Voyage Day 15 - Wednesday 3 December 2025 (arrival and ashore in Machico)⛅️ Sunny spells19°c NE wind. to Madeira.
Usual morning routine with breakfast done by 0800h. Sails came down in the night and we were motoring all the way to Machico. The lights of Porto Santo were visible before the sun came up. I spent most of the time on deck this morning watching Porto Santo then Madeira come into view as well as the Islas Desertas on our port side. I took a lot of photos. (It was interesting to see Porto Santo in passing. I was last there in 1992 when the development of the island was just getting underway with a new harbour just completed). We dropped anchor in the bay at Machico just before lunch. The afternoon was spent ashore, we are on London/Lisbon time again so gained an hour this afternoon. We should be on this time in Tenerife too. We were dropped on the Marina pier and went looking for the bus stop for the bus to Funchal for tomorrow, that done we sat having a beer overlooking the beach. On our way back to the pier we passed the Marina, stopping on the way for an ice cream. We caught the 1800h shuttle to the ship. Supper at 1930h then I edited some pictures for the next blog post. Bed at 2215h.

Voyage Day 13 - Monday 1 December 2025
⛅️Sunny spells, dry, wind moving round to N then NE, 16°c.
Usual morning routine. Alarm at 0705h, breakfast at 0730h. Throughout the morning I have alternated reading with making notes on my iPad and playing Solitaire. I have spent some time on deck helping with sail handling and trimming. Overnight we had motored with the topsails and the course set. Then the wind dropped and all the sails came down. We folded the course and stowed it. After lunch the wind picked up again from the NE and over the course of the afternoon, all of the gaff sails and all of the foresails were set. Sailing around 5- 6 kn (estimated) around 1900h. After supper, showered and went to my bunk to read and then sleep.
​Voyage Day 14 - Tuesday 2 December 2025
🌦️Rain overnight, sunny spells, cooler breeze today, NE wind.
Awake at 0615h. Got up at 0705h on the alarm. On deck was still dark, but the main, schooner and forestay sail were set and pulling nicely. After breakfast I put on my jacket and sat on the bridge starboard seat and chatted to Kathleen (2022 Iberian Peninsula voyage) She recounted her experiences sailing on Bark Europa’s Pacific voyage, remarking how expensive they have become since Covid and their accident in the Dry Dock in Cape Town. Later I read and finished The Man Who Died Twice and had a nap before lunch. During that time, more sails went up - both topsails. The rest of the day went on sorting out my camera gear and tidying the cabin a bit. Not much space for two of us to be messy! (Not much of interest happening on deck that you haven't already seen, so I have included some pictures of the cabin, en suite facilities and other parts of the ship from differing viewpoints. The ship is only 50m long and can have up to 30 people on board, so there is not much room with a full complement of Permanent and Voyage Crew).

Voyage Day 12 - Sunday 30 November 2025
🌦️Sunny spells, strong north westerly winds, 16°c, heavy seas.
Not a good night! The ship was rolling a lot, which happens when there is a large swell and we are running before the wind (wind behind us). The seas are quite big 3-4m swell but the wind last night decreased. We had the Topsail, Mainsail, Forestay Sail and the Inner Jib set. Later the wind turned to the North and we set the Main, both Topsails and the Course after lunch. I went on deck a couple of times to check the weather and the sails. I tried to help put up the Course but there were too many hands on deck so I just watched. During the afternoon I caught up on these notes, played solitaire, read my book. Nico, one of the Dutch guests on board is from a dairy farming family and brought some of his farm produced cheese for us to try. His family have been farming in the Netherlands for 135 years. The cheese was very nice, tasty with a mature bite, it had small holes and a Gouda-like texture. I am also reading quickly through my last book, the Richard Osman one. The Captain told us we will be in Madeira on 3rd December, which is when I can update my blog. (I am pleased to report that my photo book ‘Arctic Norway’ is still aboard in the bookcase and after three and a half years, it is in one piece, although the  hard cover is slightly worn. Testament to the glue and stitching I did on the binding. It has also completed a circumnavigation which is noteworthy 😊). No photos from on deck today.

