Position 33 03.70N 016 18.94W

Porto Santo  - island to N of Madeira.

14/9/11-15/9/11  Porto Santo. 

Marina about a mile away from town.  We developed salt water leak and bilges filled up, which we did not realise until tied up in Porto Santo – not even sure how we found out now.  Oh yes I remember the towing generator stopped charging the domestic batteries.  Paul thought it might be fuse but did not want to pull floor boards up whilst at sea – rolling around a lot.  Day after we arrived at Porto Santo pulled up floorboards and found bilges full.  Double whammy as the switch for the automatic bilge pump had come loose so the bilge had slowly filled – thankfully not as high as the batteries.  We think the log was not screwed in tightly and that had leaked salt water into bilge.  Another daily check has just been added to our list.

Rained nearly all day 14^th and fairly miserable on the 15^th.   We took the tourist bus for a couple of hours on the 15^th to view the sites of the island, 5 or 10 minute stops.  At first stop, Mark had a paddle and assured us very good quality fine sand.   Saw the airport but didn’t stop!  Well we did, but on the other side to look down some very steep cliffs.  Some nice wind eroded sandstone. Had an interesting off tarmac experience for about 10 mins – you just would not believe you get a bus up that road – but ended up top of mountain overlooking coastline, airport etc in pine forest.  Lovely smell, lots of lizards and centipedes.   Final stop was next to 3 old windmills, which were used for grinding grain.  Bus driver then did a drive past marina and we managed to get off the bus there so did not have to walk back from town.  Christopher Columbus married mayor’s daughter in Porto Santo and 15^th – 17^th September was celebration of that event.  Lady in marina office was his wife last year, this year his mother-in-law!  Replica of old ship in harbour which left with CC on board and landed him at the town’s pier.   Long sandy beach next to marina which we never saw at its best. 

Cockroaches have arrived.  Helen had them watching her shower and then we found a dead squashed one outside the marina bar.  Now we are paranoid that we will get them – well I am.

Nice bit of wind erosion.

A nervous Paul and I standing on cliff edge

Grain mills.

A supposed replica of Christopher Columbus’ ship.

Volcanic cone.