Passage Day 5: Cascais (Portugal) to Porto Santo (Arquipelago de Madeira)

That is it!

I want off this boat! Last night the humans destroyed the trip for me.

I have put up with stormy seas, having to relieve myself on the boat. Only a 44 foot boat to run down and no place to get comfortable when it really gets rolly. But last night was the last straw. They throw my favorite doughnut tuggy toy over board. That is right. They have no respect for my positions and just carelessly throw it over the side of the boat. I heard that, at sea, personality conflicts can arise, but this is just disrespect. I get no respect, no respect.

It is day 5 with these two humans. They did warn me that if the winds were light we were going to go no where fast, but I did not expect it to take this long. We are about 50 nm out from Porto Santo. They are too cheap to turn the engine on so we waddle along at 2-4 nm towards are destination. Besides the ‘toy gate’ incident last night, I guess it has not been so bad today.

In fact last night, once I had settled down to the idea that my toy was actually gone, it was a beautiful starry night. There was no moon so the stars appeared even brighter and made light streaks across the flat rolls of the ocean swell. The milky way was the brightest. It was like a heavenly ‘yellow brick road’ that ran from main land Portugal over our heads and ended in Madeira.

No improvement in the winds in the morning.

The humans just sun bathed and read their books. With the lighter winds the waves finally settled. The boat now gently rose up and down with the long ocean swell. A movement that was easier to live and work with on the boat.

As evening and sun set approaches it does not look like the winds will improve, so it will be tomorrow before we see land. That is fine with us, as we would rather make a day light approach to the small island, off the north east of Madeira, called Porto Santo.

We feel we have finally done an ‘Ocean Passage’ even though it was only 6 days. We have left the mainland behind and will only be making land fall at islands for the next year or two. It is really starting to sink in that we are going to make it across the Atlantic eventually.

Bye for now. 51.2 nm to go before I get a run on the beach!