough to sail and we hoisted the spinnaker. With only 12 kts of wind we did better on speed then when motoring :-)

Also the swell picked up and by the time we entered the bay, the swell was as in the pilot book, … making the bay the place to be for surfers …

The boat was swinging like a roller coaster but the waves were spectacular!! Rutger regretted very much not to have taken his surfboard with him … :-o

We could not barbeque in this kind of movement and Andy managed to fix an easy dinner. We couldn't stay for the night, the anchor alarm kept going off and the rocks didn't look too comfortable .. So we decided to move on after dinner to Lagos.

When I came on watch at midnight, we had just passed Cabo de Sao Vincente. Actually we were just south of Sagres with a nice and sheltered bay where we could anchor.

It would be nice to get to Lagos in daylight, so we headed North and dropped the hook for the rest of the night.

After a nice swim, Rutger and Monique, we left for Lagos, with... 15 kts of wind :-)

The wind died again after an hour or so....

Anyway, Rutger went back to fishing again and caught a beautiful fish. It looked like a tropical fish and we could not find it in the book.

We arrived at Lagos around 4 pm and planned to stay there for a couple of nights. When I checked in at the marina, I asked if they would know someone to look at my furling system. They gave me the number of Antonio. He was in fact working on a boat on the next pontoon and came over to have a look. He went up the mast and when he came down again, it was fixed :-) He told me to use the uphaul as a genoa halliard because of the better angle and that was it.

When we were moored, our neighbors told us there was a big storm forecasted with massive rain for coming Sunday. A very deep low at the Azores was heading due East, which is a bit out of the ordinary. They're supposed to go North-East. Anyway. I downloaded the gribfiles at Ugrib and Zygrib and they were consistent with the forecast. So we decided not to stay in Lagos but leave the other day. That would give us time enough to go South and West to Madeira and avoid this bad weather.

So unfortunately we won't get to see much of Lagos … It looks like a very nice place. Anyway we had a very nice dinner in the old center. It was Monique's last night onboard .. :-(

She did manage to get the card of Pedro the fado singer though, so she'll have something to dream about on her flight back :-)

October 16-18, From Oeiros to Arrafina

Oct. 18th , position 37°46.674N/008°52.501W

We left Oeiros oct. 16th, heading for the most beautiful bay of Portugal some 30 nm South.

When I plotted the waypoints however it turned out to be at least 55 nm …. meaning we would arrive a bit late to have a barbeque... :-( Something ha to be wrong! I could not have made a mistake like that.... and I didn't … I had put in the waypoints for the wrong bay :-o  The bay we were going to was Portinho de Arrabida and not Praia Vasco da Gama, that would be our next destination...

The trip to Arrabida was nice but unfortunately there was too little wind to sail, we motored the whole trip.. Getting in was a bit tricky as we had to avoid the Baxio do Alpertuche, a drying sandbank, that could have

moved or grown over time... Because we did try and sail for a bit, in spite of the light wind, we did arrive in the dark so the directions from the pilot were a bit hard to follow. Distances are harder to estimate in the dark, but Rutger managed very well to set out the course on the plotter and with a close eye on the depth meter, we got to the exact right spot to anchor :-)

Next  morning at sunrise it was indeed a very beautiful anchorage ! Just when Monique wanted to go for a swim, the maritime police came by, telling us that we were anchoring in a national park which was not

allowed. They were very polite and I chose not to explain that the pilot book said otherwise. Since it already was 11 am local time, we left the bay after Monique had a little swim around the boat.

This time we were on our way to Praia Vasco da Gama just near the town called  Sines :-) We trashed the fish on our way out and tried to catch a fresh one. We had no luck with the fishing, nor with the wind … and had to motor the whole way.

Since there was no wind at all, I was hoisted up the mast to check the jammed top swivel of the genoa furling. It turned out to be broken … I cut the line from the genoa to the swivel so we can use the genoa but we have to hoist it like in the old times... Maybe in Lagos I can replace the broken part, otherwise I'll have it fixed in Las Plamas. In the mean time we can always use the staysail if we have to reef.

