Baia de Abra, Madeira. 32 44.734N 16 41.684W
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Fri 21 Oct 2016 17:27
Baia de Abra is a beautiful spot. You nose into the rocky bay, find a spot a cable or so from a fallen rock, awash at high tide, maybe 80 mtres away from the black pebbly beach, and drop the anchor onto sand about 8 metres deep. The cliffs tower above you, save for a cleft leading down from a "saddle" which connects the eastern rocky isthmus to the main part of Madeira. The whole place is a geologists dream. There are old rocks, new rocks, volcanic scree and rust coloured debris, some compacted into rock, some lying wehere it flowed to after beng ejected by a now unseen volcano. There are little bridges where the sea has eroded a path through the rock...not unlike Durdle Door in Dorset. And the water is crystal clear too.
We stayed in the bay a couple of days, went ashore and enjoyed the walk to the east, and the spectacular views of the bay and Persephone, and the sauvage coast to the north, where the waves pound, surge and foam around the sheer cliffs, several hundred feet high.
On the second evening, we met a young french guy, sailing a half tonner, currently with his sister. He is en route to Martinique, via the Cape Verdes....and came over to discuss and potentially share a surplus of the fish he had just caught at dusk. We declined, feeling that there would not be any surplus......and so just chatted for a few minutes. He identified Persephone as a Sigma 38 and proclaimed it to be his favourite British yacht!
I checked that they had survived the night after eating the strange fish...pan fried in a little olive oil, apparently, and all was well.
They slipped out for a trip to Porto Santo....I expect we will see them again.
Now we have met French guys sailing elderly one tonners, as well as half tonners. Can we expect to see continental quarter tonner sailors cruising in real back to basics style, out here?
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