Category: sailing

Louise join Mats onboard Mon Ami the 10th June 2018 in Lagos, Portugal.

You can see in the background signs of a woman onboard.

In the morning we had a smell of diesel under the master bed. We have 2 tanks of 250liter each under the bed. A few days earlier had we topped up the fuel tanks and they where now completely full and ready for the 450 Nm sail for Madeira. Yes we plan to sail and not use the engine. Full diesel tanks is only for safety but they can also cause problem.

The level indicator of the port side tank was leaking and we had no spare packing. We called the super service minded manager Hugo on Sopromar shipyard. He came personally on Sunday morning with his colleague Paulo and a new packaging. The problem was that all tanks where completely full and they could not open the level indicator. That would course diesel to flood under the bed. Paulo used an electric pump and several jerrycans to lower the diesel level so they could replace the packing.

Sopromar solved the problem in a few hours without charges on a Sunday morning!

S/Y Mon Ami of Sweden could depart the same evening for a 72 hours sail to Porto Santo in Madeira.

First long sail

This was the first long sail for Mats and Louise with three Days and three Nights.

Normally would Louise have the first evening and early night watch but with all the heavy cargo traffic around the west corner of Europe Cabo de Sao Vicente did we decide to change.

Mats had the first watch until 2 am when we had passed the traffic separation zone. When we tried to change was it quite rolly waves and completely dark. Without any moonshine was it impossible to see the horizon and no lights visible to get any reference point for stability. – Louise got immediately sea sick and Mats had to continue the night watch until dawn.

Problem with Autopilot steering.

We have a hydraulic steering on Mon Ami. With her 30 tons weight she needs some power to maneuver. We have two redundant Raymarine autopilots with separate electronics and hydraulic pumps.

During the night we here’d a squeezing noice sporadically from the rudder. It seems to come when the autopilot quickly returns from hard port angle. It did not cause any problem but we will have somebody to look into it in Las Palmas when we leave the boat for the autumn. It worst case can we shift to the other pilot.

Light in the darkness

We saw a very strong light on our course-line the second night. It had no AIS and nothing on the radar until we where 2 Nm close.

It turned out to be a tugboat toeing a 3 km long fish farm from Madeira to Portugal main land. We almost sailed in to the very long net in the dark. It had only small flashlights every 100 meters. We had to change our course 30 degrees to avoid it. It would really have been a disaster to be captured in a 3 km fish net in the middle of the night 200 Nm from land.

Land Ohoy!

We had calculated to average between 6,2 and 7,5 knots to arrive in daylight. We had a very good sail with 10-20 knots of wind. It got lower in the end so we had to use the engine to ensure that we arrived before darkness.

We found squid on deck after the long sail to Madeira.

After a few days sailing and socializing along Algarve coastline was it time for some golf.

Mikael and Peter was not playing but took our new Brompton folding bikes all from the marina up the hills to the golf club.

We did not think of the fact that we where now 6 guys and two bikes going back with the small Taxi.

Mats had to climb into the back of the car with the two bikes for the journey back.

We had some nice days and night’s in Lagos old town and maria.

Portuguese brandy in hot glasses was s popular show.

A week went by very fast with the company of good friends.

Now the five guys are leaving and Mats stay onboard having a few hours to clean the ship before Louise arrive onboard the same evening.

Thanks Peter, Mikael, Sören, Jörgen and Jonas for a great sailing and golf week in Portugal!

Not much of a crew after a night in Vilamoura.

No more comments needed…

It all started when we entered into our berth in Vilamoura. Next to Mon Ami on the same finger pontoon was a old motor yacht with two guys onboard.

Like five minutes after we stopped our engine was we offered 6 beers and a taste from of the meat from the neighbors grill. The two guys was Alex and Alex and they was almost over friendly. They had a bar-sized beer tap on aft deck.

We turned back their hospitality with Swedish herring, hard bread and snaps.

Later on a marvelous barbecue dinner with a “Tomahawk steak”. We ended up in an Irish pub with a very good cover band playing.

Next morning we departed from Albufeira and sat sail towards Faro.

With Mon Ami’s draft of 2.7 meters is it not possible to sail all the way up to Faro and that was not our plan.

Faro is located in a swamp created by the tide waters. In this low land does the 2,5 m tide make a huge difference on the landscape. We entered in mid water level and had a 3 knot current with us through the entrance.

Louise and Mats has been here before and we know a good anchorage a few nautical miles to the east. If you anchor in the wrong please in high waters will you be stranded when the tide sets down.

We anchored outside the Gypsy village on the peninsula Iiha da Culatra and took the dinghy ashore.

It was quite windy and we got splashed well in the two trips to get all six guys ashore.

Iiha de Culatra was a strange place. All very sandy. No roads and old tractors was left here and there where they have broken down.

Small houses with a gangway instead of street and even a school. We looked definitely as gringos in our sailing clothes and life jackets.

Back on board Mon Ami did we fired-up our Magma grill and had a very nice dinner onboard in the cockpit.