Ciao Madeira

Well, the permanent crew for the next three months has assembled, and we're ready to go!

The wind has veered to the North East, so we're sailing to the Canaries this afternoon. After Spencer arrived yesterday, we motorsailed to Funchal so Ines and him could visit the town, while still allowing us a speedy departure. We arrived last night after dark, but I've come to know the marina quite well from all our landing here with the dinghy when we were here earlier.

So today we say farewell to Madeira, and have one last splendid Portuguese coffee with a sweet before we go.

Passage to Spain

Well, I made it to one exhibition on Madeira, in the lovely village of Camacha. It was the wicker basket factory and store I visited and I even bought a laundry basket which fits nicely between the two doors in the aft cabin.


In the factory, two men were busy making the various wicker weavings but as far as I'm concerned, the technique is best used for making baskets. I don't really go for all the display stuff such as entire zoos, replicas of boats, which will founder instantly, and various quite useless wicker things.

It was a nice day with the sun out for a couple of hours, and I spent quite some time on a terrace with Dorian Gray, which I finished that evening. In the end, I thought it mostly good and although the style isn't really what I prefer, I did enjoy reading most of it. The annoying part is when an elaborate description is given of the collections Gray builds. After 5 pages of various types of cloth, jewels etc., I kind of gave up and skipped to the action.

My days alone are at an end today, with Ines arriving tomorrow morning and Spencer on Wednesday. The time has gone by much faster than expected, and certainly less tedious than in Póvoa. I walked along the Island a lot, and kept myself busy with the occasional coffee in a typical pastelaria.

But tomorrow we'll plan for Tenerife, a short trip South, and 7 months before we'll see Portugal again in the Azores.

Boca do Risco

Flowers flowers flowers.


I finally did the coastal walk to Boca do Risco, starting from Porto da Cruz. The weather was great, the flowers abundant as well as the Germans. The first part was very steep until I reached the cable car at the end of the road and the start of the coastal trail.

At an altitude of about 300 meters the hike up to Boca do Risco is carved in the sheer cliff walls. This makes for some impressive sights and a few rocky sections.


The view from the pass is very impressive, from the 350m drop on one side to the wooded valley on the other.


Quite some forest fire damage up there, and a sloping descent until I reached the Machico-Caniçal levada with new cemented walls as part of a European funded project.


Finally, upon reaching the tunnel, the bus stop was right next to the levada with the bus arriving 15 minutes later to take me down to Machico.

There was a bicycle race in the centre, so I sat down on a terrace for coffee and some apple pie, to enjoy the commotion. A tasty ending to a 14 km walk and a day well spent.

Senhora de Piedade

If all Portuguese have something in common, it's their love of religious festivals. After attending several on the mainland, this was my first in Madeira. Every third Sunday of September, our mother of mercy (a senhora de piedade) is celebrated. The town of Caniçal - next to Machico - becomes a big fair with giant barbecues and long spits with meat.

I happened to pass it at the end of a walk around the Pico do Facho and got some of the ambiance where everyone boards fishing boats and they make a round of the bay.



In the town itself, a lot of people had gathered for the procession and although it rained from time to time, nobody seemed to mind.

When I got back to Machico in a very hot and full bus, my underwear had dried. I had to put it inside because the intermittent rain kept it wet, but after a day everything is now dry.



I hope I can dry the rest of the laundry outside - if I get it done because I haven't found a washing machine yet. Otherwise it'll be Canaries.

Fishing is hazardous

Fishing is dangerous, as I just found out while hauling in my warps after three days against the harbour wall. Some idiot fisher on the quai had gotten a hook and line into my mooring warp and of course the hook sliced across my palm. Lucky for me, it didn't happen just as I was casting off the long lines to return to the moored whaling museum boat I had been against a couple of days earlier.



So I now have a painful wound on the inside of my right hand, which makes anything I do into a less than pleasant business. And some of my plans concerning odd jobs to do on the boat will have to wait.

Meanwhile, Machico is still a nice town with no obvious indication this is the third largest city in Madeira. The only thing not easy to find is a laundromat. I only found a laundry service which charges 15 Euro for 5 kg, which is a bit steep as laundry prices go. Since it has rained intermittently all day, I wasn't going to hang the laundry anyway, but tomorrow finding a cheaper laundry is top of the list. That list holds a lot more, so I certainly know what to do after the hand gets better.

Cruising Madeira

It was fun, being in Funchal again. A bit swelly as anchorages go, but close to the marina and still offering enough protection against the ocean waves.

We tried to circumnavigate the island, but lack of wind made us decide to turn back from Calheta and go to the other end around the South. So we got some wind but still had to motor for 3 hours to get to Machico, where we moored against a German wooden ship with a Czech crew on board. The two-masted yacht is on a circumnavigation - but the real kind, where you go around the world - with different crews.

So today there is some time for getting the outboard starter working properly and go for a snorkel and a walk along the coast.

Cruising Madeira is a lot of fun, even though most anchorages and even marinas get some swell inside. I've gotten used to that and never miss any sleep when anchored anymore.

Well, my crew is ashore on a walk and I'll go and snorkel in the crystal clear water.

Away from home

Yesterday Porto Santo, and today we're in Funchal, Madeira. The 500 Mile trip took us four days to complete, with a confused swell the first night and North Westerlies all along.




We spent those four days talking, being sick, sleeping, cooking, eating and drinking and we generally had a good time - except when sick. It was a bit chilly at night, especially when everything got humid. In the last hours, the wind died so we motored into Porto Santo Marina for a well deserved rest.

So now we're anchored near Funchal and tomorrow John is taking the ferry home, while Scott and Brandon will cruise Madeira with Victor Too the next week.

We had a lot of laughs and even though there was some grief, all was quickly forgotten after we sighted land.

I still find it amazing we can find such a tiny speck of land in such a big ocean, but for the explorers this was an even bigger feat, since they didn't know it was there.


Still, it felt glorious to step on land so far from the European main land. Victor Too now is truly away from home.

Jump off point Faro

After making it down to the Algarve, it has been a leisurely cruise. The last couple of days we met up with the crew for the Madeira crossing and enjoyed some days of relative rest. After getting supplies yesterday for the 500 Mile crossing, this morning Ingrid has left Faro by plane and her brother Marc by car, while we'll be leaving soon in the opposite direction.

It'll be ten weeks before I meet Ingrid again in Cape Verde, so we're lucky there is something like Skype to see one another from time to time. Of course this time I won't be alone for as long as I was in Póvoa, so there'll be plenty of distraction, but still...

We've been in Olhão the last two days, and it is nice to have that typical Portuguese atmosphere down South. The last couple of cities we stayed in were much more touristic and while this one obviously has lots of tourists, it still feels authentic enough with its winding cobbled streets and tiled houses.

So after enjoying the South coast and the Faro lagoon, we're off to Funchal where we'll arrive around Friday and a long way further South and West.