Fairwinds Goes South . . .

Adventures in a small boat on a big sea

The wind was very gusty as we went down the Rio under genoa, then as we got into the shelter of Yellow Mountain it went light and we got the main up. Coming out of the shelter of Graciosa we found a solid 12-15 knots of breeze from the NE, with ocasional stronger gusts that we think were being funnelled through the other small islands to the North. The sea was choppy but the repaired Navik held our course as we bounced along under all plain sail at a brisk five and a half to six knots. By 19.00 the wind had dropped a little and steadied, the motion was less rolly and we decided we would keep the full main up overnight.

Graciosa and Lanzarote astern

When twilight arrived I switched on our new LED tricolour only to discover that it was causing massive interference with the VHF, rendering the radio unusable. We decided to leave the VHF on but to turn the volume right down. This way it was ready to use if we needed it - we could temporarily switch the tri off - and we could still receive DSC messages. I was not impressed though - Ultraleds must know about this, and a masthead VHF aerial is pretty standard on most yachts.

It turned into a very pleasant starry night as we headed NW at a steady 4.5 to 5 knots under full sail.

Weds 9th May 2007 - At Sea

I tacked the boat (using the Navik) at exactly midnight to avoid a ship whose bearing stubbornly refused to change. Shortly after this the wind began to die away, until by the end of Kathy's watch at three o'clock we were bobbing around aimlessly under a half moon on a calm sea. We motored for about an hour, then managed to sail again for a while again, making 3 - 3.5 knots in 5-8 knots of wind. Every time the wind dropped below six knots the sails would begin to spill and slat, and when just before five in the morning our speed dropped to below two knots we fired up the engine again.

The engine stayed on until lunchtime. Nothing much was to be seen, although we did make a brief detour to investigate what we hoped was a fender (which we are short of) but which in fact appeared to be either an unexploded shell or some kind of bollard floating nosecone up at a jaunty angle in the water. It looked sinister, and we decided we wanted nothing to do with it and motored smartly away.

Not long after this the wind got up to eight to ten knots so we hoisted our canvas and began sailing again. The wind was rarely above ten knots, but in the calmer seas we continued to make good progress through the afternoon.

Shortly after three o' clock a pigeon made a carrier landing on the coachroof and began to make itself at home. We were not sure which direction it had been heading in when it decided to ride instead of fly, but it was now definitely going NW towards Madeira.

It was a plump self-confident bird wearing port and starboard lightweight plastic rings, obviously a racer scrounging a lift. Kathy was not happy, as she has a mild bird phobia and the pigeon seemed determined to get into the cockpit and then hopefully down below. I got the impression it was no stranger to yachts as it seemed thoroughly at home. I wedged a plastic box in place on the port sidedeck, furnished it with an old t-shirt and put in a couple of small dishes of muesli and water then chased the bird towards it. Eventually it climbed in and settled down, tucking in eagerly to the muesli - but when dusk began to fall it made further determined efforts to find more salubrious accommodation on board and had to be spoken to sternly. Eventually it settled down for the night.

Percy the Passenger Pigeon

Just before sunset we received a DSC distress message - but it was from a vessel off Las Palmas, nearly two hundred miles from our present position. There were no details. Otherwise little happened. The moon had yet to rise and the wind was dying away and going more Easterly.

Thurs 10th May 2007 - At Sea

At midnight we were just over half way to Calheta. The wind was dying away and the engine went on again at the start of my watch at 03.00. The four o'clock log entry reads:

'Motoring. Moon up, main up, pigeon abed.'

It was a quiet night. At nine o'clock in the morning we were still motoring. Percy the pigeon was up and taking his morning constitutional on the foredeck.

