Riding the Portuguese trades
- heloisebuckland
- Jul 7
- 3 min read
For most blue water sailors, trade winds form a critical part of planning your ocean voyaging.
The first trade winds to be encountered on leaving northern Europe are the Portuguese trades, which for most of the year blow from the north down the western side of the Iberian Peninsula. They vary considerably in strength – and sometimes don’t even blow at all and can reverse into the southern quadrant, often bringing fog and rainy weather to the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. However, once they settle in, often fuelled by a strong high-pressure system over the Azores to the west, they provide a wonderful fair wind to send a sailing boat South. As Saecwen’s month long cruise through the Galician Rias of northwest Spain drew to a close, all eyes were on the long-term weather forecast to see when the Portuguese trade winds would return after several days of foggy southerly weather. So, when our weather apps started flashing up the imminence of fresh northerlies It was time to head south.
o arrive in Lisbon area in daylight we planned our passage to leave the Spanish port of Baiona at sunset. Initially we had to motor for a couple of hours to clear the land and get out of the wind shadow of the local mountains. However shortly after midnight, the northerly wind appeared. Firstly, a light 9 knots – classified as a Force 3 on the Beaufort Scale, which enabled us to set full sail and make a gentle 4 knots of boat speed. By dawn the wind had risen to 15 knots – a strong Force 4, necessitating our first reef in the mainsail. By the following evening it was blowing a consistent force 5 – gusting up to Force 6 (24 knots of wind), with a big following sea creating surf like conditions behind us. With Saecwen now flying along at 6-7 knots we reduced sail further to 2 reefs in the mainsail and a tiny foresail.
Heloise and I operated on 3 hours on - 3 hours off watch system – which meant that unless we were both needed on deck for a sail change each of us could get at least a couple of hours sleep in any one go. Our first night at sea was magical with a totally clear sky blazing with stars and the tiny sliver of the first appearance of the new moon.
Our second night was much wilder, with the sky clouded over and big following seas surging all around us. Navigationally it was also quite eventful given we had to pass through a narrow gap between the headland of Peniche and the reef-strewn Berlengas islands. We also crossed the famous Nazar Trench – where the deep ocean floor cuts right through to just a few hundred meters off the coast, creating the world famous Nazaré surfing wave where the ocean surge coming up the trench meets the steep cliffs of the Portuguese coast. We were also surrounded by fishing boats, some of which showed up clearly on our AIS, but many did not. Dawn on our second day found us just north of Cabo Da Roca – the most westerly point of Continental Europe. Once we had literally surfed past this landmark (the wind was now gusting a strong Force 6 off the headland) we could round up into the shelter of the beginning of the huge Tagus Estuary which leads up to Lisbon.
By now we were keeping a wary eye open for orcas. While we would love to see these magnificent creatures close up, the local orca pod on this coast has developed an anti-social habit of grabbing hold of sailing boats rudders, resulting in many yachts suffering serious damage to their steering, with two actually being sunk. Over the last 24 hours there had been reported orca “attacks” on yachts both to the north and the south of us. However, our only wildlife encounter was a magnificent pod of leaping dolphins – who joyfully welcomed us to Portugal.
By the middle of the day, 40 hours out of Baiona, Saecwen was safely tied up in the marina of the port of Cascais. Here we plan to spend the next couple of weeks preparing for our next offshore passage - when we will head back out into the Portuguese trades to continue our journey south.
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