Sailing to Selvagem Grande Madeira

After our plans to stay overnight at Ilhas Desertas were scuppered by the weather, we decided to carry straight on to the Selvagem Islands, the other group of islands that we had permission to visit, which are about 150nm further south and a little west and which are therefore a bit more awkward to get to. As a result, they are rarely visited and so we were delighted that the Portuguese authorities had approved our application to anchor at and land on Selvagem Grande. [Ed: we had approval number 54 this year]. The other islands in the group are well and truly off limits to all at this time of year but we felt that the reef-strewn Selvagem Grande would be both interesting to navigate close to and, assuming we didn’t hit any rocks, fun to explore ashore.

170 nautical miles meant an overnight passage and so we quickly settled into our watch routine. We had already agreed that we needed fire up the generator and work the watermaker at some point on this leg and so decided to do so early on. Both had been idle whilst we had stayed in the marinas on Madeira and the watermaker in particular needs to be used regularly or be pickled [Ed: flushed through with a preserving solution to kill bacteria and other nasties whilst it is not in routine use]. The generator fired up okay but, the moment we switched any 240V electrical loads on, the RCD circuit breaker tripped. Low power equipment worked intermittently but the high power items tripped the RCD straight away. It was all very peculiar because we had used everything except the watermaker whilst we had been on shore-power in the marinas. It looked like one of our immediate priorities when we got to Lanzarote would be to find a Fischer Panda generator engineer.

We used the passage to practice the SSB/HF radio comms procedures which we will use when we cross the Atlantic. Charlotte, my daughter, has kindly agreed to act as a communications coordinator. So, overnight we used the SSB/HF radio and its modem to send her a short e-mail with our position and a bit of news about the passage. At the same time we got a weather update and sent a position report which shows up on the link on the ‘where are we’ page of the blog. Charlotte then sent the message on to interested family and friends to keep them posted on our progress. It seemed to work well but is obviously much slower than the instant communications that people normally take for granted.

The early hours of Sunday morning saw the wind drop off and so, to keep making progress, we motorsailed. Overnight we had overtaken Chardonnay of Solent and in the morning it was nice to see her sail 3 miles away, on the horizon, paralleling our track. The morning also brought some fishing success with a small tuna reeled on board and popped in the fridge for our evening meal. We’d also gained some extra leaves on our basil seedlings which I was nurturing to replace the large basil plants which had not survived on board whilst we had our trip home from Gibraltar.

Selvagem Grande   

By midday Selvagem Grande was in sight growing from a small smudge on the horizon to a well-defined island shape.

The east side of Selvagem Grande(top) and the southern side (bottom)   

Our pilot book warns of numerous uncharted or poorly charted reefs around the islands and recommends approaching down the eastern side. The one approved anchorage is on the southwestern tip of the island and so this sage advice meant a few extra miles for us. However, we thought it prudent to follow the piloting notes and it had the added bonus of us seeing much more of the island’s coastline as we approached and circled it.

Ensenada das Cagarras   

Tucked in on the southwestern tip is Ensenada das Cagarras, the anchorage. We piloted our way around the island until we were directly south of the western headland and then turned north to feel our way into the anchorage.

The anchorage was not as we had envisaged it from the chart or the pilot book and there were already 2 yachts there ahead of us. The rocky bottom meant that deploying a tripping line was essential and we took 2 goes at anchoring before we were happy that we were secure and clear of the other yachts. Chardonnay of Solent arrived as we were deploying the anchor for the second time. Whilst we were slightly distracted by anchoring, they let us know that they were not happy with the location and would be carrying straight on to Lanzarotte, which was a shame because we had been looking forward to hosting them on board.

The wardens’ buildings including Portugal’s most southern post office and a prison!   

Research yacht Sea Dragon   

We were anchored furthest out of all of the yachts in the anchorage and I think that, yet again, we had been deceived by the scale of things because of the cliffs above us. There was actually a lot more space here than we had initially thought when we approached and another yacht joined us later in the evening anchoring right under the cliffs on the western side of the bay. At the base of the cliffs in the eastern part of the bay is the wardens’ building which includes Portugal’s most southern post office. It has also recently been expanded to support a permanent police presence on the island, a small hangar for the police boat and [Ed: get this!] a prison cell. It’s all part of the Portugese authorities plan to affirm that these islands are ‘islands’ and not unpopulated ‘rocks’. Apparently, the Spanish authorities covet the islands and want ownership to expand their fishing grounds and potential natural resources. They claim that the islands are just unpopulated rocks and so feel that they have a legitimate claim to ownership of them. It all seems slightly reminiscent of Gibraltar!

Once settled we called the wardens on the VHF radio to check in. We were advised us that they were quite busy fitting a new kitchen [Ed:  !] and sorting out a problem with a damaged boat (hence the presence of the Portuguese Navy in the vicinity) and so we were requested to come ashore in the morning when we would be able to join a guided tour of the island with the crew of the research yacht Sea Dragon [Ed: anchored just inshore of us]. With our clearance to stay for 2 nights that plan was perfect for us. Instead of going ashore, we went snorkelling in the bay amongst hundreds of fish, including a shoal of about 400 of a type which was about a metre long and which looked suspiciously like it had teeth! Typically, I didn’t have a camera with me to capture the moment. Afterwards we settled in for a lovely evening on board watching the adult shearwaters circle above us whilst we ate the small tuna I had caught that morning.

Selvagem Grande, Madeira, Portugal