Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 7

Dawn brought a visit from a pod of dolphins

The wind picked up again on Tuesday so we spent most of the day sailing fast with a double-reefed main, full staysail and a few rolls in the genoa. We are very pleased with our new sails, the staysail in particular. It’s a lot larger than our previous staysail, which was based on its predecessors and, we now realise, wasn’t that much larger than our storm jib. When we took commission of it, we did wonder if the new staysail would be too large but, actually, it is the perfect size. When it’s windy (mid-20s+) and we have a double-reefed main, we can sail fast with just the staysail unrolled as a headsail, whereas previously we needed to have a few rolls of genoa out too. Rolling that ‘bit’ of genny away as the wind rose further was always a concern, what with it flogging as it was rolled away and everything else that goes with roller furling a powerful headsail in a strong wind. The new staysail is good to higher windspeeds and rolling it away as the wind increases further is far less of a drama.

Midday, before the cloud and squalls started to arrive

Whilst we had good sailing all day on Tuesday, the sky was a lot cloudier in the afternoon and there were more rain cells around bringing with them concomitant changes in wind direction and strength. A couple of particularly impressive squalls (to around 26kts) were noted in the log…..once they’d gone safely past!

At 1800hrs we passed sailing 3000nm since we left Guernsey in May and at 2200hrs we hit 900nm on this passage.

Passage Statistics
Position at midday 9 Sep: N39 57.18 W014 32.91
Position at midnight (0001hrs) 10 Sep: N38 38.69 W014 45.37
Midday to midday distance through water: 169 nautical miles (average 7 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 163 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 167.3 nautical miles (average 7 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 165 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 914 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 343 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 7

Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 6

The weather remained fine – clear skies and sunshine and, by night, a huge moon which illuminated the darkness so that it almost felt like day. The wind too was favourable. A moderate breeze, 12-15kts, from the northwest, which provided us with a beam reach on the apparent wind and with a smooth sea so Blue Velvetwas flying along. We continued to make good progress, at about 7kts through the water and over the ground under a variety of sail plans as the wind picked up a bit and then dropped down a bit as we approached the half-way point.

Passing that half-way point was the big milestone of the day, that and my getting over sea sickness. I have now been at sea long enough to no longer be upset by the motion when I can't see the horizon. Just like Lord Nelson, I take about 3 days to adjust; slightly longer on this passage due to the storm.

Early evening we were passed by a ship. The load was so high I’d seen it before the AIS signal had been
picked up. Amazing that the load wasn’t too top heavy

Passage Statistics
Position at midday 8 Sep: N42 37.54 W013 57.45
Position at midnight (0001hrs)9 Sep: N41 22.96 W014 17.16
Midday to midday distance through water: 153 nautical miles (average 6.4 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 144 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 156 nautical miles (average 6.5 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 145 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 746 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 509 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 6

Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 5

Overnight the wind picked up again, as expected, so we reverted to three reefs in the main. The seas remained rough and confused, with swells coming in from at least 2 directions. But, appropriately, the sun came out on Sunday morning and the ocean was a beautiful deep ultramarine. The chaotic surface was going in all different directions, pressing up here, sliding up, over and down there. It was nothing like the sea in the aftermath of most storms when the wind has melded the waves into serried, organised ranks, all marching downwind remorselessly. Despite the chaotic seas, it was a beautiful day and it began to feel as if we were getting south. Mid-afternoon there was a surprising amount of shipping too, perhaps bound to/from Bordeaux.

By sunset the sea had setttled down considerably and we were in excellent cruising conditions. We'd got into the weather area that we wanted to with a nice northwesterly wind and were making good progress. Setting off when we did and accepting we'd get hit by the storm has paid off and we are now hoping that this northwesterly wind will stay steady for long enough to get past the Iberian peninsula. In the early evening we ran the generator to make hot water and took advantage of the relative calm to have well-deserved, and much-needed, showers.

Passage Statistics
Position at midday 7 Sep: N44 56.45 W013 06.15
Position at midnight (0001hrs) 8 Sep: N43 43.22 W013 27.49
Midday to midday distance through water: 115 nautical miles (average 4.8 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 100 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 150 nautical miles (average 6.3 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 140 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 591 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 653 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 5

Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 4

We had a slow night. The evening GRIB files confirmed that the system had slowed and that the gale force winds were unlikely to hit until Saturday morning, which was, indeed, the case.

As night became morning and the wind and seas built, Blue Velvet picked up speed, to about 4 knots, and set a better angle to the rising waves. By 0900hrs the wind was southerly 30kts gusting 40. Blue Velvet was quite happy, trugging on over, and occasionally through, the confused seas and life on board was remarkably comfortable.

