Tuesday 14^th, Wednesday 15^th & Thursday 16^th September

Porto Santo is a largely volcanic rock sitting around 30 miles north of Madeira and is the only other inhabited island in this archipelago. However it does have some sandstone and boasts a fabulous beach reputed to be the rival of anything in the Caribbean apart from water temperature of course! Its main visitors seem to be a few of the richer Madeirans who take the ferry here at weekends to enjoy the better weather and of course the beach as well as the relaxed beauty of the island. In fact the owner’s of the yacht moored next to us are from Madeira and are here on their holiday. They sail their boat here and then pop home on the ferry to collect their car and motorbike so they have all they need for a week or two! They left on Wednesday to go back to work but they have been really helpful with advice about what to do and where to go and have given us all this info for Madeira as well. In fact when we asked for restaurant recommendations in Madeira they immediately asked us to phone them when we wanted to go out and offered to come along with us. They have a house and a boat that they rent out and you can find links to their websites on our links pages (www.rhbell.com/yachting_resources.htm )- the house looks wonderful as Vasco is an interior designer.

We took the open top coach tour round the island – there is one tour per day as there are very few people here – and thoroughly enjoyed the two hour ride. There were four stops for photos which helped spin the trip out a bit as it is hard to take so long touring an island just 9 miles by 5, with four roads. We discovered during this trip that there is an airport here. In fact it is very large and with a very modern terminal building and although totally deserted, it is the main reason there is any development here at all still. The history of this is that it was built as a major NATO Air base in 1960 and as tourism developed generally in Madeira, flights came here so passengers could transfer to ferries for the trip to the bigger island which had no airport at all. In time Madeira gained its own airport, but it suffers from regular violent crosswinds and so all flights are re-routed here then and the ferries are pressed into service again. It remains a NATO reserve base though and exercises are held here from time to time. But apart from that there is little excitement here although it was the home of Christopher Columbus’s in-laws and it is reputed that the great man had a house here too, so every year there is a festival to celebrate his triumphant return to the island complete with a full re-enactment  of the event and it just happened to be on this Thursday, with the lovely lady in the marina reception playing the role of Columbus’s wife for the third year running. The re-enactment was part of a great evening and the island clearly pulls out all the stops for this event. The beach directly in front of the town square was all decked out and everyone was dressed in 16^th century costumes and a play of some sort was acted out on the beach leading up to the arrival of a full sized replica of Columbus’ ship which sailed up close to the beach and he was rowed ashore to be met by various people including his wife. This all took place after dark which rendered all photography obsolete but it was very well done and carefully lit and clearly most of the island turns out and gets involved. There were hog roasts and various other interesting foods for sale along with the usual collection of jewellery stores and whatever although Sarah was impressed enough to buy at least one nice present there. We went off afterwards in search of the famed local ice cream shop which we eventually found just as a costumed procession complete with a band and Columbus’s wife and her entourage came past. It has to be said that anything similar done back in the UK would have been comparatively tasteless and half cocked compared to the effort put in here by everyone involved.

The marina is tiny, housing only a handful of visiting yachts although there is some space within the harbour for a few more boats to swing on fixed buoys. The harbour is another legacy of NATO who built it some time ago but it was not until 1980 that visiting yachts were allowed to use it. It is really quite big and mostly empty save for a ferry landing quay in one corner and a breakwater that forms the wall of the little ‘marina’ . See photos at www.rhbell.com/photos_2010.htm 

The sea wall of the harbour beside the marina is one those places around the world where visiting yachtsmen are invited to leave a record of their visit by way of a small mural. Over the last 10 years or so this has built up into quite a display with offerings ranging from very skilled down to enthusiastic amateur. You will not be surprised to hear that Sarah spent more than a day preparing and executing our contribution. (See photos at www.rhbell.com/photos_2010.htm )   So anyone from her art classes will be pleased to hear she has got round to doing at least one artistic exercise this season.

The plan is to sail south tomorrow to Madeira, presuming that the wind that is whistling around this evening dies down a bit first!   Amusingly Rob did endure some embarrassment while arranging our exit papers;  he was asked where we were going next and had to admit he had no idea.   In his defence, Sarah and Chris on SF tend to discuss the route between them although much of this is done in his presence, but not having done the research he obviously doesn’t engage at these times!   ‘Mrs Columbus’ then went on to suggest possible destinations – no, Rob didn’t think any of them rang a bell.   Eventually, in exasperation she asked “well, do you think it is Quinto do Lobo where you already have a reservation?” and Rob had to agree that it sounded likely!   But in his defence he does have his finger on every other pulse to do with our expedition....