Porto Santo is a nice place. It is a small-ish island about 25 miles NE of Madeira Grande - it has a very different character from that more mountainous and famous place - it has a population of a few thousand and serves to some extent as a beach resort to its larger neighbour. A recent Yachting Monthly Portugal supplement wrongly describes Porto Santo as being "... practically flat." Yesterday I saw this island from the deck of Ramprasad at a distance of 25 miles. Given that the earth is a spheroid with a diameter and radius of whatever it is and that Ramprasad floats in what is essentially a flat medium (-and it was yesterday) and that atmospheric refraction is not a lot this would not have been possible if the island was in any way flat! It is however slightly less mountainous than its large neighbour which made it much more suitable for the building of an airport some 40 years ago.

Ilheu de Cima and Porto Santo from the East - they are clearly quite bumpy and not at all flat!

Porto Santo and Madeira Grande were discovered by Joao Goncalves Zarco in 1419 (4 years after our King Henry V defeated the French at Agincourt) They were almost unpopulated - At Machico (in Madeira Grande) Zarco found an English boy called Roger who was the only survivor of 3 - his captain Robert Machin, Mrs Machin and himself who were abandoned by Machin's mutinous crew who deserted them there and presumably came to a well-deserved sticky end! Zarco gave the deceased Machin the honour of naming Madeira's first settlement after him. Porto Santo has a lovely long golden sandy beach. This as a great contrast to Madeira Grande's beaches which make Brighton's beach look smooth. I landed on Machico's beach 5 years ago - it is of football-sized dark grey boulders! - and there was a considerable swell!

3rd November 2003 - Arrived this morning in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria after a pleasant little Canarian cruise stopping at Graciosa, Lanzarote (Arrecife, Puerto Naos and Punta Papagayo) and Fuertaventura (Gran Tarajal, Morro Jable and Punta Jandia). Stopped in some of these places for a week or more and others only briefly. The weather has been rather untypical of this area at this time (by previous experience and reputation). Quite a lot of Westerley and Southerley winds when NEleys are to be expected, and quite a lot of rain for these islands which can be described normally as offshore extensions of the Sahara Desert. They certainly look like that with very little natural vegetation and bare sand and rock covering the volcanic hills with occasional oasis style towns and villages (- white flat roofed houses with carefully tended date palm trees and cacti). In Arrecife it rained enough one night for there to be a good 3 inches (75mm) of water in the dinghy and there were floods in town up to 3 foot (0.9m) deep!

The harbourside promenade garden in Arrecife, Lanzarote - plenty of volcanic rock sculptures and oasis style plants are to be seen.

While in the flat water of Puerto Naos, Lanzarote  I took the opportunity of attending to some long awaited tasks. Restitching the sprayhood, cutting a mast exit for the spare spinnaker halyard and fitting folding mast steps up to the lower spreaders. Some of this clambering around the mast proved to be quite good excercise - my arms still feel the benefit and all was done with no serious mishap (apart from when the pop-rivet gun hit my safety glasses!).

One of the stainless folding mast steps prior to fitting - and the pop-rivet gun with Spanish windlass still applied! This kind of rivet gun is designed for rivets up to 3/16" or 4.8mm but monel rivets are much harder to pop than aluminium ones.

27th November 2003 - At sea approaching the North-Western Cabo Verdes - We left Las Palmas de Gran Canaria  on Thursday 20th November and are now making good progress towards our proposed destination of Mindelo/Porto Grande on Sao Vicente in the Cabo Verde islands. We are Streets, Adam and myself on Ramprasad. Las Palmas is a good anchorage within easy range of good shops and a good market and in general has a good reputation among cruising yachties as a provisioning port in advance of an Atlantic crossing. 

The trip started off with a good NEley 3-4 breeze to get us down the East coast of Gran Canaria and then out to sea but then on the second day it eased right off down to a SE 1 by midday and so Eric the Perky was started and pushed us along all afternoon. We had already had a large school of dolphins come and visit us. Perhaps 30-40 similar to Common dolphins but with spotty rather than cream sides and a distinctive pink end to their beaks. Until advised otherwise I shall describe these as "spotted dolphins" since it was this type which were to visit us several times over the next few days.