At Praia Vasco da Gamawe anchored and had a real nice evening and a nice barbeque :-)

This morning we left around 9 am local time, heading for an anchorage at Arrifana. Again with not enough wind to sail but, just as I was typing, the engine was turned down because Rutger caught another Bonito :-) So tonight we'll have a barbeque with a fresh fish !!

Lisboa

We left Ilha da Berlenga at around 9:30 am local time. Unfortunately there was too little wind to sail and it stayed that way the whole day. So we motored all the 53 nm to Lisboa. Well, that can happen...

Early afternoon though we finally got some luck in the fishing stuff. The rattle on the fishing rod went off and then it stopped again. There was not a lot of tension on the line but Rutger wanted to check anyway. When he hauled it in there was obviously something on the hook but it seemed not a fish, it didn't resist at all... But,... it was !! We got it in and with a smack on the head it was dead. It looked like a mackerel but when we checked the book later it looked more like a bonito. Anyway, while I was getting his guts out, Rutger had set the line again and by the time I was finished he got another one, and another one.... I cleaned them all and put away the rod... three was more then enough. The biggest one was about 50 cm and the other 2 only slightly smaller...The baby bath I picked up just before we left came in very handy to clean the fish without getting the boat all bloody. After we got in the marina at around 7.30 pm we had a great catch of the day dinner :-)

We moored in the marina in Oeiros, about 10 nm west of Lisboa just at the entrance of the Tejo river. Saturday we left to visit Lisboa. That is Monique, Rutger and I. Andy decided to stay on the boat, working for a bit.

It took us about 40 min by train to get there, it was a nice ride..

Guided by Monique, our onshore navigator and a little help from the lonely planet, we did a magnificent tour that took about whole afternoon. Monique had read something about tram 28 we had to take as a starting point and that was an experience. The trams look a bit like the ones in San Francisco but then smaller. It sometimes drove so close to the buildings you could definitely not lean out of the window!!

The tour we did took us indeed to all the beautiful places. At a flee market, described as the theft market in the lonely planet, we bought a fado cd for a really good price :-)

Of course we wanted to have dinner in a fado restaurant. On the tour we walked by a few and we went back to there later. We did not have any reservations and the first 2 were fully booked....

We were advised to try at Pedro street and there we found this tiny restaurant that had put out all its tables on the little square and there was this woman singing …. fantastic!! It turned out to be a group of 4 singers and two guitarists that played very good. They were singing right in front of our table Moninque fell in love with one of the men....:-) I got his card with his phone number, address and all to send him the video's I made but I have to hide it and check Monique's purse when she's leaving !!

We ended up staying the whole night, missing our train back but whatever.

Taxi's aren't that expensive at all and we had a really great night.

Back at the boat we sat with Andy for a while and after a few more drinks we went to bed. Today we'll sail for a bit to an anchorage off the Praia Vasco da Gama near Sines, about 30 nm South, where we'll barbeque the rest of the fish. It's supposed be the most beautiful bay.... and,... we got wind today :-)

From Ilha da Berlenga, Portugal

Oct. 14Th, position 39°24.496N/009°30.260W; Ilha da Berlenga, 4nm NW of Peniche

We left Leixoes Oct. 12th, around 5 pm heading for Ilha da Berlenga about 115 nm SSW.

Ilha da Berlenga is a group of 3 [very] small islands which according to the pilot book were worthwhile visiting. The trip was okay but we had to motor a lot. Twice the wind picked up enough to set sail. We even hoisted the spinnaker but that didn't last long as the wind died again. For downwind sailing we need at least 10 kts with the swell, even if it's a mild swell.

Anyway we arrived around 3 pm next day and dropped the hook. It was indeed worthwhile :-) The 'main' island has a lighthouse and is inhabited by a handful of  people. The islands are a national park/bird sanctuary with trails for walking. Also there is an old monastery which seemed still in use according to the lights that were on at night...

We launched the dinghy, went over to a small beach and walked around for a bit. We didn't see that many birds but for the rest the view was great. Rutger walked over to the monastery were Monique and I picked him up with the dinghy later. We did a short tour around the cliffs in the dinghy and went into a cave that was in fact a tunnel. `The steering was a bit special because of the funny waves and eddies but we managed to avoid the rocks and the walls :-)

We had a very nice barbeque that night and stayed for the night. The wind had picked up a bit, so we hoped that we could have a nice sail to Lisboa the next day. Actually, we'll be heading for the marina in Oeiras at the entrance of the Rio Tejo. From there it´ll take about 40 minutes by train to get to the center of Lisboa. The plan is to visit Lisboa on Saturday.

