More of the crew's speaking
Yacht Ariel
Henry Adams
Sun 28 Oct 2007 12:44
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Madeira's a pretty awesome place. As I'm sure my
redoubtable skipper has informed you, we took the reliable Matiz out on a jolly
around the island yesterday for a bit of an old-fashioned explore. It was
massively impressive and not at all what we had been expecting before we arrived
on the island. It looks a lot what I imagine the mountainous parts of South
America would look like - very green, but very steep and terraced as well. We
drove through an uncountable number of tunnels and along cliffs, up and down and
round the island, Henry driving remarkably well (most of the time, when he
remembered to go round roundabouts the right way) and me guiding us through the
labyrinthine roads most of which seemed to have been omitted from the
cartographer's attentions. We had a jolly walk, which we decided to cut a little
bit short having ascended quite possibly the steepest hill I have ever walked.
This cutting did, however, lead us back down the hill and me to slip into an
irrigation ditch, much to the bemusement of the blokes who were cleverly
redirecting streams to get water to all their vines.
The Portugese drivers were maniacs and we had one
rather close call when some gigantic 4x4 decided to take a corner at about 80mph
coming into our lane and almost taking us out. We made many frineds by dawdling
along the roads to take in the views and had to stop many times to let young boy
racer types (of which there seems to be a disproportionate density on the
island) whistle past. We also had a bit of fun when we parked right on the edge
of a cliff (just down from the second highest sea cliffs in the world) to
have a look at the view and started again, only for Henry to forget he had left
the car in gear. What larks.
We also managed to find a supermarket to replenish
our much-depleted stocks for the next week and, most importantly, found a great
deal on beer and have procured our first bottle of genuine
Madeira.
As I believe Henry may have mentioned in his entry,
we had a most enjoyable dinner the other night with a guy called James Anderson,
a former army engineer who is skippering a ketch on the World ARC. He invited us
on board for a beer and we left at three in the morning, feeling slightly
groggy. We were also slightly taken aback by the amenities onboard - a flushing
loo (heads), running hot water, a fridge (cold cold beer) and an oven in
addition to headroom. The skipper obviously contented himself with the
discussion of engines and water tanks and exhilerating details, while I set
about the important task of cooking a mammoth curry, enjoyed by all. We even,
the best part of the evening, had some proper cheese - epic.
We're off from the marina this afternoon, hoping
that the staff won't notice some Norwegian chap lost the power connector
they lent us. Going to be under sail or in anchorages for the next few days, so
not sure how long it'll be before another entry, but should be within the week
and by then I'll have some more merry tales with which to regail you all, rather
than stuff talking about beautiful landscapes.
Lots of love
Foshy
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