One of the spotted dolphins which swam with us for a bit 

 Both Steets and Adam were keen to do some fishing and so we got the dorado line out (with a squid lure made from the finger from a yellow rubber glove) and after a couple of hours Streets hauled in a 20lb 3ft6in long dourado. This was to keep us in fresh fish for the next few days.

The Dorado we caught lying in the cockpit - squid lure still in its mouth - Adam a keen river fisherman was astounded with its appearance - "A Martian Fish" - by using the cockpit grating graduations it measures at 42 inches and its weight at 20lb is two experienced fishermen's guess

The 4 Flying fish which came aboard the night before we arrived in Sao Vicente - the first one flew into the cockpit between my legs! Streets prepared them, stuffed them with a chopped seasoning mix dipped them in seasoned flour, beaten egg, then flour again, and then fried them. Best prepared flying fish I've ever tasted! And this is before Streets has learnt the filleting technique!

Friday 12th Dec 2003

We left Mindelo on Sao Vicente in the Cabo Verdes 10 days ago on Tuesday 2nd and until recently it has been a frustratingly slow first half of the passage. We started off with a good Easterley trade wind ( - it was decidedly brisk in the anchorage in Mindelo!) and had a good days runs for the first 3 days of 134, 125 and then 104 miles by GPS even though all 3 of us had ailments which we put down to a swim in the suspect water of Mindelo harbour - but since then we have been plagued by light and variable winds (and sometimes headwinds) at least partly caused by the unseasonal tropical storms Odette and Peter. The latter was at times as little as 300 miles North of us and was believed to have briefly achieved hurricane force! This is when the end of the hurricane season was officially 30th November and the last known time that there were 2 named storms in the tropical Atlantic in the month of December was in 1887. Perhaps Odette and Peter hadn't read the Tropical Storm/Hurricane rule book! As I write we have 1169 miles to go to our destination ( - we started just outside Mindelo with 2018 miles) and we have now had something of an Easterley breeze giving us 2 - 3 knots for just over 24 hours. Yesterday afternoon a snowy white egret bird came to see us and landed at first on the spinnaker pole (poling out the No1 Genoa) then on one of the pole control lines and then spent the night sitting on the foredeck. He seemed not a happy egret at first and in need of a good night's rest and perhaps a drink of water - but he refused to try the dish of water offered. This morning he seemed a little more perky and didn't mind when we put sail up and down a bit - Light Staysail up and down and 2nd Genoa up and sheeted through the end of the Main boom - but then he showed some interest in a squid lure (with hooks removed) and then eventually took some salt fish from the end of a line. All seemed well until we were having some tinned herring and mackerel on bread for lunch and Eddie the Egret sicked up the lump of salted Dorado previously swallowed - perhaps it was too salty! As I write Eddie is perched on the Port Lifering/horseshoe float and is looking nonchalantly out to sea.

Fishing has gone reasonably well - on Wednesday we caught a large 28-30lb Dorado which was not all that happy at getting lifted out of the water. After giving it a shot and a half of gin it quietened down a bit and after after an initial clean-up Streets commenced the fishmongery operation. Some fillets were salted, some cold pickled, some hot pickled and some eaten fresh that night and the following night. It really is excellent and versatile fish and provided one has suitable tackle not too hard to catch.

Since leaving Las Palmas with a full tank of diesel and having used little on the way to Mindelo, we had used quite a lot in the past week trying to maintain some sort of progress in the calm periods - so yesterday it was time to transfer most of the spare gerry-can diesel into the tank. Not altogether straightforward at sea but we used the tried and tested method of siphoning to reduce spillage and waste - largely successful despite finding the first gerry-can to be leaking!

Sat 13th December - This afternoon during Trudi's net at around 1330 GMT we passed our half-way point - having logged 1056 miles by GPS we had 1055 miles to go! and at noon we broke through the 100mile a day barrier last exceeded on Day 3. And Eddie the Egret has perked up a little and started to drink after stepping into a bowl of water! This calls for something of a treble celebration but we have not quite decided what to do. All 3 of us have however had a nice pushpit seat wash with a bucket & bowl of seawater. It may sting the eyes a little but the cocktail of left-over shampoos seems to lather up OK and at least that kind of water is in plentiful supply! Ladies may apply for photographic evidence!

