JOHN

It’s the 16^th of November, sunny, warm but, unfortunately, too calm to sail. We left Quinta do Lorde in Madeira (32:44.5N 16:42.7W) about midday yesterday.

We have all had a fantastic week here, more like a holiday than cruising. Douglas was keen to see Madeira as he had wanted to go on a school trip to the island over 30 years ago, but never made it.

We hired a car, as did Jacques and Adrienne, and spent Sunday touring the island with them, Jacques leading the way as he has visited over 20 times! We had a BBQ at lunchtime with them that day, testing out their ‘Cob’ - the barbie equivalent of the Trangia storm stove. It worked really well and had no problem cooking sausages and chicken, despite us setting it up slightly wrong.

The car proved very handy as we usually took afternoons off and would have had trouble amusing ourselves in the marina - which only had a café and expensive restaurant. We drove to Funchal early one morning to visit the famous market. The fish and fruit on sale were incredible, but one of the sellers saw tourists a mile off and tried to charge us accordingly. After Dougie’s flat refusal to pay the man anything, the next seller we approached had the low prices we were expecting. However, despite bananas being grown locally, they were not cheap.

Jacques had bought some red tuna from the fish market and was insisting we join them for lunch on Lambarena. He cut the tuna steak into a bowl, squeezed some lemon juice over it, waited until the few bits of fish that had been hit by the juice began to change colour, poured coconut milk over and served it just as it was. Raw.

Douglas couldn’t stand it, but could stand even less the idea of causing offence. He managed to choke down a plateful, taking a mouthful of juice after every bite.

I didn’t much enjoy it, the taste was okay, but I had to consciously shut the knowledge of what I was eating out of my mind. Out of sheer Britishness and a determination to put away as much as anyone, I managed two platefuls.

Bev seemed to enjoy it, happily eating two platefuls and teasing Douglas for not managing more.

We went back to Funchal with Jacques and Adrienne later in the week, to look at, and possibly eat aboard The Beatles’ yacht: Vagrant. We weren’t too impressed and decided to eat at a small, back street café. It turned out to be one of the best meals we’ve had so far, everyone choosing local or traditional dishes.

The huge market in Funchal took place on 3 levels.

Our meal out in Funchal.