Later in the morning I mucked about with a poled out genoa, but the wind was under four knots so we enjoyed forty minutes peace and quiet while we topped up the diesel and rolled about, then we fired up the engine again. I had a solar shower in the cockpit in preparation for our return to civilisation. Our noon to noon run was 102nm and we were now 202 nm out of Graciosa with 84nm to run. If the forecast was right we would probably have to motor the rest of the way,so we reduced the revs to 1600 and our speed to 4.2 knots to make sure we arrived in daylight as we have no detailed plan for Calheta.

Noon position plots

As dusk aproached we thought we could see land or clouds on the horizon. A breeze sprang up from NNE and we had just got the sails up when we realised we were sailing into a dense fog bank. I scratched my head and went below to check something I had read in the pilot. Yes, there it was in black and white:

'Sea fog is virtually unheard of in Madeiran coastal waters'

We decided to keep sailing as long as possible, as at least you can hear the thump of your doom coming to meet you. The fog was low down, with our masthead almost clear, so we hoped any traffic would spot the tricolour from their bridge. We switched the main VHF off and monitored channel 16 on the handheld, which we figured would be better anyway for localised traffic with its shorter range. Apart from a few whistling fishermen we heard nothing as we sailed slowly through the gloom towards, hopefully, a brighter future.

Fri 11th May 2007 - Arrival at Calheta, Madeira

With Kathy on watch at midnight I lay down fully kitted in foulies and lifejacket and slept on the saloon floor while the 1st mate peered futilely into the gloom. At about two the fog finally cleared and we began to make out the lights of Funchal about thirty miles away. We now performed that well known Irish sailing manoevre beloved of the Kilmore Quay Vega sailors and 'put the hammer down', completing the last thirty-five miles in a little over six hours in calm seas with a crescent moon.

Percy the Passenger Pigeon left us just after eight this morning, just as the rising sun cleared the towering cliffs of Madeira. We were less than two miles offshore. He circled twice to gain height then appeared to set off in the direction of . . . the Canaries, which we think was where he was heading when he landed on us about 80 miles out of Graciosa! We can only assume he had failed to notice the direction the yacht was travelling in when he decided to hitch a lift, leaving him blinking in the morning sunlight after his second night with us and saying 'Oh . . . . bu**er . . . . looks like Madeira again . . . '

Sunrise over Madeira

We got into Calheta at quarter to nine and tied up on one of the hammerheads while we had breakfast, then went up to the office. Form filling was efficient and we were soon moved to our berth and securely tied up. We tidied up the boat and organised the laundry, then went out for lunch and beer. The afternoon was spent sleeping, then it was shower time and out for our tea as well . . . eating out is cheap here, and we were feeling lazy. It is warm, the crickets are singing and Madeira is just as civilised as we remember.

Sat 12th May 2007 - Calheta, Madeira

A quietish day - got the washing back - ironed, which seemed a bit unnecessary, but rather nice. I worked on a client's website while Kathy went to the supermarket to top up the supplies and get something for tea. We checked the weather and it appears that the wind is getting up again from about Tueasday onwards, with the stronger winds spreading quickly across to Santa Maria in the Azores. We need to have a serious think about whether we are going to leave on Monday or maybe wait here another week in the hope of bettter winds.

We wandered round the marina in the early evening, then after tea and a small snooze we woke up to music and went in search of it. A trio - two singers and a keyboard - were performing outside one of the restaurants, so we sat and had a beer and listened. When they packed up we moved one bar down to the Mad Era restaurant and bar, where the entertainment was a troup of four dancers jigging about first in the gallery upstairs and later on the top of the bar while the harassed bar staff pushed drinks and money back and forward across between their legs. It was a late night, but hey, it's Saturday.

Dusk, Calheta Marina

Sun 13th May 2007 - Calheta, Madeira

NetMadiera came back online this morning after a frustrating time yesterday afternoon and I got a lot of work done, caught up with email etc.