14th December - Last night we had some panatoni cake and custard and a bottle of campo viejo to celebrate! This morning Eddie the Egret had somehow landed a fat flying fish right into his bowl! We think it must have been a present from the Father Christmas of Egrets! The flying fish was really a bit big for Eddie so Streets helped by filletting it and serving it up bit by bit. Our 24 hour run today was 146 miles! One of the best in recent times!

16th December - Good progress still - 149 miles by GPS in 24 hours! Getting close to the record. Eddie the Egret is getting bolder and more confident by the day. He spent last night on the cockpit sole, which was probably more comfortable for him but we had to watch where we stepped. Just before lunch today he flew down into the cabin and had a stroll around. Even though we have got him drinking he still refuses to eat - since we still have no fresh fish - and if it isn't fresh fish it isn't food! The British yacht "Sutton Hoo" arriving in Barbados today have a female egret on board called Ellie. If Eddie laid an egg then we would know that he was a she. That's about all I know about egret sexing! When we meet the lot on "Sutton Hoo" we shall ask them how they do it! If present progress is maintained it looks like an arrival on Sunday 21st. If we have to pay overtime then so be it!

17th December - Bad news on the egret front I'm afraid - at about 0430 this morning Eddie fell off his perch (a cleat under the sprayhood) on to the cockpit sole. I tried to make him as comfortable as possible but I think he had given up the will to live. Within an hour he had left this place for a better one and was an ex-egret. Later on in the morning he received a formal burial at sea with full egret honours. He will be sorely missed by those who loved him in the latter few days of his life. On the other front we did 140 miles by GPS in 24 hours in slightly moderating conditions - still highly respectable for Ramprasad!

Sat 20th December 1047 GMT - 103 miles to go now to the North end of Barbados and the destination if not in sight is certainly in mind. Yesterday was Adam's 36th birthday and we had a fairly active morning of wind and rain squalls with a large bowl of porridge in between. Then it all went calm and floppy (as the actress said to the bishop!) and we had a swim, got all the sails down and started up Eric the Perky. The batteries certainly needed the charge even though we had been very careful with our power consumption the use being made of the HF transceiver was probably responsible for a large part of the drain. Adam's present was an A la carte menu from the Restaurant Ramprasad and the day continued as something of a series of feasts.

Just 2 of the many plates from the Restaurant Ramprasad celebrating Adam's 36th birthday!

 It looks likely that we shall be making a night-time arrival and we have been debating which of the 2 ports of entry to make use of - By reputation the Bajun officials sound as if they are sticklers for form - one little rule that they have is that you must check out of the same port that you have checked in to. Since this may not be ever so convienient with our 1st choice of check-in port we are presently seriously considering our 2nd choice. If there were to more than 2 choices it would be even more complicated!

Monday 22nd December 2003 - Arrived yesterday morning here in Bridgetown 0600 ECT ish and had no problem and no wait for the authorities in the main harbour - were directed to go alongside ahead of a cruise ship and the wharf was much more appropriate for the cruise ship!

The cruise ship near where we moored in Bridgetown

 Got water and the came out of there and round to Carlisle Bay to anchor. One or two mash-up jetties as evidence that the wind does not always blow from the East, but one new and strong looking one attached to a beach bar/nightclub called the boatyard (it is NOT a boatyard!) which extends free membership to yachties and is good dinghy moorings (stern anchor recommended) and free music - so we didn't anchor too close! A wonderful welcome from Amanda, Julia and the Streetly's at the jetty and how fantastic it is to have such a welcome! We had cold drinks and snacks from the boot of the car and then went to the Streetly's home for showers before going out to the yacht club for a late lunch.

At the Streetly's home with Julia and Amanda

 This morning we heard "Debatable" on the VHF - we had spoken on VHF mid-Atlantic had visual at about a mile, and then kept up a regular HF radio sched. They were really heading for Tobago but running late they decided to stop off here. They rowed over and we had beer. Great to put faces to their well-known voices! Will try to send this from email facilities reputedly available here!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Ramprasad in Paradise!

A couple of days later we are arriving in Martinique and French single-hander Pascal is completing his Atlantic crossing. Subsequently we exchange pictures and here are the results

The strange shape in the cockpit is Amanda's very impressive floral headgear!

Amanda and Julia when we are making out departure from Martinique and Julia is feeling better than when we were arriving