Trip Update - 12th October 2008 Quinto Do Lourde, Madeira
Position: 32:44:52N
16:42:72W Quinto Do Lorde, 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 There are no real beaches, although
one or two places have imported sand from 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 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
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 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 Southern coast of
Madeira |