After lunch we went for a walk up to the centre of Calheta and up the barranco to the main road to Funchal in search of the fabled bus stop and hte mythicl garage where you can top up your vodaphone. We found neither, visiting instead a victorian sugar cane mill which still crunches its way through the local cane harvest once a year. It is open when not running - visitors can just wander round the giant oily machines, up and down dangerous steps past all manner of sharp things in a way that just wouldn't be allowed in the litigation-minded UK. Continuing up the hill we came to the main road - it emerges from a tunnel at a roundabout, then plunges immediately into another tunnel the other side of the roundabout. There was still no sign of the garage or bus stop, but we came across a large modern art exhibition center on the top of the cliffs which afforded stunning views along the coast past the marina and inland up to the cloud-draped mountains. It is a verdant and vertical landscape; the vines are in leaf, flowers abound and astound with their colour and variety, water is running everywhere and the overall impression is just so green and fertile after Graciosa. Giving up on the bus stop we wandered back down the hill, stopping off at the little bar under the sugar cane mill for a fruit punch (made with cane sugar spirit - delicious but probably a little strong) and so back to the boat.

A Vertical Landscape Top of Calheta

We had another look at the weather. Leaving on Monday for Santa Maria would keep us just on the leading edge of the spreading stronger NE winds, but we would have swell over 2m right on the nose and 20 knots just forward of the beam. There is a high probability that we would arrive wet, tired, bruised and disillusioned with ocean sailing in small boats, which would be a shame after such a pleasant run up here from the Canaries - so I think we will be staying here for the next week, even though the marina is a little pricey. It is lovely after all, and the WiFi is free and available on board so I can earn some money while we are here.

Mon 14th May 2007 - Calheta, Madeira

Today's after lunch excursion took us up the road out of Calheta Beach to the NE. We were assured there was a bus stop half an hour's walk in this direction at Arco de Calheta. It was a lovely walk up with the sound of running water everywhere running down in channels from the terracing on the almost vertical hillside above the road. We came out at a bridge just above where the Via Rapida emerges from its tunnel after more than thirty minutes spotted a sign for Arco de Calheta, a sprawling settlement that straggles half way up into the mountains. Another twenty minutes or so of strenuous uphill past some beautiful big houses with spectacular flowering gardens then up a winding levada threading is watery way through small banana plantations we did eventually find a bus stop maybe two and a half thousand feet above sea level. Exhausted by an hour of strenuous uphill walking we decided this is not a practical way of starting a day out in Funchal and resigned ourselves to getting up to get the six thirty bus into Funchal tomorrow from in front of the hotel. We had a beer in a roadside cafe before starting back down, and by the time we got back to the Marina another cold beer was essential. Kathy made spicy chicken and then we went out for a quick drink before an early night, setting the alarm for just after five.

Running water everywhere

Tues 15th May 2007 - Into Funchal by Bus

We got up just after five and caught the half past six bus into Funchal. It got light soon after we had climbed up to Arco de Calheta and the views as we followed the old road rather than the tunnels of the Via Rapida were as usual astounding. We were sitting opposite the central door, and at one point when I looked across and down through the glass panel at the bottom I could see no road or cliff, just 3000 ft of air straight down. We arrived in Funchal at eight o'clock and went to the Golden Gate cafe for coffee and cake, as nothing else was open.

We were directed to a computer shop by the tourist office (the main reason for the trip being to replace the defunct 12v power supply for the laptop). Yes, they had such a thing, but only an adjustable voltage model - and it was at their other shop. They were unable to point out the location of this shop on a map but we gathered that it was well out of town and a car was required. They then directed us to another local computer shop, which we failed to find the first time but did eventually locate after a couple of circuits of the area. The assistant here told us we would have to go to one of the out of town shopping centres, so it was back to the tourist office to enquire about buses then a No.1 up past the hotel zone, a trip familiar from our first visit to Funchal over ten years ago. We found the shop in the Madeira Forum shopping centre and ended up spending E140 (£100) on a very fancy Targus device that offers adaptors for every laptop known to man and operates from AC, 12V or on aircraft! It was a lot more than I had anticipated, but it was the only 90W 12V supply so we took it and made our way back into town in a state of shock.

