We said goodbye to the Azores on September 28th and made our way to the Madeira group over the last 5 days. It wasn’t a horrible sail: it rarely rained, the nights were clear, and although very queasy, we were vomit free for the first time since leaving Canada (insert high five). We had a steady breeze the whole trip and there was quite a bit of traffic on the water to keep us entertained. We saw several freighters that may have been coming and going from Gibraltar, a sea turtle, and a number of plastic buckets! How can you be bored when there are so many plastic buckets to look at? Apparently submarines frequently “exercise” in the waters between the Azores and Porto Santo so Adam was geared up for the possibility of seeing one but sadly we did not. Half way through the trip Flemming, our self steering wind vane (our driver), broke one of his legs. I was cursing him at the time for not being able to do his job, I believe I even wrote some nasty things about him in the hourly log, but Adam discovered that he was swinging wildly at the back of the boat and that is why he wasn’t able to keep his course. Adam was able to macgyver him into shape with some webbing and a large twist tie and he sort of worked a bit after that. Needless to say we will have to have him repaired before we leave Madeira.
Currently we are anchored off the beach at Porto Santo and plan to spend a few days relaxing and swimming in the clear blue waters before heading to Maderia proper. Well that’s what I plan to do anyway; Adam has a lot of dishes that he needs to catch up on.
Currently we are anchored off the beach at Porto Santo and plan to spend a few days relaxing and swimming in the clear blue waters before heading to Maderia proper. Well that’s what I plan to do anyway; Adam has a lot of dishes that he needs to catch up on.