suzerainydays.com

This has taken a bit longer than planned to post, due to being asleep, lack of shore power and dodgy wifi connection. The nautical life is certainly tough when you have these things to contend with.

I drafted the story of my journey down here, but it looks too long for a blog, so here’s a summary.

I left Quinta do Lorde at 5.30 on 9 September, heading for Selvagem Grande, a small rocky island inhabited by a single warden (it’s a nature reserve) roughly 160 miles SSE. Conditions were worse than forecast. The wind was around 25 knots and the waves were around 2m with some larger ones, and they hit me on the aft quarter, which made for pretty uncomfortable motion. Trying to do anything below deck was particularly difficult. I got chucked around a lot, and have lots of bruises as a result.

A couple of minor issues came up pretty early on. The electronic autopilot kept bleeping and giving me error messages. The chances of it conking out completely seemed pretty good. Also the steel frame supporting my solar panels came loose, which meant I had to stand on the edge of the cockpit and stretch up above my head to reattach and reinforce it with rope. Certainly my most dodgy moment yet. I tied a cat’s cradle of rope to various parts of the frame to stop it coming apart, which looked pretty ugly but ended up having the desired effect thankfully.

I then set up the Hydrovane, and life got a lot better. This is a pretty simple bit of kit that holds the boat’s course at a set angle to the wind. It is very strongly-built and reliable, and it was one of the main reasons I bought the boat, as they don’t come cheap, but it really made this trip possible. It steered virtually the entire way to Lanzarote, with fairly infrequent adjustments necessary, which meant I didn’t have to rely on my electronic autopilot much, or even worse steer myself.

I needed to arrive in daylight, as the waters around Selvagem Grande are quite rocky and the pilot book said that it’s essential to have good light when navigating in. Unfortunately the wind died completely when I was around 40 miles out, and then started up again pretty weakly from a less favourable direction. This meant I had no chance of arriving in the daytime, so I headed for Allegranza, another uninhabited nature reserve north of Lanzarote. This involved a single 150 mile tack, but on a more comfortable and faster point of sale (closeish reach for the initiated).

Unfortunately daylight failed me again on the evening of the 11th. This time the sun went down when I was four miles from Allegranza, which was really frustrating. The anchorage there is less tricky than Selvagem Grande, but I still didn’t fancy dropping anchor in the dark in such a remote location, so I decided to continue down the east coast of Lanzarote to Arrecife, roughly 30 miles or so. The wind and seas were much calmer on this stretch, although this meant I slowed down a fair bit, particularly on the approach to Arrecife. I had a dolphin pod escort at one point, which was nice.

By this time I was exhausted. I hadn’t slept at all the first night, had probably only slept two and a half hours the second night in short naps, and hadn’t slept at all the third night. I had a problem with my steering on approach, and then lost reverse gear in the marina, which caused a bit of drama. Getting into a marina berth without reverse is pretty tricky, as it’s your only brake. Seven tons of boat has a lot of momentum, and is pretty hard to stop even when moving relatively slowly. Two marineros and Mel, the nice lady who runs the marina and who had come down to welcome me, grabbed on to ropes to bring Suzerain to a halt. Unfortunately Mel was pulled into the dock, which was a bit scary, but she’s ok. This embarrassing episode brought the journey to a close, at around 9 am on 12 September, slightly more than three days after I set sail from Madeira.

I then had a shower (best marina showers ever, although also the hardest to find) and passed out for the entire day.

I’ll be in this marina for a month, getting new rigging, new sails, new halyards and a few other bits. I’ll probably then move to the south coast, maybe anchor for a bit and stay for a while in Marina Rubicon too. Then I’m hoping to head for the western islands, particularly La Palma. Although this might all change. At some point I’ll post some video, although my camera battery life seems rubbish, and I didn’t record much. Here’s some photos of Lanzarote though:

This is my last night in Madeira. I’m leaving very early tomorrow. Weather looks good; tomorrow might be a bit blowy, but it should settle down by the time I arrive in Arrecife. I’ll send the odd update via twitter, iphone permitting (it went on the blink yesterday), and a more detailed post in due course. The tracker on my ‘where’ page should work the whole way hopefully. X

I had a fun day in Funchal yesterday. I visited the Mercado dos Lavradores again, just to take photos this time rather than to pay eye-watering sums for admittedly delicious and unusual fruit. I took a photo of the nightmarish espada fish, which you can see on my ‘see’ page. The highlight was getting a cablecar up to the hillside above the city and visiting the tropical gardens in Monte, which are really, really beautiful. I’ve added a few of my best photos of the gardens also.

Today I went on a guided tour of Madeira’s mountainous interior with Madeira Explorers, including climbing Pico Ruivo (1,862m). The scenery was amazing and I’ve taken some really good photos, which I will add as soon as my laptop lets me.

