Land ho!

Michael spotted Madeira during the last hour of his 2-5 a.m. watch. He came to our cabin at 4:50 to grab the camera, as the sky was a beautiful shade of dark pink. I was already awake, since my watch began at 5:00.

We were still 35 nautical miles from our waypoint, but only about 17 nautical miles from the closest point of the island.

At 8:00 a.m., the sun was higher in the sky and, being approximately two nautical miles from shore, we were afforded a better view of the island. It appeared to be almost completely green and had striking cliffs. A small settlement appeared on the hillside, as well as at the shoreline. As we encountered more of the island, we saw additional, bigger settlements. And. . . more green. A beautiful island indeed!

The water was nearly flat at 9:00 a.m. The wind speed was 0.4 knots. Ha! Good thing we weren’t trying to sail.

And now, alas the voyage was over for us. Some stats (as read from the instruments after we anchored):

• Nautical miles: 3,142
• Nautical miles through water: 3,257
• Average speed: 6.3 knots
• Hours on the water: 499:30
• Variation: 16 degrees W to 5 degrees W
• Days (calendar): 22
• Maximum speed: 21.3 knots
• Time change: GMT-3.0 to GMT+1.0 (Even with the time changes we made to our clocks along the way, we were still two hours behind the actual time when we arrived in Madeira.)

This map is our sailing route from Antigua to Madeira

Today is Mother’s Day. We can’t think of a nicer way to spend it, other than having our five children and six grandchildren with us. 🙂

So . . . another voyage for the log book. But so much more! New crazy Russian friends, new experiences, and good memories.