S/Y Kerpa

We can highly recommend sailing in northern Norway during the summer, The midnight sun is fascinating, the mountains with snow at the top looks fantastic, especially the days when the sky is clear and the sunshine gives bright sparkling colours, blue sky, some white clouds, green grass, black mountains with white snow at the top creates very strong contrasts all this surrounded by the blue ocean, it’s just amazing.

But you will find that there is not much wind so be prepared to motor a lot. We also found it difficult to find good sheltered anchorage, they were often small but deep and as we want to have at least a scoop of 5 time the depth, we would end up on the shore in  many places if wind would turn. Further it is difficult to land a dingy as tide is close to 3 meters, the shore line is often hard rock or gravel so hard to pull up the dingy. Water is not very warm either just over 10C when we were there, so to swim the last few meters to shore was not an option for us.

Most harbours for pleasure crafts are small places, only space for a few boats and service are limited, showers and laundry is not easily found, but the jetties are often of highest quality, as most things in Norway. No doubt Norway is a rich country, it shows everywhere, from fish farms assisted by large boats in pristine conditions. Warehouses for the fishing industry most often looks new and of very high standard. Houses were of high standard and a lot of new development was going on. One draw back that comes with that, is prices, Norway is a very expensive country to visit.

Weather

We had both good and bad weather, from Tromsö and north we had excellent weather, sunshine most of the time, and locals claimed it was 20 years since they had such a summer. But south of Tromsö in the Lofoten area, we had not much luck with weather, plenty of rain and mist and also some strong wind keeping us from leaving our mooring for a few days. locals claimed it was the worst summer in 100 years?

Going south

After Nordkap we visited Hammerfest

Towards Hammerfest, and as always the scenery is breath taking

Kerpa moored at Hammerfest

Nice trekking close to Hammerfest

We continue south and found a safe anchorage at Söröya

But we fouled our anchor as we caught a rather big fisherman’s anchor tangled in our chain

It took some time the get lose, the anchor was rather heavy but half an hour later we were on our way.

Skervöya

We have had some times with good weather, much better than expected, but it was about to change

A front of bad weather is coming towards us

Svolver

Svolver is highly recommended, the town itself is not special, but walking distance you have many spectacular trails to choose from, several of them within walking distance from the harbour.

The most well known is probably the Devils gate, but that trail was closed due to work on the trail, so we could not go there, but we found good alternative, maybe a bit more demanding hike.

I have “stolen” this picture on the web.

Devils gate

Our trail was not to bad

We had reasonable weather on the way up, but 15 minutes after we started to climb down the weather changed, mist and rain so we got totally soaked before we got back to Kerpa

Mist just came in

The top we climbed, just got clear of the mist

My son with family came the same day as it started to rain. And it did not get better when we came to Vaeröy

My son had really looked forward to visit Vaeröy, but the weather did not cooperate!

We had hoped that the sun would burn away the mist, but not.

The other day we walked across the island in drizzling rain and fond this interesting rockformation

Saltstraumen The world’s strongest maelstrom they claim

After Kristoffer and his family left, we had a few days before our oldest daughter with family should visit us, luckily we got one day of nice weather so we decided to take one of the Rib’s to visit Saltstraumen. (if you like to know more about Saltsraumen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltstraumen)

On the way we found this very special erosion on the cliffs

A short video from Saltstraumen, it was not extremely strong as it was between neep and spring tide, but still about 14 kn at the time we were there, it can be up to 24 kn at spring tide. The trip is well worth to do as the sorunding is very beautiful

Bolga

Bolga from the sea

Emelie with Family at Bolga

As it was a bit demanding to get the kids up to the top, Kerstin and I decided to return to Bolga a few days later after they left during the few days before next batch of visitors arrived!

Kerstin is brave climbing down from this rock.

From Bolga one can see the glacier “Svartisen”

We would have entered the fjord and visit Svartisen if we would not run out of time

Ingrid looks like a happy crew

Alexander is a bit tiered, maybe due to sea sickness

A bit gloomy weather when at Söröya

The weather was grey and wet most of the time when they visited us, but it would become worse when next visitors came, my brother Thomas with partner Brita and our youngest daughter Linnea.

Reine again

We changed crew in Bodö and when Thomas and the others came, the forecast was for southerly severe gale and rain, but we might get one day with reasonable weather and as Reine is just 50 Nm away and a very spectacular place we decided to go there.