After that the day picked up a bit. We had delicious grilled sardines for lunch at a snack bar obvously patronised by locals and then visited the excellent 'Madeira Story' museum. It is amazing how much has happened on this small island, and how properous it has been throughout most of its history. After the museum we wandered back down to Funchal marina for a leisurely coffee and pondered which bus to get back . . . none of them actually went down to Calheta Beach as far as we could see, so we would in any case have to walk from Arco de Calheta or Estrela. We took the 16.35 because although it allegedly arrived at the same time as the 16.05 it took thirty minutes less.

The Madeira Story

Out on the Via Rapida we began to suspect that all was not well with our chosen conveyance - and what was more alarming the fault appeared to be in the braking system. Coming through the last tunnel before Riberia Brava the sound of the automatic retarder rose to a crescendo then stopped, replaced by a much more alarming banging. We came out of the (downhill) tunnel with the driver standing hard on the brakes then swung off onto a side road and stopped.

A shiny new bus arrived just fifteen minutes later. We were very impressed, but less impressed when we were taken a mile to Ribeira Brava then chucked off. We were then put on the much older vehicle that had left Funchal at 16.05, which I think we would probably have had to change onto at Ribeira Brava anyway . . . it is almost impossible to find out what is going on with the buses if you don't speak Portuguese, but then that is half the fun.

The driver of this third vehicle was reluctant to take us because he was not going down to Calheta Beach so we would have a long walk. We eventually persuaded him that we were aware of this, and after a grumpy altercation with an elderly couple during which he repeatedly consulted his watch and made it apparent that he was now very late we crashed into gear and shot off up the cliff track that is the old road West.

Even by Madeiran bus journey standards this was a hair raising experience as the driver made up time by refusing to slow down for blind corners, merely sounding the horn then pulling right across the road and almost into space to get the massive vehicle round the hairpins. Vehicles, people and animals hurtled by with a harisbreadth to spare, but it was obvious that this guy had done this before and lived to tell the tale - a most impressive piece of driving.

We realised we could shorten this mad ride by fifteen minutes if we got off at Arco de Calheta instead of Estrela, so we stopped the bus and started back down yesterday's route back to the marina, congratulating the driver as we left on his exhilarating driving technique. The walk back to the marina was very pleasant, punctuated as it was with a cold beer in the cafe opposite the church in the bottom part of the settlement.

Back at the boat I tried the new adapter with Kathy's laptop and nothing blew up, so mission accomplished and a moderately entertaining day to boot.

Weds 16th May 2007 - Calheta

Quiet day getting a little bit of work done and recovering from all the walking about of the previous three days. May be going levada walking on Friday if the weather is OK.

Talking of weather, it's not looking good for the forseeable future . . . having failed to leave on Monday it now looks as though Madeira is a bit of a trap, becoming the centre of a deep depression by early next week. Check out in particular the swell heights forecast for Mon/Tues . . . 5m - eek . . .

Windguru Madeira 16 May

Not a good outlook

Thurs 17th May 2007 - Calheta, Madeira

Got a lot of work done in the morning chasing up unpaid invoices and making inroads into the backlog of URL submissions for BlueMoment. In the afternoon we took a walk up a cliff via one of the side streets in Calheta and admired the view down into the main street in the valley and across to the houses and terraces clinging to the opposite side. Most of the houses here have one story at the back and three or four at the front. On the way back to the marina we stopped for a pineapple poncha at the bar under the Engenhos (the sugar cane factory mentioned in last Sunday's entry).

Engenhos & Church, Calheta

Fri 18th May 2007 - Calheta, Madeira

Went to book the levada walk and the lady in the office of the tours company suggested that as the tour guide was German and would be speaking German we might get better value if we hired a car through their office beside the supermarket. She assured us that the Risco and 25 Fontes levadas were easy to do on your own, so we decided that is what we would do. Car hire cost us E45 including E12 extra for comprehensive insurance, so we figured that even with petrol we would be cheaper and be able to do see some more of the W end of the island as well. Kathy also pointed out that we would be able to use the car to get gas bottles, as the marina does not have it.

