Tin Tin's Sailing Calendar

Saturday 12 November 2016

The Salvagem Islands

I woke at 08:00 to relieve Mark to find that the Salvage Islands were just 15 miles ahead. By 10:00 we were in rough seas approaching the rocky NW approach. The depths suddenly decreased from 4000 metres to 80 and I called Mark from sleep to come and see. The island shows orange red layers buckled and twisted and then capped with a thick flat layer of black basalt. A red and white pole on the highest point carries a light. Then we rounded a little headland to find the marked anchorage and a buoy in a very uninviting cleft in the rocks. Ashore there is a building and potentially there are people there who monitor the nature reserve, but we didn't see anyone.




So we turned and made our way out of the various offlying dangers into deep water. The other yacht, Vahine, (Finnish) had nearly caught up by now, but were less adventurous and stayed well out in deep water. Despite their size they kept disappearing behind the large waves!

We set sail for Tenerife, 90 miles due south, noting that the barometer had dropped 3millibars in the last three hours, a sure sign of an impending blow.

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