Madeira

The North Atlantic getting lumpy

The morning after in the yacht harbor at  Funchal

The town of Funchal has a spectacular viewof the coast

Nomad sailed from Praia da Vitoria on the Azorean island of Terciera on the twenty first of November with as good a weather forecast as can be expected
this late in the year. I should make Porto Santo Madeira with some 25-30 knot wind on the day before arrival. As always long range forecast are not to be relied upon.
Four days out the approaching cold front caught up with me and the winds  intensified to a full gale. With the weather rapidly deteriorating, the safety tube on on the windvane's water paddle broke and was hurriedly replaced with a spare in steadily building seas. By 0330 the next morning the seas were as high as the wind generator and some were beginning to break. This is not good when your course has the seas directly on the beam, so the course was changed to put the seas on the quarter. By chance this happened to put my heading directly to the west end of Madeira. Good, I thought to myself conditions should moderate in the lee of the island. It did not work out as I had hoped for with the wind wrapping around the island and coming from directly astern as I headed east along the south shore of the island. The radar had decided that it would reboot itself every couple of minutes, rendering functionally useless for navigation. This would add to the fun of making the harbor in Funchal on a rainy windswept night. After breaking a block in the foresail with only two panels up, I decided to drop all sail and start the engine to help with steering in the seas that were building as I approached the shallower waters near the island. As the seas were becoming steeper, the motor was helpful in keeping the boat from from getting broached even though it was doing about six to seven knots downwind with no sails up. Some caution is needed with this technique. As I was nearing the harbor entrance to Funchal a particularly steep wave was trying to twist the boat around and I applied full throttle with the rudder hard over to stop the turn which worked well, but adding that much power on top of a wave sent me surfing down the front of it with a most amazing acceleration this schooner has ever done!  After verifying that this was indeed Funchal by counting seconds on the breakwater light, I turned directly towards shore trying not to lose sight of the light in the driving rain and eventually found my way around the breakwater into the welcome calm of the harbor. With no radar and rain soaked glasses navigation in the harbor was nearly impossible, so I followed the wharf around the perimeter of the basin and eventually found a promising spot to tie up behind a sailing school ship. The next morning the weather settled and I was advised that anchoring that was not allowed in the harbor and that I should move to the small boat harbor quickly before the wind picked up again and made docking difficult.
Madeira was a beautiful contrast to the Azorean islands with its high mountain peaks and lush vegetation. Ashore, it was a very cosmopolitan European city set up as a major tourist destination complete with shopping malls and bus tours. It was quiet for the time as the cruise ships were not coming in due to the bad weather.  I made some repairs to gear that got damaged on the voyage over here and spent the afternoons hiking around town. When the weather settled in a few days and I awoke to find two cruise ships in the harbor and so many people on the waterfront it was nearly impossible to walk around I knew it was time to leave! After complaining about the high cost of docking here the marina only charged me for three days but the invoice was still for 125 Euros!  Next stop: Morrocco.