We departed from oeiras marina at about midday on the 23 rd August after fuelling both tanks with a total of 229 litres of diesel. Next stop was the bay of Cascais a few miles to the West. We wanted to be able to leave quickly and easily for our crossing to the island of Madeira.
The Cascais anchorage was not very pleasant due to the high swell during the night, so we were not in the best of moods when we departed the next morning at 08.08 hours.
The trip would be almost 500 nautical miles and would take 100 hours at an average boat speed of 5 knots.
The sea state just off Lisbon was terrible. Swell was at least 2 meters and sometimes 3 meters. There was not enough wind to allow us to sail which made the 'rolling' very annoying. The best we could do was motor with the main sail set to try to dampen the roll.
As we motored into the first night the wind picked up to 10 knots which meant we could stop the engine. Great relief because we do not like motoring. The yacht glides gracefully when under sail, but staggers along when motoring.
The dawn of the second day the wind died down and on came the engine again. Luckily the wind kicked in again on the evening of the second day, and the pattern continued. Motoring by day and sailing at night which on reflection was not a bad situation.
After three days, and almost four complete nights we arrived at the island of Porto Santo.
We rounded the Eastern lighthouse and dropped the anchor in the calm clear water off the main beach.
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