We climbed the Reinebringen a rather demanding trek ca 650 m hight, the sun was up a few moments and Linnea really enjoyed the hike. But the day after the bad weather came. Not from south but from SW-W so we got the wind on the side, not the best situation with strong wind and very strong gusts the highest was 55 kn. I used most of that day to adjust my fenders to avoid damages to Kerpa’s topside, I managed, only a bent guard rail.

We had to stay for additional three days as wind did go down only slowly, and then of course no wind so we had to wait another day for the waves to go down as well.

On our way “Home”

Due to weather and logistics with all our visitors we were behind schedule it was now mid-August and high time to head south, at this time of the year strong south-westerly wind is common, luckily the weather was favourable with many sunny days and not so strong southerly, so we could often motor south in comfort. With several nice sceneries and a few nice hikes.

Torghatten

A very spectacular place is Torghatten

A big mountain with a natural tunnel right through it

Inside the “Tunnel” it is very large and high to the roof

View from the other end amazing

Kristiansund

One of our stop was at Kristiansund a rather large village. We found a nice outdoor museum where they took good care of old boats.

Seeing all the hard work they put in to the old boats I got the energy to fix our bowthruster that broke when we were in Nordkap so we have been without a bowthruster now for more than 6 weeks. It is not that easy to moore an Amel SM without a bowthruster, so one has to choose a harbour which has enough space for manoeuvring and that is not easy to find in northern Norway, luckily the wind has been rather gentle when we had entering tiny small harbours so no mishap, and I want it to stay that way so now time to fix it. It is the gears that need to be replaced, I had ordered new from Amel and my son Kristoffer brought them to me, so no lack of spare part just lack of confidence that I could fix it.

The main issue is to get off the bearing and the cogwheel, when I put it together last time I had to force it together it was with a lot of tension on the spanner when forcing the cogwheel on with the bolt that also should keep it in place. After some result-less attempts to get it off, I thought maybe I can cut it off with my dremel and a cutting disk. It worked, Halleluiah, when putting it together again a smoothed the surfaces so it was a snug fit, the main issue was the wedge that had grades by file down the grades it should not be to difficult to take it apart again, something I hope I do not need to do the coming 10 years

From Kristiansund we had two stops before we went directly to Mollösund and Sweden the last stretch was 412 Nm, were off 2/3 was by motor as no wind.

Great sunset

Mollösund in Sweden has great sea food, we bought some delicious crayfish, they were perfect

Kerstin enjoying a beer in Skärhamn, a place were we lived for 8 years, and our kids went to school

A stop in downtown Göteborg, just in time to celebrate Linneas 30^th birthday

Just passed under the Öresund bridge

Lisselön

We made a few stops on the Swedish East cost, and we found a fantastic place, Lisselön, a great place with sauna, hot bath and a bar all in a fantastic setting

Not often one can make Med mooring in the archipelago

We had a lovely day to walk the island

Fantastic to wake up and fine a cow grazing on the grass

Our Final destination for the season was Västerås in lake Mälaren ca 45 Nm from the Lock in Södertälje.

Fantastic weather but no wind

Strängnäs a small old town at lake Mälaren.

Kerpa on her way up worked very handy

Kerpa wrapped and ready for the winter, we had some logistical issues as we had no car and nearest shop is 5 km away from Kerpa, we managed, it took us almost a week to winterize, clean and pack things that should be taken off Kerpa during the winter.

All in all, we casted off from Lagos March 23, arrived Västerås September 21. 4942 Nm, half distance by engine as we have had very little wind.

Now we are home in beautiful Lagos  

Will spend the winter planning for next adventure, which probably will take us over the Atlantic fall 2023

Lerwick

Last time we were at St Ninians Island, from there we went to Lerwick, were we spent a few days strolling around in the town,

but also spend some time on maintenance.

We had a leak from the raw water pump on our VP TMD22, I felt I had just replaced it, but figure out it was 1200 engine hours since it was replaced, hence I had not repaired my old pump! fortunately after walking around and asking different chandleries, hardware stores etc, I got a suggestion to ask a mechanical workshop who might be able to fix my pump. It was a + 40 min walk to ask if they could fix the problem (did not feel for take-off the pump before I knew if they could fix the problem). They could fix it, Great. So I had to go back to Kerpa dismantle the pump walk back with it, it would be ready after lunch time the next day!! (not usual this days with such prompt service).

Most of the day was spent walking.

