Porto Santo harbour

machurley22

machurley22

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Does anyone have any info about entering Porto Santo harbour in southerly F5/6 for the intrepid Fairwinds crew? The pilot warns against in strong southerlies and the entrance which faces west is about a cable wide but only 8m deep.

Any experience out there?

Thanks in advance.
 
Should be no problem. Suggest getting the sails off before running the entrance. Good shelter once you are in. Big mole to port as you come in and try and shelter in its lee.

If it's all too boistrous to go alongside, anchor in the middle till the weather improves. Boatyard very helpful. Reasonable supermarket in the town. A good port of call. Much better harobour than Funchal.

Sorry if my info is a bit out of date, I was there in 2003.
 
This shows the harbour nicely. Not many boats there when the piccy was taken. Looks much like I remember.

Porto Santo Island is 400m high and you can see it from 40 miles away.
 
I've been in Madiera in a southerly gale with a good swell running and I wouldn't have wanted to enter any of the harbours either Porto Santo, Canical marina or Funchal in those conditions.

It would all depend on the swell at the time, trouble is there aren't many alternatives in those conditions. Canical or the Marina just to the East of Canical was terifying as waves actually wrapped around the harbour wall and broke in the entrance. We sat out the storm bobbing around with a few others, as ropes parted and even cleats pulled out on some
boats.

So yes it's possible depending on the swell, but as others have said once inside there is plenty of room.
 
Good shelter inside but the entrance could be a bit hairy. Watch out for the unlit moorring bouys!

We spent 3 days at anchor there about this time last year - 35knots and couldn't get off the boat. The holding is excellent.
 
Re: Porto Santo harbour - entrance pretty hairy today

Porto Santo Weds 1st November 19.30

I´m sure Dame Ellen would have sacked her entire onshore weather routing team . . .

Spent three hours hove to inside a thunderstorm in 40 knot winds early this morning, then when it spat us out we set off to beat upwind to Porto Santo . . . 17.5 of the wettest, hairiest miles I hve ever sailed, half the genoa out and the engine running at full revs, 35 knots of wind, huge breaking seas . . . never had so much water in the boat, put the lee cockpit gunwhale under at least four times, took inumerable waves over the high side and a fair amount over the deck/sprayhood/everything. Got mild hypothermia . . . doing this sort of thing in Scotland doesn´t bear contemplating.

And as for the marina manager´s "we´re not expecting anything like that" - if that had been the entrance to Dunstaffnage marina it would very quickly have been utterly blocked by random chunks of fibreglass.

Kathy was brilliant - hung onto the tiller for maybe twenty minutes as we careered along almost out of control trying to run from the thunderstorm winds under triple-reefed main, but when we were doing over eight knots and the wind speed was above forty continuosly we had to stop. Crawling up on deck to claw the sail down was strangely exhilarating as I clung to the mast and waves and spray washed over me.

Boat handled very well hove to under bare poles, engine ticking over so we could run all the lights, washboards in and locked - quite cosy, Kathy slept while I stuffed the Ryvita tin with GPS, satphone and HH VHF in case of lightning strike. (It was an evil place, inside that storm - lightning flashes all the time, switched the VHF off as all there was was spooky crackling).

The boat looked a wreck when we got in, sails a shambles, everything soaked, crew complete wrecks. It was one of those wobbly little finger pontoons, and Kathy actually ended up crawling along it on hands and knees. The guy took one look at us and told us to have a rest before completing the paperwork with customs and marina.

So - our first real Atlantic island. See our blog for more details (when I´ve got a chance to write it up)

Fairwinds Goes South
 
Re: Porto Santo harbour - entrance pretty hairy today

Bluidy hell, sounds a bit on the desperate side. Anyway, pleased you've both made it through. Well done!
 
Re: Porto Santo harbour - entrance pretty hairy today

Wow - glad to read you are safe and well. Hope the good vessel Fairwinds hasn't sustained any damage and you are both OK.

Jill xx
 
Re: Porto Santo harbour - entrance pretty hairy today

Fantastic! Well done to all three of you!

I'll consider myself sacked then?

OK so there was a depression (though it was filling) and it looked like you would probably get some F6 on the nose but there shouldn't have been anything remotely like 40 knots for a thousand miles and anyway I don't make the weather, I only look at the little arrows on the computer screen. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I think we'll have to call it a localised storm cell situation and leave it at that. In any case, I don't think you can sack someone if you don't actually pay them anything.

Sounds like Fairwinds and her crew came through their first real ocean test with flying colours. Well done again and we look forward to hearing the full story in due course.

Give my love to Kathy.
 
Re: Porto Santo harbour - entrance pretty hairy today

Sacked? I think you should to the honourable thing and resign. You were taken on because of your Papalcy and there you go getting it all wrong.
And another thing - don't you think sending Kathy your love is a bit near the mark with himself being the jealous kind?
I can just imagine the strife this has likely caused - get back on and send Webby some as well.
 
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