Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 9

We motored, and motored…..and motored. In fact we didn’t stop motoring until about 0900hrs on Thursday 12 September. Part way through the night at watch changeover, Nicky had thought we had enough wind to sail but once we had the sails up, the wind dropped away again. Still, it gave us the opportunity to move the pole from starboard to port, setting us up nicely for when the wind did actually return from the northeast. And, at 0900hrs, after more rain showers (what a joy!) there was enough wind to sail. We set full main and poled out genny and, later, the staysail sheeted centrally to reduce roll, and bustled along at about 6kts with the countdown to Porto Santo firmly in our sights.

The skies were still rather cloudy, with the odd rain shower disrupting and then augmenting the wind as it blew through, but the air temperature was a very balmy 25°C (a hot 28°C in the cabin) and we broke out the shorts for the first time in a very, very long time!

Disappointingly, the number of rain cells increased as the afternoon progressed. Consequently, the wind was more disrupted and our speed dropped, and all the whilst Georgina, the Hydrovane, needed to be tended more to keep Blue Velvet heading in the right direction. But we continued to make progress, just not as quickly as we would have wished.

Passage Statistics
Position at midday 11 Sep: N35 10.16 W015 42.16
Position at midnight (0001hrs) 12 Sep: N34 06.31 W015 58.17
Midday to midday distance through water: 146 nautical miles (average 6.1 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 140 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 143 nautical miles (average 6 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 136.5 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 1204.5 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 65 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 9