The next day when I collected my pump, they said that the shaft was in bad condition, they had done what they could to fix it but could not guaranty that it would not leaking, not good. I asked them if they also could fix my old spare pump as fast, yes bring it in and I fix right away. Back to Kerpa put the pump back, luckily no leak, but did not know for how long, so I dug out the old pump, walked to the workshop again. Again, a lot of walking and time spent.

Also realize that our bilge pump did not work as it should (it must work not only for safety but water from sinks drain into the bilge and are pumped out), I had a repair kit so should not be any major issue, but it did not help, I had a spare bilge pump, it did not help!!! Ok I have to rely on my manual bilge pump, help! it did not work either, fortunately I manage to fix that rather quickly.

As we were heading for Lofoten and had found a good weather window, time was limited for maintenance . I had hoped for a day of rest after spending a few days working in the engine bay and walking back and forward to the mechanical workshop, but not, the day we cast off was spent from early morning to just before cast off to finalize the maintenance.

After finishing the last bit of work, we cast of 18:00, 9 of June, about 15 minutes of motoring then we could sail all the way to Röst, Lofoten. We had a fantastic crossing half of the time wind on the beam +/- 20 kn, so speed was very good the other half the wind eased down and came more from behind, but we were able to sail the full 564 Nm, first time ever for us to sail such a long stretch without the need for the engine.

The crossing was rather cold, but a very nice experience to notify that the nights got shorter and shorter until it became light the hole night. We celebrated to Polar  circle crossing with an Irish Coffey much better needed than a glass of Champagne, which we probably will choose when we cross the equator one day.

It took us 3½ day to reach Röst, Lofoten,

First sight of Lofoten

Röst

We arrived 13 of June 05:45 in the morning a rather gloomy day.

Röst harbour

We could not resist to have a short walk and was amassed about the vast amount of cod hanging for drying.

But it was a rather large number of fish heads also hanging to dry.

We were rather tiered after the trip, so we took a nap, when one is tiered the brain play games with you or at least me. When I woke up after a few hours of sleep, I went up in the cockpit and looked aft and found to my surprise and other Amel SM behind us, my first thought was, what is Kerpa doing there? and where am I? A few seconds later I realize it was not Kerpa, but just another Amel.

It was a French couple that we had meet before in Horta, The Azores.

Generally we did not found Röst to be a place worth spending to much time on, so a day later we decided to continue to Vaeröy.

Vaeröy

On our way to Vaeröy there were not much wind, so we stopped the engine and put down the hook, in less than 10 minutes we caught a nice size cod.

Witch Kerstin was happy to clean

Approaching Vaeröy, we aimed for an anchorage just behind the peek you see on the photo

We had a very spectacular evening there, we experienced our first encounter with the midnight sun.

The next day we went into the harbour

And had a few days of walking the island

We had some very nice views and I saw a beautiful flower, that become one of my favourites it was very common in the northern part of Norway.

Called fjällviol in Swedish, or Viola biflora-Two-flowered Violet

It was down in this bay we anchored when we first came to Vaeröy

Reine

By chance we continue up to Reine, which showed to be a very beautiful place, one of our favourite

Approaching Reine a grey afternoon, but already at distance we were intrigued by the mountains and to se snow in the middle of the summer, somethings we would continue to see in rather large amount the whole time we spent in northern Norway, might be obvious for some, but it was not for me.

Reine village is surrounded by the most beautiful mountains, it’s like a dream

A trip up to Reinebringen is demanding but rewarding

Reine is really worth a trip on its own.

Svellingen

From Reine we took a short trip to one of the few “natural” anchorage, it was rather exposed, but weather is rather calm during the summer, not much wind at all, so it become a lot of motoring

Evening view from Kerpa at anchor

And the morning offered fantastic weather and view

Midsummer

Midsummer is sacred for a Swede, and one can’t find a better place than northern Norway who offer sunshine 24h/day during the summer, we ended up at Bjakröy

Enroute to Bjarköy

Bjarköy harbour, not many boats, and a very small harbour. This is common in northern Norway, few boats and not many guest moorings. But you will notice that Norway is a rich country, most jetties are very new and of highest quality, even at very small local boat clubs. Electric installation of very high standard, but showers and washing machine were less common, even toilets were not always to be found.

Pickled herring and beer for midsummer lunch

Nice view from the lunch table

Plenty of midsummer flowers

Hamn, Senja

Another fantastic spot is Hamn on Senja, maybe we become a bit biased as we there had our first real midnight sun, one of my main objective with the trip was to experience the midnight sun.

