Graciosa to Lanzarote

Hi everyone,

After a short overnight stay in Playa Francesa at Graciosa Island we headed off this morning towards Lanzarote.  We were accompanying sv Matusadona to Marina Rubicon on the south coast of the island.  We both had bookings, or so we thought!

The Admiral on watch

It was a brisk 38nm sail in a N wind of 20G30 knots.  The wind was kicking up a 2m sea, and that was on top of a 2m swell coming down from recent storms further north.  Our route started with a beam reach along the N coast of Lanzarote.  We then bore away onto a broad reach which was much more comfortable down the W coast.  We gybed SE to round the cape, and once past it the seas calmed.

Track

On approaching the marina we called them on VHF ch 9 and they said we had no booking.  We certainly did, but after multiple rejections we decided to anchor.  That took three attempts, the first two appearing to be over rocks.  We moved further west where we found sand and good holding.

Arrival Track

The graphs show it was a short sharp blast...

Graphs

Our night at Playa Francesa was good.  The holding is very good over sand.

View of Lanzarote N coast from Playa Francesa

Twas a great little sail and it was mostly sunny.  We had a couple of very brief rain showers after anchoring W of the marina.

Approaching Punta Peshiguera

Approaching Marina Rubicon

After anchoring and tidying up we emailed the marina.  It seems they'd had a busy morning and the booking we made yesterday hadn't been transferred into their system.  They've said we can go in tomorrow for 3 nights, vice the original 2 nights, which is a good outcome!

Most importantly sv Matusadona's booking was OK and the marina RIB towed them in.  They can now get to work repairing their steering system.

Graciosa Arrival

Hi everyone,

We arrived in the Playa Franseca anchorage at 1050 this morning.  It's good to be in the Canaries!  However where's the sun?  And I thought the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.  It has been raining on us for the last 20 hours!

Approaching Playa Francesa anchorage

Our overall and arrival tracks are shown below.  We strayed west of the rhumb line to stay on a close reach while we had wind.  When the wind died we returned to the rhumb line.

Track

Arrival Track

The graphs for the passage are shown below.  It was certainly a passage of two halves.  A great close reach with a 24 hour run of 158nm for the first half then motoring for the second.  By the end of the first half the boat was covered in a thick layer of salt.  By the end of the second it was totally salt-free!

Graphs

And here are the vital stats for the passage…

    • Distances/Speeds

        • Route Distance = 269nm

        • Logged Distance = 296nm

        • GPS Distance = 275nm

        • Duration = 2d2h (50 hours)

        • Average boat speed = 5.4 kt

        • Average speed over ground = 5.5 kt

        • Minimum boat speed = 3 kt

        • Maximum boat speed = 7.2 kt

    • Weather

        • Minimum wind speed = 2 kt

        • Average wind speed = 15 kt

        • Maximum wind speed = gusts to 25 kt

        • Apparent wind angle range = 50 to 90

        • Seas up to 1.5m

        • Swell up to 2m

        • Initially scattered cloud increasing to overcast with persistent rain

    • Engine

        • Total = 23 hours (motoring 46% of passage)

The Iridium Go! worked well as always.  The prediction for rain on departure was for very little.  That changed every 12 hours, predicting more and more rain.  And that's what we got.  Our Craftsman CM3.27 engine and Bruntons Auto-Prop drove us along nicely at 4.5 to 5.0 knots at 1600rpm, much lower revs than with our old prop.  And the lower revs are sooo much quieter!  At the end of motoring spells like this we run the engine at over 2000rpm for 10-15 minutes to 'blow out' any coke accumulating in the exhaust manifold and mixing elbow.

Most traffic we encountered was about 50nm north of Graciosa.  The half a dozen or so vessels passed at least 2nm clear.  At times visibility was poor, with no discernable horizon.  We used both AIS and radar to identify traffic.

The rain lightened to drizzle for our arrival.  I'm sure the islands would look spectacular in the sun but right now they just look soggy and remind us of Scotland.  The minimum air temperature last night during the heaviest rain was 12C which was a lot cooler than hoped for!

Approaching W edge of Gracioso with Lanzarote beyond

View N over W side of Graciosa

We stayed within VHF contact of our buddy boat sv Matusadona.  They have steering system problems which they hope to fix here in the Canaries.

