You hear a lot of people waxing on about the benefits of travel – that it helps open your mind to new cultures, that it helps you appreciate different ways of living, and that it helps to get you out of your comfort zone. It does all of that, for sure. But it also simply helps you with geography. Maybe because the United States is so big, Americans often rate very low in their knowledge of world geography. So, it was our goal when we started this project in 2017 to not only have fantastic days of sailing but also to expand our world knowledge. And arriving in Madeira fit right in with that mission. A short while ago I might have been able to tell you that Madeira was a type of cooking wine. That was it. Was it a island as well? How cool is that!
There was no time like the present. Kinsale was to be our jumping off point as we headed offshore for 1300 nautical miles to Madeira, then onward to the Canaries. Situated as it was along the south coast of Ireland and out to sea from England and France, it made for a nice diving board of sorts to sail southbound unobstructed and in the fresh breezes of the Atlantic.
We had engaged with a weather router to help us determine when to leave, and once we were out in the deep blue wonder, determine the best routing to get to our destination. The problem was, Kinsale didn’t want to let us go. One low pressure system after another came marching across the North Atlantic sea. Many of these systems clipped the northern tip of Ireland before proceeding across Scotland and dissipating in Norway. We needed a 2-3 day period of manageable winds – something less than the 25+ knots of winds that these systems churned out. So, we tucked in and kept our minds busy with numerous projects, projects that had not made the ‘A’ list for departure, but now offered us a chance to be further prepared. And, it gave us a chance to get to know Alex better and for her to figure us out. We were really happy to find her. Alex taught sailing at the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club back home in Maine. She also managed their complete waterfront operations. Her goal was to complement her US Coast Guard Captain’s License with additional offshore sea time in order to make a career out of being on the water. We had the offshore miles to give her, and in turn, we were super excited to have another person to stand watch and assist with navigating, sail trimming, and the myriad of other jobs onboard a sailboat at sea. The problem was, we couldn’t get out of Dodge.
Waiting on a weather window with Alex in Kinsale…beer and a fantastic fiddler help make the wait tolerable.Fresh produce provisioning before our departureContinue reading “Fatal Attraction, Ep. 219”
