Have a glass of Madeira My Dear
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Thu 27 Sep 2007 13:08
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Sept 15th to 25th 2007
Noah's Progress : "Have a glass of Madeira My Dear"
Before we start to drone on about sun ,cloud and
the other stuff, thanks again for all your ems its great to hear how things are
in blighty , its been a while since we wrote the blog and thought it was time we
put finger to keyboard, we have been enjoying the delights of Madeira we
were so laid back when we left Porto Santos on the 18th we just hoisted the
for sail and began a lazy sail towards the east end of Madeira , we left at 8
o/c we seemed to be the only ones going that day it a 30 nm trip to the east end
and we were going to posh it up at the new marina they have opened , its that or
the harbour wall in Funichal and we though it was time to pamper Zephyranthies ,
anyway about two hours after we left , drifting along at 5 knts the horizon
behind us was filled with what must have been every boat that was at anchor or
in Porto Santos Harbour , looked like we were the target as they had the lot up
and seemed to be heading our way , Lyn was sail tweaking and cajoling Zepher
along with just the foresail we figured if we stooped to put the main up they
would over haul us as it takes about 15 mins to get set up and back in the grove
, so we bimbled along , just short of the finish line , the outer edge of
Madeira a French boat made a final dash for glory , it was just like Master and
Commander with the frenchy up the rear , we closed the gap between the headland
and them so they had to go round the outside, we then prepared to repel
boarders with tea and bisects "Mc Vittie of course" on the rear seats, as they
came charging up alongside us to overtake we gave a casual wave feet up on the
round fenders , they passed and charged off to the marina entrance some two
miles away , we had a smug smile as they only saw that the foresail was up when
they were closing and probably felt a bit cheated .
All alongside , custom done and dusted and
beer in hand by 1700 , pretty little place in the middle of nowhere marina staff
really helpful , hire car sorted so all was well with the world until the ARC
party started , we had been stopped several times on our occasional marina
visit , once you mentioned you were crossing the pond the next thing was " Are
you with the ARC our reply was of course its over there and I'm Mr Noah pointing
to Zepher which always leaves the poor souls confused a little , anyway
once they have established that you aren't with the incrowd they leave you alone
, it seems that only the brits take this attitude well the ones we have met so
far do , its a shame as we enjoy a chit chat with fellow countrymen / women,all
the others the Scandinavians , Dutch and Germans all all ok with it and continue
to have pleasant dockside chats , most have visited the south coast of Britain,
and Northern France and we hear all the tidal horror stories and as I
remembered from my days in Norway and Sweden they don't have much of that up
there, they are all glad to be back in the land of little up and down movement
over a 12 hr period .
Enough dockside chat , and on with the
tourist bit , we hired a car second day and went off to Funichal the
capital to get our gas bottles filled , we had a contact detail from friend who
visited last year , dropped the bottle off and were told three to four days ,
still waiting .. that was seven days ago but nothing happens in a rush here so
it will probably be her by next week which is fine . Found a good supermarket it
a small town 10k from here our UK supplies are becoming depleted , Marmite
running low , corned dog , jams, and the sacred beans etc, so we have
restocked with locally , don't try the beans here theirs no tom sauce with them
and if you buy Heinz it £2.5 a tin .
Third day , off to the botanical gardens , quite a
few of them on the heights above Funichal , beautiful scenery Lyn was in
her element and even I enjoyed it , even though there wasn't a veg plot , a
huge cactus section , Jurassic section , and many palms and other flora and
fauna , camera worn out we retreated back to the dry end of the Island , the
city Funichal is a very pleasant one clean and has lovely chocolate cake
!
Fourth day , Drove onto the north coast , this is
right off the tourist route , roads haven't changed since the 30s I guess all
hanging off the side of a mountain , just like NZ but the sights were amazing
,deep valleys in between eucalyptus and pines growing on a near vertical slope ,
in between these are terraced areas were the locales once grew ,some still do
but looking at the majority of them I would say it was a dying tradition as
plentiful food supplies better infrastructure are making these parts less remote
, the EU is funding a massive road modernisation program , tunnelling new roads
through the mountains and cutting the transit time between towns from hrs to
mins as they have done on the south side of the Island, its a shame as it will
have lost its character in the next ten years , instead of travelling round the
bum tweaking cliff hanging roads , you will put your headlights on and be there
in 5 mins not seeing any of the beautiful scenery that you travel through as you
wind your way up and down the mountains .
Fifth Day , Drove up to the plateau were all
the walks are across the peaks , it was just like gorilla's in the mist only
they were cows near zero vis winding up through the cloud line , I was half
expecting to see David Attinbrough hanging out by a cow pat but to no avail , no
Brits up here just the 49th Panzer fwd recon unit fully booted and spurred back
packs , sticks , minus the helmets , brow woolly hats being the order of the day
, anyway we got out of the car dressed in appropriate footwear , sandals and
flip flops , these nice Portuguese people have block paved the
walkways , godfa dommer mine herr I heard them cry as they cast of there
jackboots rucksacks and returned them to there cars that they had driven up to
the site in , bit of cheating I thought but its a bloody long climb to get up
here , 1800m from sea level !
Day Six , A day of rest or so we thought ,
went to collect gas bottle , will be there next week as previosly mentioned ,
then off to find a Dive shop to fill my air tanks , after a few hours
of visiting various addresses we were sent to a place 10k away near the airport
, Manta dive school , this is stuck on the side of a cliff at the bottom which
was rather appropriate , as it turned out to be a German Gay dive centre , all
sporting shaven heads rippling muscles and no body hair of course , each had a
gold earring in there left ear with a little divers helmet attached , bloody
hell I thought gone are the days of rufty tufty divers in ragged T shirts flip
flops arse hanging out of there shorts smoking a woodbine, now its really tight
speedos, fake tans and oil , in the meantime whilst I was explaining to Gunter
that it was my bottles I wanted filling and not my bum , Lyn was witnessing the
local hairdressers tiff all glam silver shoes back silver T shirt large silver
belt and a wrist watch that looked like an alarm clock on the wrist , and that
was just the Home , there was much PMT flying and drama of course darling , Lyn
felt as if she was back in London in the 60s . Well I escaped Gunterand pals
Helmut, Hans and Hendrick .. un rogered ,still Virgo intacto
he asked what I did but I didn't tell as I may have ended up with a shaven
head and earring,shame my body wouldn't come up to the mark !! Lyn laughed and
told me of the going ons at the hairdressers , The place was just like El Dorado
the old brit soap German stlyey, we made a hasty retreat from the Manta
hotel back up the coast to our little hidy hole and the safety Quinta Do Lordo
..a beer and a sandwich ... ah a life of leisure ..
No Lyns corner this time , no smouldering
males to report in on girls just plants trees and a hairdressers tiff
>>>
The Lazy Buggers in Madeira
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