Approaching Madeira

Yesterday I spent considerable time working on photos and videos to send in, including a 360 degree video which is very interesting as you can scroll around and decide where you would like to focus, rather than having the photographer decide that for you. Yet the technology is complicated, and the processes to get these ashore through the satellites leaves me with amazement that it actually works.

Of course in that time, we also had to sail the boat. And as we approached Madeira (Portuguese island), we had to decide a route, as we were also getting toward the Northeast Trade Winds. The boat was sailing very well during the day and into the evening as we arc’ed a graceful curve to the southwest then west southwest toward the high pressure system sitting over the Azores, then gybed at about midnight and headed south. Some of the fleet went close to Madeira, but I remembered getting close there once and being nearly becalmed in the lee, so we stayed at least 40 miles to the west of the island that has a 6,000 foot peak on it.

One of the great aspects of ocean sailing is night sailing. And after our gybe to the south, I noticed a faint light to our east. It stayed faint, but then turned red, a running light. Through the binoculars, I could just see a spinnaker. That boat also gybed and followed us. Slowly Stephane Le Diraison caught us. I’m sure he was watching us as intently as we were watching him. This morning we had multiple sail changes, in getting the big gennaker down (as there was a forecast for higher winds), putting away another upwind big sail, then hoisting a smaller gennaker for the bigger winds that we have now. Sometimes I think that the smaller sail is simply faster, plus it has less risk.

Sail Plan:
fractional gennaker plus full main
True Wind Speed:
17 knots
Boatspeed:
15.0 kts
Heading:
193° True
Weather:
Barometer 1022mb descending