Buddy boat sv Matusadona

Each evening we held a HF/SSB sked with Kiwi sv Cerulean and UK sv Ruffian.  We started on 4146 and moved up to 6227kHz which was clearer.  They are on passage from the western Canaries towards the Cape Verdes.  It was good to test our SSBs at a non-trivial range of about 350nm.  We'll continue taking part from our anchorage here which will see the range increase.

The star of the passage was the SailnSea SailingGen.  It kept our house battery bank full easily - day and night.  Fantastic.

We expect to move south to Marina Rubicon on the S coast of Lanzarote in a day or two.  Current forecasts say the rain will stop on Sunday.

Madeira Outbound

Hi everyone,
We are currently at 30 46N 015 14W sailing at 6 knots under single-reefed main and triple-furled yankee. The wind is ENE 14G20 and the sky is overcast. The air temperature is 18C and the water 22C. We have 128nm to go to Playa Francesa on the Canaries island of Graciosa. 

Farewell to Quinta do Lorde marina

This morning was amazing. Our batteries are full! That's a first for an overnight sail without running the engine in decades of offshore sailing. The SailnSea SailingGen hydro generator produced 110Ah during the 24 hours of the passage so far.

Another amazing statistic was our 24 hour run of 158nm. That may be our second best ever in Zen Again. She certainly loves a beam reach. On the other hand the crew prefer sailing downwind since it's been a wet and bumpy ride. At times we were 'copping greenies' every few minutes.

The wind started out E by N (just a little N of E) and slowly backed around to almost NE. We had sunshine yesterday afternoon and in the evening until midnight. The moon rose at around 2300 and although only a little more than half full it lit up the ocean nicely. Then more cloud came in to make it dark again.

We're buddy-boating with Moody 376 sv Matusadona on this passage. They departed a few hours before us and we overtook them yesterday. They're now keeping up with us in the lightening breeze.

Looking forward to exploring the Canaries!

Madeira

Hi everyone,

We've now been in Quinta do Lorde marina in Madeira for a week.  After a few days of boat jobs we started exploring the island.  We bussed to the main town of Funchal to explore and visit Mark of sv Tuuletar.  We walked east to take a look at Baia d'Abra from the land side.  And we hired a scooter for two days to tour the island.

The bus trip to Funchal takes about 1.5 hours, sometimes requiring a change in Machico.  Funchal is located in a relatively wide valley on the south coast of Madeira.  Along the sea front is a nice promenade and dual carriage road.  Back from the road is a pedestrian lane running through the town filled with bars, cafes and artwork.

Beach-side road with many pedestrian crossings

We met with Mark of sv Tuuletar and he gave us some tips for exploring the town.  We walked east along the sea front to a cafe overlooking the bay where we had a good, cheap lunch.

View east from the cafe

After lunch we walked along the lane back into town.  It is lined with bars and cafes with lots of colourful artwork on doors and walls.

Door art

More door art

In the lane

From the lane we returned to the sea front to board the cable car.  It runs up to the hill overlooking Funchal.  At the top there are botanical gardens and the famous toboggans which tourists can ride down the streets back into town.  We had afternoon tea instead.

Ascending in the cable car

Afternoon tea overlooking the town

Descending in the cable car

Funchal from the cable car

Back in town we continued along the lane admiring the artwork.

Funchal building decorations

Nice wall art

In the lane

Back in Quinta do Lorde we explored the resort.  It's pretty quiet at the moment, probably due to Covid. The marina seems to be the only part open.  There's a nice square, a small church and a faux lighthouse.

Square with 'lighthouse'

We walked east from the marina to see the eastern extremity of Madeira.  We didn't pick a good time for it with strong winds and rain showers, so only made it to the saddle between N and S coasts near Baia d'Abra.  The N coast is rugged.

View along the N coast

Rugged and colourful offlying islands

Quinta do Lorde from the E

Our first day with the sccoters was showery.  We drove across the island to the N coast and W along the coast to Sao Vicente, stopping at several lookouts and cafes.  From Sao Vicente we drove S across the island to Ribeira Brava.  The coast and the mountains are spectacular.  The roads are either slow and twisty or fast with many tunnels.  From Ribeira Brava we returned home along the expressway which is a dual carriageway with many bridges and tunnels.