Shortly before lunch, the wind reached its peak of 36kts gusting to 43, staying at that level until about 1630hrs when it suddenly dropped and started to veer, a little earlier than forecast but otherwise as expected. Nicky was in the bunk but got up as soon as I switch on the engine with the wind indicator now showing just 19kts. Together we spent an hour crawling around on deck lowered the storm sails and bundled them into their bags, dumping them into the forward heads until we reach Porto Santo and can wash, dry and fold them properly. Then we hoisted a double reefed main and the staysail, switched off the engine, and set off southwards at the galumph over an even more confused sea. I don’t think either of us got much sleep off watch. Finally at 7pm we got the big wind shift we wanted, and were expecting, so we were able to head south on track. We should be good for a nice beam reach for the next couple of days and pointing towards Porto Santo too.

Passage Statistics
Position at midnight 7 Sep (0001hrs): N46 00.73 W012 50.27
Midday to midday distance through water: 47.4 nautical miles (average 1.9 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 21.9 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 56.1 nautical miles (average 2.3 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 39.1 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 440.7 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 793 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 4

Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 3

It was pretty calm overnight so, knowing what was coming, Nicky took advantage of the still weather to dig the storm sails out of storage in the forepeak. After breakfast, we rigged the trysail to its track and then rebagged it and lashed it to the bottom of the mast.

The wind remained under 5kts through most of Friday morning before gradually picking up enough so that we could sail again. We ran the watermaker to top up the tanks and to keep the system clean and in good condition.

At lunchtime we were both up and, though the wind wasn’t strong yet (about 15kts), the morning GRIB files showed that it would pick up to around 25kts by the end of the afternoon and to about gale force by midnight. Since we’d not fitted the storm jib for a while, and since Nicky wanted me to have an undisturbed afternoon asleep, we fitted and hoisted the storm jib after lunch, which meant that we sailed rather slowly all afternoon. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, since by then the wind had gone around to the south and the seas had increased so we were heading more west than southwest.

By the evening it was clear that the low pressure system had slowed down somewhat. The wind wasn’t increasing as fast as had previously been predicted but it was still rising. Since we didn’t want to have to wrestle the trysail at night in a rising gale, we set it just before sunset, whilst there was still sufficient light to see what was going on. Just as well really, since we could see the possible chafe/load points between the trysail sheets and the bimini struts and were able to re-run the lines to keep them clear. All the articles on flying a trysail that we have read have talked about running the sail between the lazyjacks. We have a separate trysail track on the starboard side of the mainsail track and decided to try hoisting the trysail to starboard of both sets of lazyjacks, both of which we eased far more than normal to allow the trysail to set without chafing on hem. It seemed to work really well. The sail set correctly (as much as a trysail can be said to ‘set’), we didn’t have the faff of trying to feed the clew down the length of the boom between the lazyjacks whilst we were hoisting and there doesn’t appear to have been any chafe either. A win-win we think!

Passage Statistics:
Position at midday 5 Sep: N46 41.7 W011 14.9
Position at midnight 6 Sep (0001hrs): N46 32.9 W012 02.9
Midday to midday distance through water: 153 nautical miles (average 6.4 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 135 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 107 nautical miles (average 4.5 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 81 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 386 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 832 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 3

Kinsale to Porto Santo Madeira Archipelago - Day 2

The weather continued much as the previous day. Brisk, bouncy and wet on deck. Fast sailing though. There was so much water over the deck that overnight we put the lower washboard in to prevent deck run-off making its way below.

When we were both up at lunchtime we dealt with an issue with one of the sail battens which had became detached from the mast car. The clip that holds it on had broken. Fortunately, we have some spares on board so we were able to drop the sail and replace the clip and then carry on sailing. 

Nicky spent her afternoon watch making a huge pork and vegetable stew to add to the passage food stores in the fridge. The ‘suspiciously green’ left-overs soup that she had made in Kinsale had gone down well for the past couple of lunches but was now finished, so she also made a butternut squash soup and hoped that the new easy to prep food would see us through the forthcoming gale.

At 2200hrs the wind had dropped off to the point that we needed to start the engine to keep making progress sounth – the quiet before the storm? Unfortunately when Nicky started the engine the tachometer wasn't reading properly. After a bit of checking I tightened up the tacho feed connection on the back of the new alternator which seemed to solved that problem. Hopefully that will be all that needs fixing on this passage.

Passage Statistics:
Position at midday 4 Sep: N48 47.8 W010 02.3
Position at midnight 5 Sep (0001hrs): N47 41.1 W010 38.4
Midday to midday distance through water: 161 nautical miles (average 6.7 knots)
Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 149 nautical miles
Midnight to midnight distance through water: 168 nautical miles (average 7 knots)
Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 155 nautical miles
Total miles covered through water: 278 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Porto Santo): 913 nautical miles (1170nm passage)

Kinsale to Porto Santo - Day 2

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

Kinsale Country Cork Republic of Ireland

What a Summer! Since setting off from Guernsey on 14 May we have completed a circumnavigation of Ireland and enjoyed the delights of the Western Isles of Scotland. It has been a mixed bag of weather from glorious sunshine to 100m visibility in fog. Great fun, but with so many ports and anchorages visited there has barely been a minute spare to keep the blog up to date. In the middle of August we returned to Kinsale to get Blue Velvet ready to head south towards Madeira and the Canary Islands; the same passage we attempted last year but aborted and diverted to Brest because of leaking windows and hatches.

