finally under way to Porto Santo

We had been delaying our departure to the Madeira Islands day by day as the weather was ugly with rain and the wind from where we wanted to go.

Yesterday the wind started to veer and this morning we were able to leave Portimao at with a nice NNW. Passing Sao Vicente the wind picked up into the mid 20 knot range and we are now underway rather fast, averaging a bit over 8 knots. Very rough sea at the cape but getting significantly better now as we approach midnight and have sailed some 150 miles.

This entry will be sent with via winlink over SSB, a first try how that works. Obviously we cannot seriously send pictures along, but there was not much to see, except for some freighters sparkling waves.

Plan is to arrive in Porto Santo sometime during daylight on Thursday, if we keep going like this, it will be very early.

Back in the water and ready to leave these shores

After a 12 day break, back in Germany, during which we became grand parents, we returned to Taniwani on May 22, with our bags full of spare parts for the bow thruster.
Thanks to the Sopromar team, Taniwani was almost ready, with the fixed rudder fitted again. Soon the leg of the thruster was reassembled and it was on us to reconnect the steering and reinstall the bow-thruster.

All this was done quickly and by Tuesday morning Taniwani was ready to get back into its element. But as it was the day on which new cables were fitted to the travel-lift, we had to wait for another day.
This was easy, as we were in good company, since sister-ship Lahaina had joined us on the hard while we were away. First picture is Taniwani's bow with Lahaina in the back.

Finally on Wednesday we were lifted back into the water. There was some excitement as the newly fitted bow-thruster caught the front belt of the travel-lift when we were told to back out of the box.
Unusual as this is one of the most experienced travel-lift crews we had seen around the world, and only because of this we had the bow thruster out and ready to combat the gusty side wind if need be.
Luckily the maneuver only lifted Taniwani's bow and stopped our exit, without doing any further damage.

Eventually we took off to the anchorage at Portimao. After some 'sea trials' checking sails and water-maker, we are back again to this anchorage, now waiting for a small depression to pass before setting off to Porto Santo and Madeira.

Light at the end of the maintenance tunnel

Rudder taken out and cut open for inspection. Looks like suspected corrosion isn't that bad. Certainly water had infiltrated between shaft and fiberglass and a lot of crumbled and wet filler was found. Luckily corrosion is not so bad that we would have to worry about structural weakness of the shaft. Joao, the local epoxy magician thinks he will easily fix it so it last at least 20 more years - we shall see...

More of a problem are the spare parts for the MaxPower bow-thruster:After a week, the Portuguese dealer told us it would take to the end of May to get the spares. Luckily a call to Sailtec in Germany revealed that they have the needed assembly in stock. Too late to ship it to Portugal while we are still here, so we will pick it up in Germany and bring it with us when we return to the boat.

But this means we will not be able to bring Taniwani back to the berth in Albufeira before we fly back home. Taniwani will have to wait in exactly the same well known spot, where in 2009 the major repair took place.

At least we now hope that when we return, all we need to do is to assemble and refit the bowthruster and then get back in the water quickly.