Position: 32:38:73N 16:54:45W

Funchal, Madeira

The Dutch Village (of which we are annexed) announced that they were going to sail onto Madeira, so, in the interests of sticking with a group of families, we elected to set off also.  So on 8^th Oct, we cast off and had a really lovely 40M downwind sail to Madeira.

Approaching Madeira

Off Madeira

What a lump of an island!  You drop off soundings within spitting distance of the shore – this really is a rock jutting out from the ocean floor.  Just as we were approaching Funchal, we noticed ~200 seabirds circling nearby, and then saw dolphins and whales surfacing in the same place – amazing – we think it must have been one of those events where the whales and dolphins all circle and round up the fish in the middle.

Due to some confusion, only half the Dutch village came on to Funchal and the rest scattered themselves down the coast.  Funchal is a very busy, very touristy city and we anchored outside the small marina with ~10 other yachts.  There appears to be only space for about 12 visiting yachts inside the marina despite the pilot book showing far more, and we found that the marina officials were less than encouraging of visitors.  “Tyche” and “Walrus” also joined us, so we invited them over to our boat and had drinks whilst the kids ate fishfingers & chips down below.

Kid’s tea on Nutmeg

The adults decided that what they really wanted was an Indian takeaway, so the men were dispatched in the dinghy on a mission to find one.  One taxi-ride later, we were delivered to the better of two Indian restaurants in Funchal and were soon drinking pints of lager and munching on poppodums whilst waiting for our order.  Some things are too nice to be surreal!  We returned to Nutmeg laden with bags of the ubiquitous foil dishes and had a feast before the kids melted down!  Wonderful!

We had a rolly night at anchor, our tummies full of beer and curry and Nutmeg swaying like a drunken lady, and in the morning decided that we couldn’t stay another night at anchor off Funchal.  I motored round to the marina to enquire if there was space and was told in no uncertain terms that there wasn’t – I can only assume that they are trying to discourage yachts from stopping in Funchal as the welcome was less than friendly.  After a few phone calls our only option was to sail the 13M back up the coast to Quinto Do Lorde marina, on the Eastern tip of the island.

So we went ashore for a couple of hours to look around.  Funchal is big and touristy with a huge number of restaurants and cafes, each with a pushy waiter/waitress who harangues you to come in “just for a drink”.  It has a city feel, with car horns, roaring busses, and the general hum that comes with a large urban spread, and I couldn’t relax.  I felt quite uneasy, mainly because Nutmeg was anchored just 30 metres from the harbour wall and the gusts here hit from all angles as they come over the island.  Inevitably for somewhere with tourism as its main earner, there were also a large number of shifty-looking folk wearing sunglasses and smelling of alcohol (no, they weren’t yotties!) which made us keep a close eye on the kids.

Ashore in Funchal

Nutmeg anchored off Funchal harbour

On returning to Nutmeg, we found that we had a visitor – a large seal was flopping around the anchorage and lazily swimming under the boats!  The sea here is clearly teeming with life.