However, after getting the laundry done, refuelling and restocking the food stores, our weather checks showed that Hurricane Erin was really messing up our planned passage towards Madeira which we had hoped would start on 19 August. So instead, since then, we have done a bit more cruising in southern Ireland whilst it became clearer where Hurricane Erin will track. We are now back in Kinsale waiting for a new alternator to be delivered and then will stock up the fridge again and try to find a suitable gap between the succession of gales in which to set off south.

Inishturk Harbour County Mayo Republic of Ireland

The next morning the wind indicator was operating perfectly as a ‘where you want to go indicator’ so we motored the 8nm to Inishturk in a fairly light northwesterly.

Having picked up a Co Mayo County Council mooring buoy we surveyed our surroundings and agreed that it would have been extremely unpleasant, possibly dangerous, to have been on it the previous day when it was blowing 25-30kts from the south. In a gentle northwesterly it was a lovely place to be.

After a quick lunch we took the dinghy ashore to explore the island, which many people have described as their favourite on this coast.

The site of the Tongs Gatherings beside Loch Coolaknick

The ruined watch tower

We had a wonderful afternoon’s walking. We walked all around the coast and up to the island’s highest point, mostly over just rough terrain, but some was on gravelled tracks.

And we were so lucky as the cloud over the mainland lifted as we reached the top of the island and so we had fabulous views of the hills and mountains of the Connemara National Park and all the way north to Croagh Patrick and across to Achill Island.

The sea glowed bright blue and turquoise and the swell breaking on the cliffs was stunningly white. Absolutely beautiful!

We returned to the inhabited parts of Inishturk via the cliffs, as recommended by the information board but we missed the official path and ended up in a farmer’s field with no obvious way out. Happily, the farmer in question was on his way out for a walk with his dog and so pointed out the way to us and then chatted with us as we all made our way eastwards.

Portdoon

We parted company at a truly tiny harbour on the south coast, where the entrance was a gap in the rocks little wider than our Avon dinghy. There were 2 fishing boats of the local design pulled up on the harbour beach; narrow, about 20ft long with a very distinctive upturned bow (and a 25HP engine on the stern). I can’t say I’d have been keen to bring them in through the ‘harbour entrance’ but, judging from the number of empty in/out moorings, people do so all the time.

View out from the community centre

On our way back to the main harbour we stopped off at the community centre which has a thriving bar and restaurant and fabulous views out towards the mainland. Again, everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming, which makes this such a lovely part of the world to cruise.

And then glorious views and sandy beaches on our walk back to the harbour to pick up our dinghy. We had arrived at Inishturk at 11am and got back on board Blue Velvet just before 5pm; a very successful 6 hour visit but we wanted to press on and make our way to Clare Island.

Inishturk Harbour, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland

Barracladdy Ballynakill Harbour County Galway Republic of Ireland

Having spent an afternoon and an evening off Cleggan, we had always planned that we should continue on Monday 16 June but probably a late start. However, when we awoke, the wind had gone southerly and picked up, and the swell was starting to work its way down to the bottom of the bay. Sitting beam on to it we were rolling rather and it was likely to only get worse so we decided to move sooner rather than later. We had wanted to go to Inishturk and then on to Clare Island on Tuesday but the bay off Garranty Harbour at Inishturk is open to the south, as are the moorings off Clare Island, so we decided to move to the next deep bay to the north, Barrynakill Harbour.

Looking back at the entrance to Barrynakill Harbour with the islands
and fish farm we had worked our way past

It’s only a few miles to Barrynakill and the wind was pretty brisk, so we unrolled most, but not all, of the genoa and made our way around the corner. At the entrance to Barrynakill Harbour, the route in becomes relatively convoluted, with small islands and fish farms to skirt around and rocks to avoid (though new lateral buoys have been installed to help vessels avoid the most dangerous rock, Ship Rock.

We had planned to continue well into the bay for (allegedly) maximum protection from the wind, and from the swell, but as we rounded Ross Point it was clear that, with the wind still in the south, we would definitely NOT have the protected anchorage we were after.

So we scurried back to a beach we had passed closer to the entrance, where the high ground to the south broke the wind and the islands and rocks to the west kept the swell away.

We had a lovely afternoon at anchor, doing various jobs and wishing that the cloudbase were higher so that we could enjoy the view of the hills and mountains to the east, of which we had only tantalising glimpses.

Barracladdy, Ballynakill Harbour, County Galway, Republic of Ireland