On Tuesday, September 30, we departed Rota and sailed to Porto Santo in the Madeira Island group, 547 nautical miles southwest of Rota. We made great time, arriving in Porto Santo exactly 4 days later. During this passage, we motored most the first day before receiving the wind that had originally been forecasted. Then, for two days we sailed on a reach with winds NW 15 to 20+ knots and seas 6 to 10 feet. The last day, as the winds veered NE, we sailed on a broad reach, with the sea conditions remaining the same.
Porto Santo and Madeira, both volcanic in origin, were the only two inhabited islands in the Madeira Archipelago, an autonomous region of Portugal. Porto Santo, an arid island with an area of only 16.3 square miles, had around 4500 inhabitants. Today its sandy beaches were its main attraction. In the early 1480�s, Christopher Columbus lived on the island after marrying Felipa Perestrello, daughter of the island�s first governor. Today their house is a museum. |