The marinas more upstream are very crowded and don´t have any berths reserved for visiting yachts, according to the pilot. Only in high season there might be some spaces open from boats that are away. Cascais is the marina where most passing yachts go to, but that is a pretty long ride to Lisboa - and also very expensive.

Anyway, when we left the beautiful anchorage at Ilha da Berlenga this morning, the wind had died again so at the moment we are motoring, hoping the wind will pick up later ….
However, since we left Scheveningen, we have had no rain, apart form a few lost drops, only sunshine and starry nights and that´s really nice, too! :-)

Birthday in Porto

We arrived in Leixoes oct. 10^th at around 9 pm. Of course we waited till midnight to have a birthday drink but since we wanted to visit Porto next day we went to sleep not much later...

Next morning when I got back from a shower Monique had decorated the boat. That was really nice although it took a hint from Rutger for me to notice it … :-o. Anyway we left after breakfast and took the bus to Porto. The half hour trip was sort of a site seeing ride. It was a beautiful day and warm too. Walking in Porto means going up and down narrow and very steep streets and we had to walk in the shade because of the heat...

Porto is really worth while visiting and with Monique being our on shore navigator we got to see almost all the places that were in the book :-)

We had lunch at the banks of the river Douro that runs through Porto and went on with our tour, crossing the old bridge to the South side. Of course we there visited one of the port cellars ! We went to the oldest one which happened to be founded by an Englishman in 1790, called Sandeman.

Next English spoken tour however was not until tomorrow... so we did the first one that was on and that was in French.... None of us speaks French so apart from the few words we could pick up we were clueless about the story the guide so happily told us. Nonetheless it was nice and for sure worth while to be there and see all the huge barrels full with port. Some of those are itself ancient.

All the guides were of course dressed with the Zorro cape and sombrero so we had about a dozen Sandemans running around :-) The tour included a small tasting session of course. I had only once before drunk port and I didn't like it too much.. too sweet for my taste. This port however was much better!

Because of the heat we took a break several times to chill and enjoy the scenery. The ebb tide runs at an amazingly strength. In the pilot book it said that with heavy rainfall it can get up to 8 kts.

We had no rain but it was close to spring tide and that you could see!

Anyway after having tapas we went for a restaurant for dinner. My desert was served with candles on it which was a nice surprise and Monique had bought me a nice present, ..a Sandeman cap :-).

We took a taxi back to the marina. I must say that all Porto is not expensive at all. The cab ride was only € 13 and dinner for 4 including wine and desert € 70 and a bit.

We had a little sip of port when we got back to end a really wonderful day, and a very special birthday!

Oct, 10th, on our way to Portugal …

We had a lovely night in the Baiona bay. No wind, clear sky with moon and stars and a beautiful sunset. The barbeque was delicious :-)

Next morning we got up at 7am. The weather is great but there's not much wind, about 5kts S/SW

It's supposed to veer to W/NW but not to increase much.

Since Spain is one hour ahead of EST we had a really nice view of the sun rising at our stern while we motored out of the bay.

At around 09:00 UTC we crossed the border and changed the courtesy flag:-) We were welcomed by 15 kts of wind and a pack of dolphins that came playing at our bow.

We had all sails out including the stay sail and did 8 kts over ground :-)

That didn't last long though. After an hour or so the wind dropped to 3 kts and we motor sailed for a while. Then the wind picked up a bit but from the East... it was a broad to beam reach so we set the genaker. By the time we had it set, the wind had backed to North-West so we set it on the pole. That didn't last too long either.... and we were back to motor sailing.

A few hours later we could sail again with the spinnaker this time. This time the wind stayed steady for about 3 hours. It wasn't much but enough to enjoy a lovely afternoon sail,

After 73.6 nm and 13 ½ hrs we arrived in Leixoes and moored up, finding the office to open tomorrow morning at 8 am :-)