Land ho!
Tuesday 1 September
We have done a bit of gybing and more goose-wing to try to get the most out of the 9-12 knots of downwind sailing. We are averaging 5 knots now.
We are seeing more birds – beautiful graceful shearwaters that dance over the waves.
We haven’t seen any dolphins since leaving the coast of Portugal and sadly no whales either. David has seen flying fish though! And we had more kamikaze squid.
We also thankfully haven’t seen any orcas and we have noticed that just after we left there were more attacks!
At 7.45 skipper sighted land!
I cooked bacon, eggs and baked beans to celebrate!
We all enjoyed Porto Santo growing slowly and steadily on the horizon in our different ways.
We felt empathy with those first Portuguese explorers who discovered the uninhabited Madeira islands in 1418 when they were blown off course on their way to the Canaries.
It’s a beautiful profile and we feel that we are approaching treasure island!
The marina staff were at lunch when we arrived so we anchored off with the other yachts we’d been keeping track on in the night.
We all swam in the perfectly clear turquoise sea! It was a beautiful temperature – we definitely feel that we have entered the Southern Seas!
We had a couple of beers to celebrate.
Then sadly Will had to leave us and he took the ferry to Madeira for a flight out tomorrow. Thank you Will for being fantastic crew – always so full of energy and so helpful in both galley and sailing.
David had a shave and another swim, we have all had a shower!
The marina recommended a good steak restaurant so the rest of us took a taxi to Delgado – the land moves in a rather disturbing way!
Our sail here has been a great trial run for the ARC – mostly downwind sailing with a crew of four made us sort out a good watch system; we found out you don’t need much food for the first day (!) and that it’s great to get the table up when conditions allow.
We have a lot of food left!
We have discovered 3 issues we need to resolve: Lily’s strop, the vang attachment and the hydro-generator.
The actual distance we travelled was 650 nautical miles – to do the ARC, the boat and 2 crew have to have done a 500 nm sail within the last year. This is a sensible requirement as it tests the boat and gives us time to fix anything before November.
Since July 16, when we left Lymington, little La Bamba has travelled 1725 nautical miles!
I’ve really loved following your journey and reading your updates it almost feels like we’ve been sailing alongside you, sharing the excitement, the challenges, the beautiful sunsets and, of course, the occasional flying fish and kamikaze squid 😄.
What a special moment it must have been to finally spot Porto Santo after all those miles at sea. I can imagine the excitement on board, and that first swim in the clear turquoise water sounds like the perfect reward after such a long passage.
Congratulations to you, Papa, Will and Alex, you make a fantastic team. And 650 nautical miles on this trip, and 1,725 since leaving Lymington, is an incredible achievement. It’s lovely to see how much you’re learning about La Bamba and preparing her for the much bigger adventure ahead.
Thank you for sharing these wonderful moments with us. I’ve genuinely loved being able to follow along, and your stories always bring a smile 😊 ❤️.
Take good care of yourselves, enjoy every moment of this incredible adventure, and know that you’re very much in my thoughts. Sending you both a big hug, lots of love and the warmest wishes for fair winds and happy sailing ❤️🌊⛵️.