Madeira to Azores in July-ish time

[Minerva]

I have the domestic provisional green light to take a summer off work next year, a year in which I have a significant birthday to go off cruising for the summer. General objective to complete a qualifying passage for both OCC membership and also to tick the box for Yachtmaster Ocean and then have some family cruising somewhere warm. Ocean passage either solo or with crew of friends then my young family flying out to meet the boat.

Main point of interest is The Azores. Been there via Boeing and quite keen to recreate the journey via my own Moody to daub a bit of paint on the dock outside Peter Sport Cafe...

Looking at Windy just now, and it looks like using the Portuguese trades to sail down to Madeira, then reach across to Horta looks generally doable with potentially less upwind work and potentially fewer adverse currents.

Question being therefore is Madeira a worthwhile detour? and secondly has anyone done the same passage who can attest to the expected conditions Madeia to Azores mid summer?

Thanks,

 

[Bobc]

Take plenty of fuel

 

[Stingo]

I assume your departure will be from the UK? If so, once you've crossed Biscay, don't miss the Spanish Rias.

 

[Minerva]

I assume your departure will be from the UK? If so, once you've crossed Biscay, don't miss the Spanish Rias.

Yes. Depart Oban, head west of Ireland and then south. Intend to give mainland Europe a wide berth and do the outward leg in one go. Realistically only got 3 months to play with away from work…

 

[doris]

Yes. Depart Oban, head west of Ireland and then south. Intend to give mainland Europe a wide berth and do the outward leg in one go. Realistically only got 3 months to play with away from work…

At least you should be out of orca territory. A very nice two week potter south, just take plenty of books, music and fuel.

 

[dunedin]

Yes. Depart Oban, head west of Ireland and then south. Intend to give mainland Europe a wide berth and do the outward leg in one go. Realistically only got 3 months to play with away from work…

No idea of Azores weather, but is July a bit late to depart for 3 months?

 

[Minerva]

No idea of Azores weather, but is July a bit late to depart for 3 months?

Realistically leave in June, but plan the Madeira to Azores leg in July...

 

[GHA]

It's all lovely! Maybe a better tactic is look at a few places then do a good long passage somewhere nice and just see what happens in the real world, cruising plans can change completely in the space of a dinghy ride ashore, thinking of plans as no more than a guess at what might come about in the future seems to work well imho, less danger of trying to stick to them for more than a few minutes

Madeira is lovely, but so are the Azores, it's all lovely.

Good site here to look at wind probabilities based on historical Sat data DeepZoom Trip

 

[jdc]

Madeira is lovely for walking / exploring, but few marinas. We went to Quinto do Lorde on the SE tip and were made to feel welcome (and a got a good CA discount). Funchal wasn't so nice - the marina that is, so we hired a car. Porto Santo (another island to the NE) is also charming, and you should visit (hire bicycles). We visited Madeira in late November and had beautiful weather. You can haul out there also.

Us in Quinto do Lorde: not exactly the largest craft there...

Ditto the Azores (as GHA said already) but Peter's bar in Horta (on Faial) seems really a place for yachts coming from the Americas towards Europe, and a bit of a disappointment otherwise I felt (at least it was really crowded in late May, it may be quite different in August). Terceira and São Miguel were actually nicer for visitors imho, and Graciosa is also lovely I gather, but I haven't visited.

 

[webcraft]

Santa Maria is a good landfall from Madeira, less than 500nm. It's a very pretty island with a fantastic marina.

 

[capnsensible]

Madeira is lovely for walking / exploring, but few marinas. We went to Quinto do Lorde on the SE tip and were made to feel welcome (and a got a good CA discount). Funchal wasn't so nice - the marina that is, so we hired a car. Porto Santo (another island to the NE) is also charming, and you should visit (hire bicycles). We visited Madeira in late November and had beautiful weather. You can haul
Us in Quinto do Lorde: not exactly the largest craft there...

Ditto the Azores (as GHA said already) but Peter's bar in Horta (on Faial) seems really a place for yachts coming from the Americas towards Europe, and a bit of a disappointment otherwise I felt (at least it was really crowded in late May, it may be quite different in August). Terceira and São Miguel were actually nicer for visitors imho, and Graciosa is also

Graciosa is indeed a lovely island to visit. Probably best done coming from the west, its a bit of uphill from the main island group.

There are much better bars than Cafe Peter Sport. Hyped out of all recognition on its ability to deliver. More like Disney land.....

 

[blush2]

We spent three months in the Azores in 2009, May to July, sailing from the Canaries to Santa Maria. Other islands we visited were Sao Miguel, Terceira, Faial and Sao George. Terceira was our favourite and we were there for the festival.

