LifeFourPointZerovideo
Open Ocean Sailing, Ireland to Madeira | Ep. 201
27 February 2026 · 23 min · 2K views · Portugal
Sailboat surges forward under vibrant pink spinnaker
What this video covers
Karen and Tom depart Kinsale, Ireland, on a 1,200-nautical-mile passage to Madeira, arriving in just under nine days.0:42 Departure is delayed an hour when the anchor wraps around a submerged mooring block; they free it by motoring seven to nine slow circles around the obstruction, watching chain marks to gauge progress.2:50 Day one brings 20–22 knots with three reefs in both jib and main and rough, uneven seas.3:56 By day three conditions ease to long-period swell and 6–7 knots of true wind, prompting them to fly the code zero for the first time that season.7:10 Watch schedule settles at 2.5-hour shifts overnight and 3-hour shifts during the day, with a primary and secondary watchkeeper.7:41 Past Cape Finisterre on day five they shift to following seas and downwind sailing, dropping the mainsail and poling out the genoa alone for low-maintenance boat speed of 15–21 knots of wind.13:55 An asymmetrical spinnaker goes up on day seven or eight in 12–15 knots for a daytime run.19:14 They track a container ship bound for Doha passing within half a mile near the Gibraltar shipping lanes.18:03 Karen celebrates her 60th birthday at sea with Tom's homemade ice cream.9:00 The passage finishes at an anchorage on an island just south of Madeira after nine days.21:09
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