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.