Angra was very busy during the festival, the racing fleet came from the other islands to join in. Visiting boats were invited to join the regatta.

I think our painting in Horta has long gone. We visited the whaling museum and Capelinhos volcano whilst we were there.

 

[capnsensible]

Last time there we got a people carrier sized cab for 5 of us to tour the island. Also included the disused lighthouse on the west side. Great day out, stopped for tapas in an out of the way restaurant that was fab.

 

[blush2]

The lighthouse was buried by ash from the eruption and subsequently dug out. There's an underground exhibition there as well. We were kindly lent a car by a British resident.

 

[capnsensible]

The lighthouse was buried by ash from the eruption and subsequently dug out. There's an underground exhibition there as well. We were kindly lent a car by a British resident.

The exhibition room is a good place to say things like 'prepare to die Mr. Bond'

 

[geem]

We are in the Azores at the moment. We have been here for 2 months. The weather has been excellent.
The jester challenge boats arrived here from the UK at the end of June. Sub 30ft boats single handing. We will be heading back direct from the UK next summer. Missing out the orca attacks along the Spanish and Portuguese coast, being a prime objective. We will head from the Azores next year down to Madiera, Canaries then on to Cape Verdes when the 90 days runs out.
Lots of boats are coming and going from everywhere here. Its a busy place in the summer

 

[srm]

We did Southern Ireland, Kilmore Quay, direct to Praia da Vitoria, Terceira during July 2014. This passage would tick your boxes for OCC and YM Ocean x2.
Have been in Horta a couple of times when paid to skipper a charter boat but did not like it. Not much choice for places to eat/drink/shop when compared with either Praia or Angra on Ilha Terceira. Velas on Sao Jorge, just a few miles from Horta, has a much more pleasant marina. You can daube paint on the breakwaters on other islands if you need to leave a mark.

However, beware of visiting Terceira, there is something about the island that keeps a lot of voyaging sailors here.

 

[capnsensible]

We did Southern Ireland, Kilmore Quay, direct to Praia da Vitoria, Terceira during July 2014. This passage would tick your boxes for OCC and YM Ocean x2.
Have been in Horta a couple of times when paid to skipper on a charter boat but did not like it. Not much choice for places to eat/drink/shop when compared with either Praia or Angra on Ilha Terceira. Velas on Sao Jorge, just a few miles from Horta, has a much more pleasant marina. You can daube paint on the breakwaters on other islands if you need to leave a mark.

However, beware of visiting Terceira, there is something about the island that keeps a lot of voyaging sailors here.

If you see an old double ender cruising around called Missy Molly, that's an old friend who also visited the Azores and never left !

 

[geem]

We did Southern Ireland, Kilmore Quay, direct to Praia da Vitoria, Terceira during July 2014. This passage would tick your boxes for OCC and YM Ocean x2.
Have been in Horta a couple of times when paid to skipper a charter boat but did not like it. Not much choice for places to eat/drink/shop when compared with either Praia or Angra on Ilha Terceira. Velas on Sao Jorge, just a few miles from Horta, has a much more pleasant marina. You can daube paint on the breakwaters on other islands if you need to leave a mark.

However, beware of visiting Terceira, there is something about the island that keeps a lot of voyaging sailors here.

The free anchorage at Praia being one. The other harbours charge you half the marina fee to anchor.
As somebody who is unbiased as to which island is the nicest, since I don't live there, I really enjoyed Horta and the island of Faial. From a sailing perspective, it is the centre of Azores sailing. So much happening with all the boats arriving from the Caribbean. Its easy to leave the boat there and get a ferry to neighbouring islands to explore. Something that isn't so easy with a larger boat. The marinas on some islands are small and often full.
Ponta Degada is not my favourite place. Nasty big city marina, prone to wash, being in a commercial harbour. Its noisy, smelly and too busy.
There is the most to do on Sao Miguel but it's very touristy at this time of year and they love to charge for everything. Even so, we did some lovely hikes with lots of waterfalls to swim in.
There is something for everyone here and exploring all the islands in summer as great fun. I wouldn't want to be here in winter since it has twice the rainfall of Manchester but half the rainfall in summer

 

[srm]

Yes the Praia anchorage was rather full earlier this week. Also, there was a boat anchored in the bay west of Monte Brasil off Angra, possibly dodging the anchorage charge.
Praia Marina is owned/run by the local authority. There is a small private marina on Sao Miguel and all the rest are run by Portos dos Acores, a company owned by the Government of the Azores.