Sy-Resolute's blog

Shifted from the Alcantara dock in Lisbao where we had stayed for 8 days to the Belem Marina, where we bunkered 80 ltr. of dieseloel. At 15.10h we let go all lines, minutes later we passed the monument of the portuguise discoverer, who left from Lisboa for the new world 500 years ago.
At the entrance of the river Tejo we set our sails, rigged the fishing gear, set the course and Porto Santo was just ahead, 482 nm away.
One hour later suddenly a very fast open motorboat crossed our stern only a few meters away, our fishing line was rolling out very fast and.....zang, the fishing gear was gone!!!!! We still have enough line, but the special bait, which we bought in Figueira was gone. We all where very angry.
But the weather was nice, the boat on course and life was easy.Frank kept the watch from 00.00h - 04.00h, Barbara from 04.00h - 08.00h and I from 08.00h - 12.00h. The days past by, the weather always fine. But even than, a lot of things had to be done. As the wind was always from aft but once from port, than from stb, we had to shift the sails pretty often. Blister up, Blister down, Mainsail up, Fock up and so on. The cooking was done by Barbara, the meals always opulent and of good taste. During the whole voayage the fullmoon was shining the whole night, so even during the night we could watch the dolphins. Frank saw a dolphin jumping up in the air just in front of the fullmoon. He said he will never forget this picture.
During the nights the wind was almost gone between 00.00h and 03.00h so we had to start the motor sometimes for a few hours, because the boat was rolling heavy and I was afraid that the sails might become damaged.
So at the end we sailed 411nm under sail and 81nm with the motor.We talked to other sailors here in Perto Santo and they motored almost 50% of the distance because of no wind.
At the 28th at 06.15 Barbara called me up, we had to change the sails. I came up and saw the black Lava Island Of Porto Santo in the morninglight in a distance of about 13nm. When the sails where ok I called up Frank, so he could see the approach of Porto Santo.
At 07.00h the dolphins came, jumped high in the air and giving us a warm welcome to Porto Santo. At 7.20h about 6 whales came close by, the skyline of Porto Santo  in the background . What a picture, what a feeling after such a voyage................
At 11.15h 28th of August we where safely moored at the pontoon in the harbour of Porto Santo.

This city has to be seen! The wealth and opulence of the Portiguise Empire can still be seen here. The first action was to go by tram from one end of the city to the other. All windows open, up hill, down hill it was real fun! Next day we visited the huge monument of Infante Henry and the portuguise discoverer at the Rio Tejo, than the tower of Belem and the Naval museum. Next programm: the Expo exhibition, it took us already a half day to visit the oceaneum. If  there was no special programm we did sightseeing with our bicycles.
At the 3rd day the TO yacht LA BOHEME with Udo and Heidi came in. In the evening we all sit together and exchanged our stories of the Portuguese coast, at the end we all agreed: a lot of wind, a lot of wind, a lot of wind.
According to our nautical pilotbooks the best time to sail from Lisboa to Madeira is the month of August, so I set the sailing for the 22nd of August. The crew wanted to stay some more days at Lisboa, but I made them understand that we have to leave.