Route: Funchal – Selvagen Grande, Santa Cruz, Guimar, La Galera – San Miguel
Dates: 22-29.10.2022
Miles / hours: 341Nm / 82h
22-10-2022 Saturday Funchal
In the morning, the middle yacht departs from the raft, and we switch to places with the last yacht (they stay longer, then go to the Canaries and across the Atlantic to the Caribbean). Around 10:30 am the rest of the crew arrive. I’m going to check us in, hand over the toilet card and off we go. It blows about 20-25 kn. We sail to a place where cruise ships come to watch sperm whales. We can’t see anything, so after reaching the end of the island, we put ourselves on the right course. In the evening the wind weakens, but we do not give up. We sail today 60Nm.
23-10-2022 Sunday
You can see beautiful stars at night. In the distance we see ships and yachts, but far away and not on a converging course. In the morning the moon rises, it is after the new moon (about 8%), but the obwarzanek has from the bottom – we are much more to the south than Poland. During the day, the wind weakens even more, so at 2 p.m. we turn on the engine. Large turtles pass us by, and a bird similar to a large swallow is circling the yacht.
24-10-2022 Monday Salvagem Grande
We approach the island before dawn, so we wait 2 hours for it to light up. We report to the protection of the park, enter the bay and moor to the buoys. The buoy has its moorings. We use one of them and additionally install our hook. We assemble the porta-bote boat, put the engine on and go ashore. The policeman fills in the entry notification papers, and we wait for the guide who went to count the birds. Finally, he shows up with another man who tears a huge stone. We arrange a tour at 4:30 PM. It turns out that the island has no cellular network coverage, but there is Wi-Fi. We received e-mails and watch the weather forecast.
We go back to the yacht for a swim and lunch. After lunch, Tom goes with the first group to the island. Unfortunately, when landing, the engine propeller hit on the rocks and breaks, so the rest of the transport takes place on the oars. We go on a trip – at the beginning the guide, then the whole team and finally a policeman. On the way, we see birds that have made their nests in the rocks or under the bushes, geckos sit under the stones and lizards run along the paths. There are no trees on the island, but there are some endemic lichens (growing only on this island). The trip takes about an hour. We come to the edge of the cliff from where you can see the bay and our Splash. We take a commemorative photo of the crew, and after going down we make an entry in the memorial book, and in return we get stamps for the yacht log.
There are 5 people on the island of a “permanent” crew, 2 policemen, 2 “rangers” and a “technician” to repair everything. We sail to the yacht, pull the boat onto the deck and eat dinner. Everyone goes to bed early after dinner.
25-10-2022 Tuesday Salvagem Grande
In the morning, after breakfast, we assemble the boat, take a bath and after 1pm we go on. The island staff says goodbye to us – they wave and turn on the sirens. We set the sails and in the wind of 7 kn we sail 4 kn. In front of the Salvagem Pequenio island, we are making a turn. For dinner, pasta with pesto and cheese, and after lunch, coffee with chocolate. Delicious. Around 4pm the wind reaches 3kn so we start the engine.
26-10-2022 Wednesday Santa Cruz
In the morning we enter the Santa Cruz marina in Tenerife. We stand next to Good Fellow – a yacht met in Funchal. We embrace the yacht, rinse the deck with salt, and after lunch we go to the city in thematic groups.
Tomek and I visit nautical shops in searching of a propeller for the engine, unfortunately without result, but one of the sellers declares that he can ask about it. We leave him the bolt details and contact me.
27-10-2022 Thursday
In the morning we visit one more sailing shop, where we meet a Pole, but they also don’t have any screws for the engine. Part of the crew goes to the palm garden. At 12:30 pm we go out to sea. First we try to stay in the Guimar marina, but despite the vacancies the staff say the marina is full and we can’t even stay for 1 night. We go back 4 miles and moored in the La Galera marina. It is also not without its problems, but finally there is a place where we can stay. It’s a private marina with a swimming pool, tennis courts, gym and gyms. In the evening, some of the crew go sightseeing the city at night.
28-10-2022 Friday San Miguel
We go out in the morning. We have approx 28mm to San Muguel. There is no wind so we ride on the engine. For dinner, fish with spinach and potatoes. We do a maneuver in front of the marina – draw letters on the water, and then swim into a nearby bay for a swim. We enter the marina at 7 pm. We get a seat at the G pier. We stand stern to the shore and bow on the moorings.
