Position: 32:44:52N 16:42:72W

Quinto Do Lorde, Madeira

We upped anchor from Funchal and headed East, back to Quinto Do Lorde, 13 hard-earned miles away as the wind was a good 25kts from the NE.  We hugged the coast and motorsailed with gusts up to 33kts and were glad when the marina RIB came out to meet us and guide us in (and confirm that there was actually a space for us!!).  “Samba” also called us on the radio and told us that they would be there to take our lines – how kind!

Quinto Do Lorde is a new marina which looks like it has been carved out of the side of a mountain, although I think the geology is natural.  It is quite an attractive place, with the best-appointed facilities we’ve seen in quite a while.  We even decided to forego the luxuries of showers chez “Nutmeg” in preference for the shoreside facilities – praise indeed!  As in Porto Santo, the water is crystal clear and turquoise, despite it being 7m deep below our berth.  With the wind whistling through the rigging and 40+kt gusts, we were quite pleased to be in a marina.

We spent the next few days being tourists on Madeira, and hired a car for three days.  Madeira is one of those places that I don’t think I would have visited if it wasn’t by yacht.  It is breathtakingly hilly – there is little flat ground on the entire island, and consequently there isn’t a straight stretch of road on the island.  I can see where the portion of our taxes that are diverted to Brussels get spent – on EU-sponsored projects to dig a multitude of tunnels and construct numerous bridges in Madeira - and you can now zoom round the island in a matter of hours where before I can only surmise it would have taken days.  Even the airport has been built partially on stilts over the sea in an effort to create a flat space for the planes to land.

There are no real beaches, although one or two places have imported sand from Morocco to create a small beach, and consequently it isn’t the best place for young children.  There is supposed to be some spectacular walking, though.  One of the most striking features of Madeira is the amazing flora – everywhere you look there is a profusion of lush greenery – a mix of grapevines, banana trees, palm trees and other tropical plants.  It is simply beautiful and must be a botanists paradise.

We spent a day driving round the island.  The highlight for me, in a tiring days’ driving, was driving up to the highest sea cliff in Europe, and the 2^nd highest in the world – a sheer drop from 575m down into the ocean!  I watched a tiny speck of a yacht, motoring round the cape far below us, while Millie watched the lizards sunning themselves on the rocks.

View from the top of Cabo Girao

We returned in the evening to Funchal, which is a disproportionately large city for the size of island, and somehow found ourselves at the Indian restaurant, where we had a good meal and introduced the kids to proper curry!

The following day we dropped in on “Walrus”, who had managed to get into the marina at Funchal after a couple of days’ anchoring in the swell.  It ended in an impromptu evening with the girls (the grown-up ones) tucking through a couple of bottles of vino blanco and a lot of laughter. Great fun.

On crossing one of the many flyovers between the marina and Funchal, we noticed an Aquapark below us and decided to investigate.  It turned out to be really nice and unfeasibly quiet – no more than 15 people in the entire place – so it was perfect for the kids to practice swimming, and they both made fantastic progress with Millie displaying typical Sarah characteristics – refusing to be taught, then taking herself off on her own and swimming a width of the big pool unaided. (with her swimming jacket, but proper strokes).  Jemima displayed typical Jemima characteristics, by throwing herself down the water slides head first, on her back!

One of the amazing things about Madeira is its sealife.  I don’t know if we were just lucky, but we often saw whales blowing just off the coast, when we were driving along the road.

In various meet-ups with the other Dutch families, we hatched a plan for a final get-together on “Saefhtinge”, the big Dutch ketch, which was by now in Funchal commercial dock, having been refused entry to Quinto Do Lorde, dragging their anchor across the bay outside, and ending in another commercial dock for a few days before being allowed to dock next to the tankers and cruise liners in Funchal.  Everyone is likely to be going their separate ways from Madeira, and we all feel like we’d love to all get together for one last party.  So “Samba” and ourselves will sail back up to Funchal for the night, then set off for the Canaries the next day.

On leaving Quinto Do Lorde, we decided to flush out our water tanks with fresh water and fill to the brim, knowing that we may not be able to get fresh water until the Canaries.  Having done this, and ready to leave, Sarah poured herself a glass of water and nearly choked on it – it was salty!  We spoke to the marina, who sheepishly told us that there was a problem with the desalination plant, and that the water had been dodgy for a couple of weeks!  Nice of them to tell us – and thankfully we had checked it before leaving.  I would have been pretty cross to discover this 30 miles downwind from Madeira…

Southern coast of Madeira