Single-Handed to Madeira John Golding's Atlantic Adventure

Published 12:20 on 10 Jul 2026

After weeks of battling the weather, our member John Golding has successfully completed the first leg of his remarkable single-handed voyage to Madeira aboard his Rival 34.

Full report and photos:

I was going to sail direct to Madeira from Falmouth and set off from Gosport on the 1st June, but the contrary winds meant that it took 8 days to claw to the Westcountry (2 of those days were in Portland Harbour- not an attractive place!) and when I got to Falmouth I found the winds had shifted to the South!

After a week in Falmouth I was ready to compromise and elected to sail to Brest but, having got the tidal calculation wrong by 2 hours, I was faced with stooging around on a hostile coast or pressing onto La Corunna. I chose the latter , in all it took me 8 days to get to North Spain and tacking into the wind for most of it!
I was very relieved to arrive in La Corunna where I caught up on my sleep and laundry .
I didn't want to have a repeat performance of tacking into the wind and therefore waited a week for the wind to go around to the North. La Corunna is a very pleasant place and the Spanish make the most of their lifestyle.

I had a brief spell of running with the wind when I left La Corunna but it rapidly went downhill and the wind died to about 6-7 knots and the Aries wind vane needs about 9knots to keep control on a run.
That was when my Raymarine tiller pilot , a new replacement, broke. That meant if the wind dropped too much I could try motorsailing if I was prepared to hand steer, but I did not have sufficient fuel on board to motor all the way.
So I was confronted with hand steering in light airs for most of the 2nd half of the trip. Particularly the last day when there had not been a breath of wind the night before and the oily sea was like a millpond and I started the engine at 5am and motored through until 5pm until I berthed in Porto Santa Marina!
I saw a whale on the surface about 50m away and it was certainly as large as my boat. But thankfully no killer whales.



Many dolphin pods , a flying fish being pursued by a predator, and as you know I caught a good sized dorado (about 70 cm long )that kept me fed for 3 days.

I'll move to the main island of Madeira on Saturday and stay until Wednesday the 15/7 when the winds (according to Windy!) are filling in the windless area of the Azores High . On that basis it will take me 5-6 days to get to the eastern-most island of the Azores, Santa Maria. Depending how the time is going I'll also visit São Miguel and then return to Falmouth by the middle of August.