Approaching hamn

The harbour in Hamn, so beautiful

Enjoying the evening sun together with our friend and crew Anna-Lena,

But it will become better.

Midnight

It is fantastic to feel the warmth from the sun even that the sun has passed midnight.

Not too bad to trek around Hamn.

Further North

On our way to Nordkap, which is as far north as we plan to go, we passed Tromsö, a rather large village

Again, some time to be spend on maintenance so down into the Engine pit again.

I have a leak from the oil cooler, a bit irritating and the leak was increasing so time to fix it but might be easier said than done. It is the connection between the hose and the cooler itself, to make along story short I ended up putting in a fibre washer in the connection, and it held it tight for quiet some time.

Some paper tissues wrapped around the leak to identify from where it leaks

Drainage of the oil.

It worked so we could continue north towards Honningsvåg, Nordkap.

Towards Nordkap

We had some amazing scenery on our way

But the highlight was sailing during the midnight sun

So fantastic, a dream came true for me

When close to Honningsvåg on Nordkap, the weather changed rather rapidly.

Gusting up to 40 k, and when approaching Honningsvåg, the rain came, further to our disappointment the harbour was very industrial and had no space for us, the small jetty they had was for a few days reserved for tenders servicing the cruising ships. It was only an exposed concrete quay covered with very large tractor tiers for us to moor at. To make matters worse, while manoeuvring in the harbour our bow thruster gave up. We tied up and decided next morning to head south again. All beautiful places we saw on our way south will come in next blog.

We left Stornoway for a 138 Nm overnight sail to Kirkwall, Orkney, rather strong wind with good speed but cold, so hot chocolate with a generous addition of dark rum gave comfort and warmth to the body during the night shift. We arrived Kirkwall early morning, still cold and grey weather.

Kirkwall

The town itself is rather small, but have a very impressive cathedral St Magnus Cathedral, built mid-1100s,

The bishops palace had been an impressive building as well

Kirkwall street view

Before we left, we bought some local crafted beer, as well as a bottle of local Rum, but they should stick to making beer!

Westeray

Left Kirkwall for a short trip to Pierowall harbour on Westray small place ca 24 Nm north Kirkwall

We went into Pierowall harbour which is very tiny harbour, but well protected on the north west side of Westray. We had looked forward to visit a local Pub, but no such was to find

Pierowall harbour

The disappointment was soon gone as a fishing boat came in loaded with fresh Crabs and lobsters, we bought some at one for us attractive price. 20 pounds for three large crabs and a one kg lobster, we were happy, and I got the impression that the fishermen thought we paid well too.

A feast on one Crabb and a Lobster, we saved two of the crabs to the next day.

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We left Westray the day after for fair Isle only about 47 Nm away and the wind allowed us to sail about half of the way.

Fair Isle

Approaching Fairs Isle

We were lucky and found a free spot at the rather rough cay

There was one boat at anchor as well, but there is not much room, so I think it will be difficult to anchor another boat.

Fair Isle has two “Harbours” North and South Haven

We stayed a few days and several boats came in and for some time we had two boats outside us and the swell picked up so not 100% comfortable with the situation.

First boat outside Kerpa. I’m very surprised and a bit annoyed when other boats approach and ask if they can moore outside us, usually only 2 or 3 small fenders out not unusually also very dirty and sometimes even punctured. and then they use old sheets to more the boat with. The non stretch mooring ropes creates unpleasant jerks and squeaking sounds along fairleads and cleats. One wants to be friendly, but from now on I’m very firm, I say you are welcome to moored outside our boat if you have adequate with fenders and when they use the non-stretch mooring ropes I ask them to replace them and if they do not have that, I offer them to use some of mine ropes after informing them, that next time use proper ropes when mooring along another boat.

Fair isle is known for its abundance of birds and the most popular ones are the Puffins, so our first excursion on the island was of course to see Puffins. There were plenty of them and they were not afraid for us, so we could come very close to them.

A creative way to use old fence wire. Very nice we thought.

We wanted to take a closer look at the north lighthouse which we saw from the water when approaching North haven on fair Isle, so next trip went north

Beautiful scenery on our way north

The north Light house

Out on the cliff there is an old impressive foghorn

Time for a picnic before exploring the bird cliffs

The white stuff you see on the small cliff fare away are birds!

