Of orchids and hasty departures
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Sat 6 Nov 2010 19:44
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I would never previously have described myself as
an 'orchid fancier', but after yesterday I'm not so sure. We spent the hottest
part of the day toiling up one of many hills in Funchal to the botanical
gardens, perched high over the town. On the way, we stopped at an orchid garden
run by an Austrian orchid breeder, and dripping with extraordinary, and
sometimes ferocious, looking flowers. They need to be germinated in perfectly
sterile surroundings, and each plant spends its first few years in a jar on a
shelf, some only flowering after a decade. We blundered into the
garden unsuspecting, but it was obvious from the devout demeanours of many
visitors that they had come a long way to be there.
The botanical gardens were beautiful as well, but
less extraordinary. They also boasted a sad-looking gang of parrots, parrokeets,
cockatoos and finches - mostly green - from around the world. In an obvious
tactical blunder, we walked up the hill and got the bus back down.
Now it turns out that the wind is going to hold for
two more days, before sidling off to be replaced by huge waves. The heavy seas
come rippling down from a nasty depression in the Bay of Biscay, which is
creating waves 14 metres plus between France and Spain (the height of Summer
Song's mast). This means that we have to abandon our week-long touristic trail
around the island before it even starts. We haven't been higher than 350 metres
in an island that reaches 1820, including extraordinary gorges and dizzying
cliffs.
We'll set sail early tomorrow for Tenerife, which
we'll reach in two days time. We haven't managed to obtain a permit to visit the
deserted Salvagem Islands, so we'll have to wave a sad farewell to them. But at
least we'll be in the Canaries, and that means we shouldn't actually miss
the start of the Atlantic crossing.
Funchal will be notable for the stoutness and girth
of its inhabitants, and for an excellent supper of 'scabbard fish' (see photos
on an earlier post), cooked by the Swedish boat next door. They reinterpreted a
local dish of fish with banana, accompanied by salad and potatoes. The Swedes
also encouraged us to make our own courtesy flags for the Caribbean islands we
visit, so today we shipped two metres of light material and a spectrum of
permanent marker pens. We won't know if it works until we arrive in Grenada,
when the presence of handcuffs or otherwise in the hands of the local customs
officer will let us know whether we've given grave insult with our lame
rendering of the nation's flag.
Moonscape on Porto Santo.. with weeds
 Cantare left her mark last year
 Approaching Madeira
 Funcahl.. view from the marina
 Very perky-looking Summer Song, with ARC
flag
 Taxi jam in Funchal
 The neighbours had a bigger boat...
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