Porto Santo to Madeira

Sweet Dreams
Roz Preston /Ed Phillips
Fri 14 Oct 2022 08:30
My post today comes from the relative comfort of a Marina berth in Quinta do Lorde Marina in Madeira, one of those strange purpose built marina complexes that were popular in the nineties and still struggle on today. At least we got the laundry done!
Porto Santo turned out to be a gem. We anchored off the marina in the bay along with many other boats. Everywhere is very busy with boats making their way south to catch the trade to the Caribbean and beyond.
The highlight was an electric bike ride round the island, where obviously agriculture was the main activity before tourism took over. Everywhere we saw ruins of farms, with terraces right up the side of the volcanic mountains. The bikes coped really well with some long, steep climbs, though the descents were a bit scary, even with the brakes full on!

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It wasn’t that we had to leave but after we’d left our graffiti on the wall we thought it best to go…

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😳

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We had a cracking ride from Porto Santo to here, 20 miles of bouncy indigo water and a brisk following wind. Once again our downwind sails did the job, with speeds of up to 9.5 knots as we came down the waves. Exhilarating!

Our first night here in Madeira was at anchor in the spectacular surroundings of the Baia do Abra, where we lay in the shadow of huge volcanic cliffs overlooked by hundreds of hikers filing along the steep paths to the end of the Island. A friend took this picture of us which gives a sense of the scale of it

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Now we are getting prepared for our next leg, two days sail to La Palma in the Canaries.

Better go and book a berth in the marina.

Until next post, Sweet Dreams out!
Sent from my iPad