A few Pictures on the beautiful scenery on the way back to Kerpa

The next day we decided to go south

 and found out there is a school on Fair Isle, in total only 5 children in the school.

Fair Isle south Light House

There are a lot of Sheep on the Island

Fair Isle is a fantastic out-post, very beautiful, a very harsh place to live on and well worth a long detour to visit, but you need a reasonable good weather forecast, the wind and weather shift rapidly in Scotland, so one has to be prepared for rough weather, the harbour will probably be untenable at moderate wind as swell build rather quick, however Fair Isle is not fare away from reasonable shelter either at Orkney or going north to Shetland Islands (n.b. Fair Isle is part of Shetland Islands) which will be our Next stop on St Ninians Island a wonderful place

After a lot of work on Kerpa we were finally on our way. First trip was not very far to Ferragudo about 7 Nm east of Lagos, we had a gentle sail and just unfurled the head sail and enjoyed the short trip.

Really great to be at anchor again.

We had some relaxing days

Kerpa at anchor

Enjoying a beer in a very nice setting, it feels great after 9 month of hard work on Kerpa.

Strolling around admiring some of the beautiful street art.

Meeting friends, visiting places with live music and fancy food.

Live music and fancy food at Club Nau

It was DeAnne and Steve on Voila who took us to the Club Nau, and we show them Kalu Beach Bar, which probably has the best hamburgers in the neighbourhood.

But not only time for pleasure because more boat jobs remains to be done, First our outboard was not performing as usual, i.e starts on the first pull and run without problems, now she needs a few pulls and lose revs now and then. I got some contaminated fuel last year so time to clean the carburettor.

A quick fix and now she runs smoothly.

A bit larger task was to replace the old fridge with a new one that I had ordered. The fridge was supposed to arrive long time ago, before we left Lagos. First, we had to take the train to Lagos to pick up the fridge, transport it to Portimao get the old fridge out, the new onboard and take our car back to the garage in Lagos and the train back to the boat. Then the only thing remaining was to install the new fridge, which of course was a bit larger than the old one, so it did not fit. I made a YouTube video about it if you want to see it click on the link.

There is a 15 sec short version below!

We had some “contractors” aboard for minor but “time consuming” jobs (they were overcommitted with jobs and consequently did not show up when they should, so a few days’ work took more than two weeks). To save some on marina fees we moored outside a larger sailing vessel in the fishing harbour. One problem was the tide and wind who pushed the larger boat out from the quay and thus created some problems to get aboard Kerpa. Klick on clip and you find how we solved that issue

The big task was to replace the standing rig on Kerpa now more than 20 years old. Most insurance companies do not insure sailing boats with standing rig older than 10 years, so from that perspective we were long overdue. We had of course outsourced the job, but quite some job for us as well. Take down and fold all the sails, disconnect all cables which are a few, take off all split pins and loosen all turnbuckles. It’s a full day work. The riggers were very pleased that we had done all the job, which they probably had expected to do them self, but it was high season for boat work and we did want to speed up the process as much as possible.

Masts back again, and now I needed to connect all the cables again, it is much faster to disconnect than connect that is for sure. I have a few YouYube movies about the replacement of the standing rigg.

It took a full week for them, take down the mast, undress the mast, make new wires, dress the mast, step the masts, and finally tune the rig. It was only short moments we were at the quay, most of the time we were at anchor. One thing is for sure the boat rolls substantially more without the masts on. Not fun at all to be at anchor without masts. We had the sails stored on deck in their bags, and one day they almost fell overboard when Kerpa started to roll violently when a reckless motorboat circled the anchorage with speed making maximum wave heights, can’t say he was a favourite that evening.

When hoisting the sails, we discovered that they had riveted the cutter foil 180 degree wrong on the furler drum!

Attachment point for the tack, but the grove is on the other side of the foil, shit what to do? I did not felt for drilling out the rivets, turn it and put in new rivets, I started to get tiered on boat jobs and we did want to leave Algarve rather sooner than later.

At last we could set sail and start our adventure for real. Next stop Porto Santos ca 470 Nm, the forecast indicated 15 kn wind and broad reach, excellent conditions to test the new rig!

Just outside the breakwaters we realised the wind was much stronger. Close hauled and ca 25 kn apparent wind, not exactly the conditions we wanted to test our new rig in, luckily everything went well, and we got a nice trip under sail all the way.