Many of the lookouts have shrines

Rugged coastline

Through the mountains

On Day 2 we had much better weather and we could get moving much earlier.  This gave us time to drive right around the island.  We took the expressway W to Ribeira Brava then continued W along the S coast to Ponto do Pargo, the westernmost tip of Madeira.  Along the way we had a look at Calheta marina.

Calheta marina

View E on the SW coast

Farm near Ponta do Pargo

From Ponta do Pargo we drove N to Porto Moniz, at the northernmost top of Madeira.  This road is very twisty and the landscape very damp with ferns everywhere - a very nice drive.  The road emerges above Porto Moniz with a spectacular view over the coast and the town.  From there a series of switchbacks take you down to the pretty town.

View over Port Moniz

View from the waterfront at Porto Moniz

View E from Porto Moniz

Porto Moniz harbour

From Porto Moniz we drove E along the coast.  This road is modern with a seemingly endless series of tunnels through the mountains, interspersed with amazing views over the coast.  We stopped in Sao Vicente again, barely recognising it in the sun after arriving drenched the day before!

Sao Vicente

From Sao Vicente we drove E and tried another road across the island.  Unfortunately it was closed for repairs but we got some good views of the valley.

The valley towards Rebeiro Frio

More artwork at a cafe in the hills

It's been great exploring Madeira.  We'd have liked to explore more of the mountains but seeing the coast was spectacular.

We're now waiting for a weather window to sail to the Canaries.  The outlook isn't great and there is a big low pressure system coming through later next week.  We expect to take a short weather window earlier in the week which will probably require us to motor part of the way.

Trust all's well where you are!

Porto Santo to Quinta do Lorde

Hi everyone,

We're now in Quinta do Lorde Marina on the eastern end of Madeira Island.  It's a nice marina built as part of an apartment/resort complex.  Some of the marina facilities are a little run-down, for example the power outlets on half of our jetty are out of order.  But the staff are friendly and the resort itself is neat and tidy.  There is a small chandlery and a nice bar/cafe.  There is some surge in the marina, even with a very low swell outside, so bring your snubbers.

Zen Again at Baia d'Abra

From Porto Santo we sailed to Baia d'Abra, a mile or so E of Quinta do Lorde.  We stayed there for two nights surrounded by spectacular volcanic scenery.  We sailed across with sv ReVision II and Matusadona.  The winds were light NE for a route to the SW so we gybed downwind.

Porto Santo to Baia d'Abra track

Porto Santo to Baia d'Abra graphs

Porto Santo in our wake

Madeira Ahead

Rocky eastern archipelago of Madeira Island

Entering the Baixa da Aguagem

Spectacular rock and sediment layers

We arrived an hour or so before sunset and the sunlit rocks were amazing.  Many different hues from black to pink and every shade of brown.  Vertical volcanic pillars had driven through the sedimentary rock at varying angles, creating a natural mosaic.

FSC yacht ReVision II in Baia d'Abra

UK yacht Matusadona in Baia d'Abra

Sunset on the rocks

The next day we dinghied around the eastern side of the bay to the natural arch.  Many interesting rock structures along the way.  Above us a constant stream of hikers atop the hill were also enjoying the scenery.

More 'Organ Pipes'

Natural Arch - sadly not navigable

FSC yachts ReVision II and Zen Again in Baia d'Arba

After another somewhat rolly night at anchor we motored the 1.5nm to Quinta do Lorde Marina.  We called them up on approach and a RIB came out to lead us to our allocated pen.  Very well organised.

Baia d'Abra to Quinta do Lorde track

Baia d'Abra to Quinta do Lorde graphs

Approaching Quinta do Lorde Marina

Marina RIB leads you to your pen

We spent the afternoon charging house and outboard batteries, doing our laundry and starting on the boat to-do list.  Baia d'Abra had no internet coverage so we're catching up on that too.  The marina wifi is the best we've EVER encountered ANYWHERE!

We expect to stay here for several nights.  We had hoped to go to Funchal but reports from ReVision II and Tuuletar indicate there are quite a few yachts waiting there to get in to the marina.  We'll bus in to explore the town.