Sat 19th May 2007 - Calheta, Funchal, Rabacal etc . . .

Picked the car up as planned . . . and that was pretty much the end of the plan.

The day started with another Camping Gaz fiasco. The marina told us the filling station at Estrela had it. They directed us to a supermarket nearby, which had gas but no Camping Gaz. Some poor teenager who could speak English was dragged out of his Saturday morning pit to speak to us; he told us that the marina in Funchal was the only place we would get it. By now it was half past ten, so we hit the Via Rapida and sped Eastwards throught the tunnels at 140kph.

Amazingly we got into Funchal in about half an hour, parked the car in the marina and were directed to a chandlery just across the road. We were back in Estrela by about a quarter to twelve, still in plenty of time to find the road up to Rabacal and go for our walk.

Navigating from a tiny pocket map we had got in the tourist office in Funchal we headed West then turned up what we assumed must be the road for Rabacal. Wrong. It narrowed, hairpinned a few times, then shot up vertically to a dead end. We turned round and retreated, much to the amusement of one of the locals standing chatting with an old man in a strange trike-like conveyance. His amusement turned to amazement when, due to some bizarre twist of the topography, our second attempt to find the road to Rabacal brought us up to the same dead end.

Eventually we retreated into upper Calheta and found it - signposted Rabacal, strangely enough. It was a secondary road, which in this case meant a poorly surfaced single track road with no passing places and a gradient that required first gear for much of the ascent. After squeezing under one fallen tree then past a couple more we began to wonder.

We came to a haripin with a house on it. Various minibuses were parked - either this was the start of a walk or the end of the road (or both). The map showed the road continuing however, so we pressed on. The crumbling tar was replaced by cobbles, and we rose out of the fragrant eucalyptus forest into dense fog on a bare hillside. It was probably just as well we couldn't see the view as I changed down into first repeatedly for the steepest hairpins, hoping the wheels would continue to grip the streaming cobbles.

Finally we erupted onto the main spinal road and turned right for Rabacal. The road down the two kilometres or so to Rabacal is closed to traffic now - too many tourists in hire cars got into difficulties - so we parking at the top and ate our lunch looking out into the void at the road sign vibrating madly in the gale of driving fog. It was, as Kathy remarked, rather like being on the top of Cairngorm on a bad day. After lunch I put my boots and lots of clothes on and walked as far as the gate. That was enough - I was soaked through, and the driver of the shuttle bus confirmed that things were no better down at Rabacal itself, and that the radio had prophesied rain later.

The view over Rabacal

We abandoned any idea of going for a walk and headed for Porto Moniz, only dropping out of the fog on the last 1000ft of descent to the coast. This village at the foot of the cliffs at the NW tip of Madeira had changed a lot since our last visit ten years before, with lost of new building and hundreds of tousists milling about. No doubt the tunnelling of the new Via Rapida from Sao Vicente has made a big difference. We had a coffee then headed back towards the sunny South coast. There really are two sides to Madeira . . . almost immediately past Ponta do Pargo the fog vanished and the sun came out. By the time we had snaked our way down the cliffs to Paul do Mar the sea and sky were blue, the sun was cracking the flags and people were swimming in the sea. We should have come here for our walk - we found the bottom of a magnificent cliff path up to Prazeres, but by now it was too late and we were too tired. After a leisurely people-watching refreshement we got back in the car and drove throught the tunnel to Jardim do Mar, the next village down the coast. This is another attractive little place, with tiny mosaiced 'streets' barely three feet wide and a splendid new esplanade no doubt funded by the EC taxpayer. We had a wander round, a juice and a coffee then decided to call it a day and headed back to the marina.

