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After an all too brief stay in Madeira we set off south towards Tenerife leaving Quinto do Lorde at 10:55 on the morning of the 11th November. The wind was blowing ESE in the high 20s so we set just the genoa and put half a reef in which allows us to sail at 7 knots while keeping on a fairly even keel. Tin Tin's Log for the 11th and 12th Nov 2016 Above is an extract from the log we keep. We try to make an entry every hour but it doesn't always happen... Here we record our position course, speed, some weather information and battery charge in %. We have had to do this because the new fridge seems to eat its way through the batteries much faster than the previous one did. George the autopilot can also be a big drain if the sails are not balanced and he is having to make a lot of corrections to keep us on course! Our intention was to have a lunch time stopover at the Ilhas Selvagens the following day before proceeding on to Tenerife arriving there at first light on Paul...

The sail from Porto Santo to Madeira was an easy day sail past the Deserted Islands arriving at Quinta do Lorde Marina at the northern tip of Madeira just as the sun was setting allowing us to nip to the bar and have a double gin and tonic. It is a place that evokes the TV series 'The Prisoner' which was set in Port Merrion [sic], down to the emptiness and electric golf carts.  You can't spend a day I'm Madeira or any island for that matter without trying to get to the top of it. I failed in Porto Santo but here we hired a car and set off for a tour.  What an amazing place it is, steep tropical forest with sudden openings allowing views up valleys to cloud draped sharks teeth peaks, and down to nest villages and farms where every bit of land is put to use growing everything from beans to bananas, including sugarcane and taro or 'Elephant ears'. I was particularly interested to find tea growing, which I am sure does, but failed to see any. It was interesting to s...

I left off the last post as we were approaching the island of Porto Santo. We made good time through the night and as you may have read in the Skippers blog (see link on right of the page), whilst I slept we made such good progress that he slowed us down so that we arrived in daylight.    During the voyage we had become increasingly alarmed at a current leakage to the hull. Left unattended it will result in a thinning of the aluminium hull and eventually a hole can develop.... not something we really want! We had spent a lot of time trying to work out what was causing it, with several hours spent crawling around the engine and with my head down the bilges looking for a stray wire. The strange thing was that when we heeled hard over to starboard in a swell, the leak detector reported that it stopped, resuming once we heeled back to port. Having failed to find the cause we decided that we would do an exaughstive search once in harbour.  Preparing to enter the harbour at Por...

Today we have had quite a lot happen considering where we are, but first the night... This was dark as the moon set quite early, the watches were uneventful, other than Paul seeing a bright green light which turned out to be the Dog Star Sirius, and it drew to a close with sunrise at 07:22 GMT. Not a spectacular sunrise but it took the chill out of the wind when the Rays reached the cockpit. A breakfast of porridge, Apple, cinnamon and crunchy brown sugar was a good start for the day ahead. We were still sailing under a slightly reefed genoa which lifts the foot of the sail just past the rail and avoids the enemy of long distance sailing, chafe. Each morning I do the rounds inspecting stays, fixings and sails for signs of wear, tear or stress. After this I retired to my berth to catch up on my sleep. We sailed on, with occasional increases in wind as a line of clouds overtook us, quickly returning to the normal 20knts once it has passed over, but giving winds in the high 30s to mid 40s...

We made it to Lisbon on the evening of Tuesday 1st Nov having covered 206 nm in 32hrs 50 mins bring our voyage total to 1013 nm. Well, when I say Lisbon, I mean to Cascais at the entrance to the bay leading to Lisbon. We sailed the majority of the second day ending up persevering against the headwind and putting in a few tacks... The first of the voyage really, and resisting the rather too easy option of starting the engine just because it's there and we are going at less that 5knts...  We progressed, tacking against the wind, up past the massif of Sintra and Cabo Roca which is the most westerly part of mainland Europe (I always thought that accolade went to Cape Finisterre!?).     Paul was still feeling 'tied to the toilet' for want of a better description, and retired below to rest and read while I stayed up to enjoy the last of the day's sunshine. As the sun faded so did the wind and I put the engine on, set a direct course for Cacais, put the sails to bed, and go...

As with most projects, the last things that need to be finished seem to be the ones that take the longest.  Currently this is tidying up the electronics associated with the engine installation. The new EVC connections have been established and we can now see engine data on the main navigation display, revs, temp, and pressure. What is proving difficult is to track down the source of the leaking current which means that something has a direct connection to the hull which shouldn't even the case! In a metal boat this is a significant hazard as over time this leakage causes the hull to lose material and get thinner... At the same time one display showing boat speed has decided to stop functioning, also not a good idea! We have now loaded all the charts and 300kg of edible stores, are very happy with the new freezer/fridge set up which gets the freezer down to -15C and the fridge to at least 0C.. Ice cream in the Pacific would seem to be more of a realistic proposition than a figme...

Another eventful week of  extended deadlines and delays.... we thought that it might've been possible to set off with a grand party to wave us goodbye on Saturday.... sadly that will not be possible... But, looking on the POSITIVE side of it all, it has meant that we are now more prepared than we would otherwise have been.  We have;   refurbished the rear lazaret seals and latches so that they should be watertight and are now lockable.  supplemented the existing anchoring equipment by adding a new length of chain, 60m, together with 40m of anchor rope to create a new main anchor rode. This should allow us to anchor in depths of up to 30m. We removed the old 35m of chain from the forward chain locker, attached a new 45m anchor rope to make our secondary anchor rode, and relocated it to the starboard lazaret.  We have always commented on the slight list to Port due to the position of the generator and hope that putting the chain on the opposite s...

Well! In the end the new engine IS the show model from the Southampton boat show. It arrived at the yard on Tuesday and fitting should be complete for a relaunch of 'Tin Tin of St Mawes' on Thursday afternoon. Paul has completed the official vessel registration but found that he had to add 'of St Mawes' as the shorter name had already been taken. Last week, I spent several days helping prepare the boat and getting hold of various bits and pieces for the voyages ahead. These included; an extra fuel filter,  ocean rated Dan buoy,  2 litres of sun cream,  Tin Tin visiting cards,  4 x 20m mooring ropes,  new seals for the aft lazarettes,  fixing 5x 12v fans in cabins for the hotter climes,  removing all the dry food stocks left over from our earlier 'Tin Tin Around Britain' adventures,  removing the 35m of anchor chain ready for the 100m of replacement chain so that we have a chance of anchoring in some of the deeper anchorages we ...

Nervous excitement, apprehension, that feeling of 'Lets just get it started NOW!!' Last week I accompanied Paul and Anne to Saxon Wharf in Southampton for the relaunch of Tin Tin after a summer rest on land following our Tin Tin around Britain excitement in May and June. She was already in the slings when we arrived to inspect the new bimini and cover plate for the retractable bow thuster (which dropped off somewhere in the Western Isles!). The new bow thruster cover plate... BOLTED on! The new cover plate looks really well made and as if it certainly won't come off in a hurry. We searched for signs of where the original had been attached but found not a sign.. so we suspect that it was probably held on with ties and and hope... Views of the cockpit bimini  This was intended to be the 10 day the run up to the start of Tin Tin around the World  . Little did we know what would transpire over the next few hours.... After checking all seacocks were open ...