Madeira 32 44.489N 16 42.746W
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Fri 4 Nov 2016 16:21
The Marina is the first real shelter you come to on the island, approaching from the north, as most sailors do. Theres a lovely welcome here, and the marina has lost none of the charm we experienced visiting here last time. It has, though, lost some of its pontoons! The long visitors pontoon which used to run along the inside of the main sea wall, was apparently destroyed in a storm, and Karen and I are convinced that the main finger pontoons in the marina are arranged differently this time as well.
The marina village and hotel, not completed or open when we came last time, have been finished, and are in use. There are swimming pools, small grocery and even a basic chandlery which augment the facilities.
Madeira is a fantastical place. Its a mountain, set in the Atlantic. Seen from aloft, it looks like someones wild and wonderful imagination has been set to play. Rather like an incredibly detailed trainset, though without the trains, but with roads and flyovers and especially tunnels, instead. Roads pass over bridges across huge ravines straight into mountainsides, carved with tunnels, so the motorist can proceed in straight lines across the difficult terrain. As you explore the island, you see numerous examples where the old roads have fallen into disuse. They generally run around the coastline, carved into the side of the rocks and are now set aside, sometimes as walkways, but often barred from use, cut and blocked off, like ox bow lakes.
We have explored Funchal, hired a small car, in fact....beware the beguiling Fiat Panda...its like no other car I have ever driven. It looks like a car, even feels like one when you first get behind the wheel, but as soon as you encounter an incline, it abandons those pretensions, in favour of a more bucolic antecedent relative.....and a pony and trap would be more powerful...
Anyway, we managed to coax the Panda around the island, viewing the spectacular landfall of the large swell created 500 miles to the north west. They are getting very big winds in the western Azores right now, and we are seeing the by product in Madeira as the surf flies when the waves meet the sheer rockfaces in the north. We made it too, around the western side of the island which we had not visited before. Then "zoomed" (a relative term) through the myriad tunnels of the Via Rapido to return to the boat.
While in Funchal we wandered around the marina, as you do, and thought we recognised a large classic yacht lying along the main wall, so went to investigate. Indeed we were right. It was Peter von Seestermuhe, the 70 ft yacht which had towed us into Horta in May 2013. Christoph, her skipper was on board and we spent a few minutes reminiscing and chatting about that event and ocean sailing in general. Peter does a biennial Atlantic circuit, taking the ARC each time. She looked absolutely splendid, newly varnished and very ship shape indeed. Maybe we'll see her again further down our track.
After a few days, we left P in Quinta da Lorde and flew back to Toulouse to close things up there. As I write, we are just back and preparing for the next leg, down to Lanzarote in the Canaries. It looks like both Tim and Oli are going to be able to join us there...very exciting.
So we are victualling today and might set off tomorrow or Sunday...if the wind shows some of its promise and swings around to the north, from its predominant west, these last few days.
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