Clouds over Porto Moniz Slipway, Paul Do Mar

It was Saturday night again, and we ended up watching the dancers in Mad Era. A late night, but we aren't going anywhere tomorrow . . .

Sun 20th May 2007 - Calheta

Still no prospect of a pleasant passage to the Azores any time in the near future, and it now looks unlikely that we will be there by the beginning of June. The low that has been causing all the trouble may be moving up towards Finisterre with the wind dropping towards the end of the week, but it is going Northerly or even North-westerly. If we are to have a 500 mile beat we will wait a bit longer for the sea to go down.

The boring bit is that we are the only transient yachties in the whole marina - social life zero.

Mon 21st May 2007 - Calheta

Not much of a day - it rained a bit, was dull and nothing happened. Took the opportunity to finish off some odd bits and pieces of work and make a few minor upgrades to BlueMoment.

We also switched the main VHF set on to check the interference problem . . .and is worse than we had originally thought - the bulb appears to have broken the radio. I know it sounds incredible, but I can;t thingk of any other logical explanation for what has happened.

When we first noticed it we switched off the tricolour and the interference stopped. (The radio was, of course, on Ch16, the default) . When we switched the bulb back on the interference started again. It is sufficiently loud at all volume and squelch settings to render the radio unuseable.

However . . . I just tried it again and now there is the same interference on Ch16, but it is permanent with nothing else switched on, and switching the tri on and off makes no difference. However, other channels (6, 8, 66 etc) seem to be OK - no interference - until you switch the tricolour on, then the same interference starts up on that channel, sounding the same as the (now permanent) interference on Ch16.

It looks like the last time we switched the light on it with the radio on CH 16 did permanent damage to a circuit in the radio and Ch. 16 is now U/S, rendering the radio a bit useless. I have written to McMurdo telling them about the problem with Ch16 (but not mentioning the bulb) and maybe they will know what is wrong with it.

It is of course possible that there are two separate problems here, but it is all a bit strange and disappointing.

Tues 22nd May 2007 - Calheta

The GRIBs are looking a bit better for a departure maybe as early as Friday. Feeling more optimistic, so went out for a meal at the restaurant at the end of our pontoon. The couple who run it are S. African, and we chatted to them a bit before moving on to Mad Era for a couple of small beers. It turns out our barman there was S. African as well. Apparently a lot of Madeirans went to S. Africa in the 50s and 60s, and now a lot of their kids are coming back because of soaring crime in SA. The barman told us horrific stories of houses being gassed with sleeping gas under the doors and waking up on the floor because everything was gone, even the bed.

Weds 23rd May 2007 - Calheta

The GRIBs have taken a turn for the worse again . . . maybe a Sunday departure now, but we will check again tomorrow. There seem to be a steady run of depressions coming close North of the Azores.

Tried the VHF with the emergency antenna and got interference most of the time on CH16 - although the severity seemed to vary with where Kathy held the antenna. Seems there must be a problem with the set, irrespective of whether or not the Tricolour is causing interference.

Tipped the last 20 litres of diesel into the tank and filled all the cans with 52 litres at a cost of 53 euros. We could motor 80% of the way to Santa Maria now, but not against the Westerlies that are suddenly starting to show on the five day predictions for the Azores. Have also done a backup of the computer, sorted out the chargers and spare batteries for the HH VHF now the main set is defunct, and inspected and washed the anchor chain as we might even be using it in the next month! Did some of the astro-nav course later, but I am struggling a bit - sent the module off uncompleted as I got a bit stuck on one question. I suppose if you are doing it every day it gets quicker.

Sun-Run-Sun plot

Thurs 24th May 2007 - Calheta

Tried to sell a bit of advertising on BlueMoment in the morning and caught up on email.

In the afternoon we walked up the hill to Arco de Calheta and wandered round a bit before having a beer and walking back down.