Good sail today. Pretty blowy as always. I saw some pilot whales, as per my twitter feed. It should have read ’30 yds’, as in 30 yards away. Gave me a bit of a shock I must say.

Everything sailing-wise went well, except the handle on my main sheet clutch broke off. It was a bit suspect, so not a total surprise. Should be easy to fix. Luckily I was tacking home at the time, so it didn’t affect me getting back.

Tacking in 25 knot winds was fun, but laid waste below-decks, where my stowage obviously left a lot to be desired. One particularly strong gust sent pretty much everything sideways, so I obviously need to put more thought into this. A cane honey jar leaked all over the food cupboard. It’s pretty tasty though…

Also filled up the diesel tank, which seems to be much smaller than advertised.

I’ve taken some more video clips. I didn’t have time to film the whales sadly, but hopefully I’ll see more. Off for my daily ice cream now. X

This is my first proper blog post. I drafted a massive one about marine plumbing, mostly to ease the pain of reinstalling the entire toilet pipe system. I then realised that no sane person would be interested. And I’m not sure I have the ability to adequately put that experience into words anyway.

I left my job in January 2017. My plan was to do some basic RYA qualifications, buy a boat and then go sailing, initially in the UK. I did the qualifications, but buying a boat proved more complicated, time-consuming, and above all stressful than anticipated. And, as I was doing it for the first time, I ballsed it up. I ended up buying the boat I’m sitting in, Suzerain, in Madeira, which is located some distance from the UK. I’ve been telling myself this was a mistake until very recently when, after about a month of grubby toil, I realised things might not be so bad.

Something usually needs fixing on a boat, unless it is brand new or very well-maintained (and consequently outside my price range). Suzerain is certainly a work in progress. It seems that, in the process of fixing one thing, I find two other things that need fixing. But I keep plodding on. So far, I have removed and replaced all the sea valves (holes in the hull that you should be able to open and close; thus, important). Here are some photos of the old, inoperable valves coming out:

I took them off with an angle grinder in a day or two. The new, glass-reinforced nylon ones are made by Tru Design, a company in New Zealand, and are brilliant. I’ve also had the engine serviced, and it has run well so far. And I’ve replaced the entire toilet hose system, which was as rubbish as it sounds. The hose and related items were supplied by Lee Sanitation and ASAP Supplies, both of whom have been really helpful and given great service. Here’s a photo of spaghetti junction before and after:

It may not look too different, but it certainly smells different. That cupboard is about two feet square. It’s at floor level in a very cramped part of a pretty cramped boat. I am a fairly large chap. I hurt.

These tasks were all the opposite of fun. I’ve also fixed numerous other more mundane bits and bobs. But the boat is now buoyant and habitable, touch wood. One probably shouldn’t complain too much when living on a boat in the sun. I’ll be replacing the standing rigging in Lanzarote and also hopefully taking delivery of some new sails from Jeckells sailmakers. New halyards are hopefully in the post.

Suzerain was previously in Repmaritima boatyard under the Madeira airport runway. Here are some photos:

Those pillars hold up the runway. The boatyard is run by Mario Olim, a great person who helped me a lot. He would probably say that he didn’t do much, but I feel like I couldn’t have done this without him.

Home until around 10 September is Quinta do Lorde Marina, Madeira. It’s a peaceful place, run by nice people. It’s also beneath a nesting site for Cory’s Shearwaters. They only come in at night, although I saw some when I was out sailing. They make an unearthly noise when returning to the nest. Here’s a recording from the Azores (if I’ve managed to set this up correctly…):

According to Wikipedia, the largest colony is in the Savage Islands, which I am planning to visit in due course if the anchorage isn’t too rough.

On the downside, the marina is quite remote. I haven’t had much chance to explore the island so far, except a day trip to Funchal with a nice delivery crew I met. They have since left for the UK. I haven’t heard from them but hopefully they are doing OK. I’ve also gone for walks in the local area, which is pretty dramatic. I’ve put some photos up. I’m arranging a climb up the highest mountain on the island, which might be the highest I’ve ever climbed on land, I think (Pico Ruivo, 1,862m). And I’ll do some other touristy bits.

I will also continue to snorkel around, perusing the local marine life. On a recent swim I saw the biggest mackerel I have ever seen, and thought a lot about eating him. I have a lot of basic fishing gear, which I want to try out. I also still have one or two significant boat jobs to do. But mainly I’m planning to sail, and get ready for a fairly epic journey to Lanzarote in two weeks.

I’ll be amateurishly photographing and videoing my experiences as I go. I’ll stitch the better videos together later and put them on youtube, probably after I’ve sailed to Lanzarote, assuming my gear and I survive.

If there’s anything you particularly want to know, or if you just want to say hello, please get in touch. Love to you all.