Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 1

We slipped from the Kinsale visitors’ buoy at 0635hrs on 3 September and motored out past the now very familiar sights of the harbour.

Hurricane Erin, and a succession of follow-on gales, had delayed our planned departure by a few weeks and so we were really pleased that there finally seemed to be a workable window for our passage south. The delays had meant that instead of heading towards the Azores we had changed our plan and were now intending to sail directly to Porto Santo in the Madeira Archipelago. A shame as we have not yet visited the Azores but there wasn’t enough time to see them and then get to the Canary Islands in time for flights home that we had booked.

Why stay in Kinsale and not move to France, Spain or Portugal? Well, there’s a pod of orcas that are attacking yachts from the Straits of Gibraltar all along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, as far north as Galicia (with the odd foray into the Bay of Biscay). Two more yachts were attacked in the last few days, this time outside Cascais, the entrance to Lisbon, and one of the yachts was sunk. To avoid this risk, we want to pass Portugal and Spain west of the 10 degree line of longitude as there have been no reports of orca attacks that far west. Hence waiting for the right weather window for the much longer passage south.

We are on or way but this weather window is not without its complications. The various weather models have been at odds with each other for the past few days but are now painting a similar picture. It looks as though we’ll have a couple of days of good sailing but then be hit by a gale when we are level with the middle of the Bay of Biscay; not exactly the perfect passage weather!

However, if we stayed in Kinsale until this gale has passed, there’s another immediately behind it that will passing closer to southern Ireland which would delay us in port for another week or more. If we brave the 24hrs of the gale when abeam Biscay, we’ll be far enough south to benefit from the really good northwesterly wind which follows it and which should be very helpful for completing our passage to Porto Santo.

Summer Cove

Charles Fort

So, as we passed the last landmarks in the harbour it was with a certain amount of trepidation that we headed out towards the open sea knowing that in 3 days’ time we’d be in a full blown gale. Normally we have avoided that sort of situation.

The Old Head of Kinsale – our last glimpse of land until we arrive in the Madeira Archipelago

Once off the coast we got the slightly lumpy sea and the 20 knot winds we were expecting after the last lot of unsettled weather passed east and the wind had veered from SW overnight to W this morning. That was a good thing for us because we could set a course directly towards our intended destination. Blue Velvet took it all in her stride and we made good progress on a comfortable beam reach with a double-reefed mainsail, full staysail and a variable amount of yankee. The Old Head of Kinsale slipped away behind us; our last glimpse of land until we arrive in the Madeira Archipelago in 9-11 days’ time.

So, all that we had to do was settle into our watch roster and get used to life at sea again. It always takes me a few days to adjust to the motion whereas Nicky is rarely affected by motion sickness.

Passage Statistics:
Position at midday 3 Sep: N51 09.0 W008 46.2
Position at midnight 4 Sep (0001hrs): N47 41.1 W009 12.4
0630hrs to midday distance through water: 36 nautical miles (average 6.5 knots)
0630hrs to midday GPS distance towards destination: 103 nautical miles
0630hrs to midnight distance through water: 36 nautical miles (average 6.3 knots)
0630hrs to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 97 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 109 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 10657 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 1