Porto Santos

Approaching Port Santos during the evening with pooled out genoa. Anchored inside the harbour, contacting the marina as the Covid procedure require. We were to remain aboard until 14:30 the day after when we would get a Covid test in the marina for free. After that we had to go back aboard and stay until next morning until our test show negative. Everything went smoothly.

We found the anchor outside the breakwaters nicer and much more spacious and no catabatic winds, so we moved outside.

We took a long trekking up to the highest points of Porto Santo. Porto Santo is a very dry place, but the north part is greener than the south.

 Views from north part of the island

It was a long walk, and after we reward our self with a nice and cold beer on the beach

A fancy place, they know how to capitalize on the location, however the food did not match the price, but we still enjoyed the spot very much.

A few days later we sat sail to Funchal Madeira, prior to departure we needed to take a rapid Covid test, nothing that Kerstin fancy

Funchal

It was a very grey and gloomy day when we sat sail, only 42 Nm to go, we sail wing on wing for a few hours, when approaching Madeira, the wind picked up and suddenly we were sailing broad reach with apparent wind gusting over 40 kn, again our new rig was tested. Our cutter jib made an excellent job during these conditions.

Luckily Funchal was in shelter, and we got safely in. Again, Covid procedures but even easier this time, we mailed copies of our quick Covid tests we made in Porto Santos and copies of our passports, less than an hour later we could go ashore.

A hamburger in one of the marina bars/restaurants was the treat

We found this piece on the deck and assume it came from our cutter furler. We had problem with the foil after it was originally installed (2016), The foil is in several sections that are hold together with screws, unfortunately the screws vibrates lose and the foils might come apart, has happen two times. I needed to inspect the foil, unfortunately we could not take down the jib more than a few meters, then it was stuck, I had to go aloft and found as I suspected that some screws had vibrated lose and one was protruding a bit preventing the top swivel from passing by on the foil. It was only one screw that was protruding, but after taking down the jib, I took off all screws and put them in place with strong Loctite 271 instead of the more usual Medium strength Loctite 243. Hope it will last a few blows without vibrating lose.

I could not identify from where the plastic piece came from, still a mystery.

Up the mast securing the screws holding the different sections in place.

After a few days moored outside a traditional sailing vessel we got a very nice and convenient place in the marina.

Funchal is a very nice village, small cobble stone streets

 a lot of restaurants for all wallets, the ones we visited did not make us disappointed

Here we tried local oysters.

Plenty of street arts

It’s a delight to walk the narrow streets and if one gets to warm there is only a short walk to have a swim in the Atlantic.

A cable car took us up the hill above Funchal and we found a very nice and tranquil park, well worth a visit. It is also the place for the famous cobble stone sledge ride, which we thought to pricy and to slow for our liking, so we strolled the park instead.

Of coerce one has to taste the famous Madeira vine as well

Madeira is so much more than Funchal, the whole island is very beatifull and well worth to explore, we took a trip up the mountain to the highest point Pico Ruivo (1861m)

Below follow a few pictures, amazing is the word, I let the pictures speak by them self

Kerstin at the top, very rewarding

From were one can look down at part of the trail we have been walking

The landscape has a totally different character on the east side, dryer and much more rugged.

October 2012 I was on my first longer trip, from the Algarve to Madeira. I was crewing on a Swedish 41 feet 1973 vintage sailboat a bit dated boat with bridge deck and just a small sparay-hood for the companionway, but a competent sailing boat. The weather became very rough during the trip, the last days we were closed hauled in south westerly gale force wind, sea was constantly washing over the boat and the silly spray-hood did nothing to protect us, so we became wet and cooled. Previously the gear box had broken down when motoring when we were becalmed in the beginning of the passage, a provisional repair was made during the passage. But we did not know for how long it would hold together, therefore the captain decided to  take  “shelter” under the cliffs above as we arrived at night in the strong south westerly wind. There were some shelter for the wind but large swell came in and about an hour after we got the anchor firmly set, the anchor chain snapped. We had to circle on idle throttle very close to land and the rocks protruding from the sea during the whole pitch dark night in the strong wind and pouring rain, I was soaking wet and cold, later at lunch time the day after we manage to sail around the peninsula and get into the shelter of the Marina Quinta do Lorde. I must admit I felt a great relief when we entered the marina.

Marina Quinta do Lorde, a rather sleepy Marina and resort.

Next stop

La Graciosa

But that will follow later.

We have a YouTube video about the trip to Madeira