La Linea to Porto Santo

Hi everyone,

We arrived in Porto Santo at sunset last night.  The 4.5 day passage was very pleasant overall.  Unusually there were zero tacks and zero gybes.  We had waited in La Linea for a good weather window for both exiting the Gibraltar Strait and the onward passage to the Madeira Islands.

Zen Again at Porto Santo

Our overall and arrival tracks are shown below.  We stayed south of the rhumb line since we expected lighter winds on arrival and wanted a 'hotter' sailing angle for that period.  Worked pretty well.  The winds varied between N and NE during the passage.

Overall Track

Arrival Track

The graphs for the passage are shown below.  The strong tides in the Gibraltar Strait are clearly visible in the Speed & SoG graph.

Graphs

And here are the vital stats for the passage…

    • Distances/Speeds

        • Route Distance = 576nm

        • Logged Distance = 597nm

        • GPS Distance = 592nm

        • Duration = 4d10h (106 hours)

        • Average boat speed = 5.6 kt

        • Average speed over ground = 5.6 kt

        • Minimum boat speed = 4 kt

        • Maximum boat speed = 8 kt

    • Weather

        • Minimum wind speed = 0 kt

        • Average wind speed = 15 kt

        • Maximum wind speed = gusts to 30 kt

        • Apparent wind angle range = 90 to 150

        • Seas up to 2m

        • Swell up to 2m

        • Mostly sunny with scattered small cumulus cloud increasing to broken

    • Engine

        • Total = 13 hours of which 5 for charging (motoring 7.5% of passage)

Our Iridium Go! worked well in providing PredictWind weather forecasts and buddy boat tracks.  The forecasts predicted NNE to ENE winds and were quite accurate.

PredictWind GFS GRIB forecast

The buddy tracking is a relatively new PredictWind service which we hadn't used previously.  It was fun seeing how sv ReVision II and sv Matusadona were doing.  We used email to keep in touch daily, and to post to the blog.

PredictWind GPS Tracks

As the passage progressed the weather gradually improved.  The western approach to the Gibraltar Strait has strong tides which made the sea state less pleasant.  Once clear of the Strait the sea state improved.  And then the wind gradually eased from 20G25 to 15G20, and on the last day 10G15.  It was marvellous to be out on the ocean and chasing sunsets once more.

Chasing the sun around the world (again)

Once we cleared the Strait we engaged the WindPilot (aka Kazi) and it steered us brilliantly until the end of day 3.  The backing and veering of the wind shows clearly in our track.  We disengaged Kazi to test our new SailnSea SailingGen (aka Gen) hydro generator.  It's mounting arrangement is still a work in progress and we can't run it and the WindPilot together for fear of the two colliding.

The SailingGen gave us over 60Ah during a 24 hour run.  During the day its output was limited by the solar panels raising the battery voltage.  This appeared to fool it into thinking the batteries are full.  Need to figure out a way around that.

SailingGen hydro-generator control panel

Approaching Porto Santo reveals the island to be quite 'craggy'.  Reminiscent of King Kong and Jurassic Park albeit on a smaller scale.

Approaching Porto Santo from the East

We arrived just before sunset which allowed us to do a quick motor around the NATO-built harbour.  In addition to the small marina there are a set of moorings and a small area for anchoring.  All looked busy so we anchored outside the harbour which was a little rally but not bad at all.

Apparently boats at anchor in the harbour sheer around a lot so plenty of room and/or short scope is advised.  We noticed a significant chart offset on the CM93 small scale charts when approaching the island.  The large scale CM93 chart of the SE of Porto Santo was fine, as were all Navionics charts.

sv Matusadona at Porto Santo

ReVision II at Porto Santo

Our buddy boats arrived this morning.  We ferried them in to the harbour to clear in.  We'd all previously submitted our Covid certificates to the marina.  They had checked them with local authorities and declared them accepted.  So clearing in involved a visit to the Marina office and the Police, both in the same building.

It's fantastic to be out in the Atlantic again!