Lyn's Log, 10th October 2005
Atlantic, Porto Santo

Porto Santo.
N33º03', W16º19'
3,293 miles.

On Wednesday 28th September we set off from Portugal with good conditions apart from a fog bank a few miles off the coast. The winds and swell came from the east on our starboard quarter, but were slowly increasing. With a three hour watch system it is possible to get seven hours’ sleep daily by grabbing some sleep during every off-watch period, other activities being preparation, consumption and clearing up of meals and drinks, and supporting the on-watch person with major sail changes or temporary repairs to equipment. But in rough weather sleep can be difficult and the best berth is on the saloon seat being held snugly in with the lee-cloth. On watch, a lot of reading is done, or listening to music with headphones as long as we refrain from singing along and disturbing the other!

It turned out to be something of an epic passage, ahead of hurricane 'Vince' - see Pooped off Portugal.

Porto Santo is a small volcanic island about 30 miles northeast of Madeira. Much of the island is steeply rising rock with little habitation or roads on the north side. On the south side is a sandy bay over 3 miles long with the harbour at one end (see pic) and the main town of Porto Santo about a mile along the bay. The town has most facilities and, a bonus for us, an interesting triangular ‘square’ which is advertised as a free wifi hotspot. In the evenings especially, several people would be seated around the low walls crouching over their laptops. Obviously the idea is that one will sit at one of the many surrounding bars and drink at inflated prices while using the service, but it is not mandatory.

On first sight the steep rock face looked like bare sandy coloured rock, but actually was covered by dead grass. There were many fissures in which the odd eucalyptus tree grew and there were a few crops of cacti, but I found the rock very interesting. There were so many different types and colours, yellow, red, black, brown, although I think the predominant variety was sandstone. This had weathered into some fascinating shapes. There was a stretch of shallower land across the middle of the island on which there was an airstrip and a golf course. Here too was a little farmland, but theisland is too dry to support serious agriculture. Older terraces looked abandoned. The main industry is tourism. Many people visit from Madeira for the beach and the tranquillity. Every day there was a two-hour bus trip all around the island, stopping at various viewpoints for people to get out and take photos.

There has been a lot of new development lately, perhaps EU funded; some estates of holiday homes, which rather spoil the view, and an area beyond the marina of half a dozen restaurant and bars with their tables and chairs stacked inside and never opened while we were there. Beyond this was a specially constructed sand-covered 5-aside football pitch surrounded by stone seating with sunshades above, and changing facilities, and next to this, a course laid out for motorbike/quad-bike/go-kart racing. Again it all seemed underused and had a strangely abandoned air. The road along the beach from Porto Santo was led past the marina to a car park by this new complex, at the end of which lay one of the floodlight lampposts which apparently never got erected. A track continued from here round the foot of the mountain, through a short tunnel cut through the rock to the other side of the island. We enjoyed a walk along this, walking for about an hour until we reached a tiny, remote bar providing much needed refreshment before the return trip (and where we had an amusing adventure).

The weather was really odd at this time. How's this for an unusual weather warning, received on our Navtex from Las Palmas?

COASTAL WARNING NR/2478/2005. CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN SOUTH COAST. RISK OF LOCUST PLAGUE MOROCCO, MAURITANIA, ALGERIA. ALL SHIPS IN MARITIME AREA, SHARP LOOK OUT FOR LOCUST PLAGUE.

Then, as we felt ready to leave, a huge depression formed off Madeira. The winds switched to the southwest, direct from Madeira instead of towards it, and gradually increased to storm force. This was was Hurricane Vince, the first hurricane ever to form in the eastern Atlantic. For a couple of days we had terrific lightening and thunder, and then very strong winds with showers of rain. Andrew developed a sore throat and headache, and the next day he was sick. At least he didn’t feel he was holding us up as we weren’t able to go anywhere. We fixed one or two little things on the boat and cleaned and painted a few more rust spots. We took the spinnaker pole apart to free the pin which had stuck at one end, and ease the stiffness of the telescopic action. The maintenance guys at the marina hadn’t any pop rivets of the correct size to refix it, the best they could do was secure the end fittings by tapping in some bolts. So our stay in Porto Santo became rather longer than expected, but we finally left on 10th October for Madeira.