Wandering back down the incredibly steep street that seems to be used by most of the through traffic we stopped at the curious little bakery-come-bar we had noticed on our previous visits. It is perched half way up the hill, a tiny place with a lot of bread for sale, a Coral pump and two tables. We were immediately accosted by a drunken local who kept trying to buy us beer, but we made signs to the serving wench - who was shaking her head - indicating that we preferred to buy our own. He insisted on sitting down and speaking to us even though the only word we seemed to have in common in either language was 'beer'. He attempted to remedy this by teaching us the Portuguese for 'ashtray', so we finished our beer swiftly and headed off downhill.

Steep street, Arco de Calheta

Fri 25th May 2007 - Calheta

Re-did the question I had messed up in the astronav sun-run-sun module . . . I reckon if I have to use this for real then half my day will be spent working out where we were twelve hours previously!

In the early evening we walked up to the bar under the Engenhos for a pre-dinner aperitif of cane spirit fruit punch. When we got back to the boat there was quite a lurid sunset . .. Kathy took some pictures, but there was too much contrast, so instead today's picture shows me Skyping someone. Skype has been fantastic for keeping in touch with people - Skype Out phone calls (calls from the PC to real phones) only cost 1.7 eurocents a minute to anywhere in Europe, and of course PC to PC they are free. If we have a wifi connetion on board we usually use skype at least once a day.

Skyping

Sat 26th May 2007 - Calheta

Well, we should have been getting ready for departure but . . . I asked the guy in the chandlers if he had any VHF sets - idle curiosity really just in case he had something cheap. He asked what the problem was and said he knew/had a man who was a whiz with VHF. Kathy and I discussed it and decided a working VHF was quite a high priority, so now Senor Goncalves is coming on Monday morning and departure is postponed until Monday or Tuesday.

Of course, having arranged this I then switched on the VHF and it was fine - you could turn the squelch right down to the mid position on CH 16, same as all the other channels. The LED bulb still caused interference when switched on though, and even with it off after the set had been on for a while the interference came back on Ch16 unless the squelch was turned all the way up. We have had this problem intermittently before on Ch16, we now realise - from before we ever fitted that damn bulb.

Another discussion on staying and seeing Senor Goncalves or phoning and putting him off and leaving as planned followed. I had another look at the weather and it is looking a bit windy and unsettled for arrival at Santa Maria on Friday as the tail of a strong depression heading NW towards Iceland sweeps across the Azores, so that helped us decide - we are now staying until at least Monday afternoon and maybe Tuesday. Let's face it, we don't really have a tight schedule at the moment - although we would like to have some quality time in the Azores before we start to think about heading home. To Mad Era again at night to watch the dancers.

Dancers in Mad Era

Sun 27th May 2007 - Calheta

Well, we have now cancelled our visit by a local VHF expert as I discovered loads of water in the deck connector for the VHF aerial at the foot of the mast. Dried it out and re-made the connection and the VHF is sound as a pound . . . BUT . . . still total interference when the LED tricolour is on . . . so I have been up the mast and replaced it with the old bulb

I would like to say it has all been a learning experience, but really it's all just been a PITA. Getting used to shinning up the mast ladder though - the whole operation took maybe five minutes, and I remembered to check the lights were working while I was up there.

We may leave tomorrow afternoon - but we are busy trying to outguess a big low that hasn't even formed yet. The GRIBS are predicting a huge low swirling past the Azores next weekend with a tail of strong S-Westerlies extending down over the last fifty to a hundred miles of our route on Friday and Saturday. If it stays exactly where they are predicting we will be alright planning for a Sunday arrival. Simon Jenks, the forecaster who posts on YBW, was explaining yesterday how the resoution of these files isn't good enough sometimes to predict sudden deepening and very strong winds . . . which makes me reluctant to get too close to the edge of the horrible bits as predicted by five or seven day GRIB files.

Read tomorrow's gripping installment to find out if we went . . .