Voyage Days 10 & 11  
Friday 28 November 2025 - Leaving Vigo ☁️ dull, cloudy, 14°c, dry, wind variable (motor sailing)Breakfast at 0730h, then on deck to take down and stow the tent, bring in the gangplank and cast off the mooring lines. We then motored upstream, turning before the bridge, to sail downstream with the topsail, fore staysail, main and schooner set. We reached the sea and the wind died. We motor - sailed waiting for good winds for m the north or west in the next 15 hours or so. We are not on the watch list for this voyage as we asked not to do nights because of balance and visual shortcomings, so are ‘freelance’ to take part as and when we can.  I spent the early afternoon reading and making notes up until supper and continued afterwards too. I have nearly finished my second Peter James book this evening. Light’s out at 2200h tonight - earplugs in as the change in temperature means we can sleep with the cabin door latched open so it could be noisy when the watches change at night.
Saturday 29 November 2025 🌦️cloudy, sunny spells, then rain pm. 16°c. Wind NNE variable, Force 7 later.Breakfast as usual at 0730h. I managed a reasonable night’s sleep. I was awake at 0600h when the generator came on. On deck the sails were much the same and we were still motor sailing. When the wind changed to the NE, more sails went up, the Mizzen, Schooner as well as the Topsail, Forestay Sail and inner jib. That kept us busy until lunch. I went for a nap after lunch. When I went back on deck I found it had rained. I finished making notes for my blog and chat. I  finished ‘One of Us is Dead’ by Peter James so I am now reading ‘The Man who Died Twice’ by Richard Osman. After supper I had a shower before the sea got too rough. Ready for my bunk at 2130h. (I only got the camera out once during these two days - see below)

Voyage Days 8 & 9 - Wednesday 26 November and Thursday 27 November 2025 - in port at Vigo
Wednesday 🌤️ sunny spells, 14°c dry but cold overnight. Up for breakfast at 0730h. Several guests were on early breakfast for their transport to Porto. Over the early part of the morning, everyone slowly drifted away with the last 10 leaving together in a fleet of taxis. Angie and I made plans to walk to the port office for information on getting to and from the city. We found we could walk to the central part of the city in about an hour. We decided to do that but we did get the number of a taxi and details of the bus stop in case! It was a fairly interesting walk through the car loading quay adjacent to the Marina. Here thousands of cars per day from the Peugeot production plant in the city were loaded for export on a constant stream of car specialist car carriers. On the other side of t he harbour we passed the ship building and fishing part of the port. We stopped for a coffee opposite the major shopping mall next to the Liner Terminal and from here we soon found the tourist information office. We were told about a couple of walking tours that we could do and some of the more interesting features of the city. As we left the office we spotted an open topped bus tour about to leave so made a quick decision to join that and leave the walking tour until tomorrow. It only cost €7.50 each for a two hour tour with 3 stops. It was just enough to give a good overview of the city’s major sites, history and economy. First stop was the Castelo de Castro, a fortification set on the highest peak of the old town. Looked indomitable! Following that was the cultural museum and then a stop at a beautiful beach overlooking the mouth of the river estuary. We got back to the Tourist Information Office  around 2pm and found a restaurant for lunch. From here we returned to the Marina by taxi and kept busy relaxing and writing up notes for the blog. It was strange to be on a ‘not so crowded’ ship, with only the crew and four other guests for company.
The photo gallery for these two days will be merged as it was not easy to get decent photos from the top of a moving bus. Hopefully this will give an overview of our experience of the city.
​Thursday ☀️Clear first thing 🌥️ cloudy later 14°c dry. I woke up at 0700h. Angie had a bad night with her cold and I didn’t sleep well either. After breakfast we spent some time tidying up and read for a while, not want to leave too early for our trip back to Vigo centre. Our plan was to walk out of the port to the bus stop but the route number that we were given by the port office did not seem to run from that bus stop. After picking up some throat sweets from the Pharmacy we got a Taxi to the Tourist Office and started by climbing the hill up to the city’s main square. After a stop for coffee we kept climbing to find our way to the Castro Fort. Angie did not want to climb all the way to the fort, so waited for me while I went to take photos. The views over the harbour and the river were spectacular and using my zoom lens I got some good photos. I found my way back to Angie and we returned to the town centre for lunch around 1400h. It was a pretty basic restaurant and we were advised to sit inside otherwise we would have been bothered by feral pigeons and gulls. (They were undeterred  however. While we were eating a couple of pigeons managed to fly in when the door was opened).  An hour later we got a taxi back to the Marina after looking at some interesting sculptures by the Liner Terminal. The new guests had started to arrive, including Kathleen who was with us on the Iberian Peninsula trip in 2022.   Before dinner we had introductions. Fernardi and Anya made Angie a birthday cake and we all wished her a Happy Birthday after dinner. We are now looking forward to setting sail for Madeira and then Tenerife.