We had read about the deserted island called Salvagem Grande and liked to stop there on our way from Madeira to Canary Islands.
160 Nm south of Madeira, it took us 24 hours to go there this time by engine with absolutely no wind and flat sea in full moon shine.
We saw a sea turtle and some dolphins on the way.
Salvagem Grande is an very isolated island outside of the normal sailing routes and Mon Ami was boat number 20 visiting the island this year the 26 June.
Salvagem is a nature reserve park and you need a license to visit. Its guarded by two policemen and two nature wardens and a mechanical engineer and a dog. These people alters every second week but the dog stays. The dogs name is Salvage and she has lived on the island for more than 12 years. In her hole life she has only left the Salvagem island ones for the dentist in Funchal.
The wardens and the policemen was very friendly and somewhat excited to get us as their first visitors after 14 days the first time on their shift.
Besides the guards, there is no people living on Salvagem. It’s some times visited by biologists who investigate the Cagarras birds in the island.
Now where 3 biologists on the island.
One of the nature wardens showed us around the island and we had a walk all the way up to the lighthouse that had guided us in the night sailing and was seen in 30 Nm distance.
The Cagarras Birds
We where told that Cagarras birds fights hard for a good place for their nests. After they are born on Salvagem they fly out for the sea and will come back on land for 5 years! They fly all the way down to South Africa and are monitored by a digital tracker that the biologists have ring-marked them with. After 5 years at sea
are they old enough to lay their first eggs and then they return to Salvagem and place their egg in the same nest as they was born! It’s amazing!
Sailing Mon Ami around the world 