Peaceful Porto Santo

The path up Pico do Castelo

Perfect picnic spot

Moledo - a nice level walk around the largest hill

White poppy

After the tourist hordes of Madeira, its quiet little sister island Porto Santo is balm for the soul. It is definitely the off season here, with only a few visiting yachts and most of the holiday homes shuttered up. The island is much drier than Madeira but also has some fine pine forest. Nobody had mentioned to us what a good hiking place Porto Santo is, so we were in for a pleasant surprise when we climbed a couple of its volcanic hills yesterday. There is abundant bird life in the hills - plenty of Canaries (!) and other as yet unidentified song birds, a glimpse of a golden oriole and some quite large birds of prey.

View towards the harbour

Flame-like plants

Climbing the highest hill on the island 

The view from Pico do Facho to the east

From Machico we took along a young Portuguese couple, Sara and Sergio, whom we'd met on Nacho's boat, first for the quick hop to Quinta do Lorde and then on to Porto Santo. It was the first time we had accepted boat hitchhikers and we had a nice time together, though the cockpit feels a bit crowded with four people, especially if two of them don't have sailing experience! It also reminded us how much there is to learn in terms of seamanship before you can safely take a boat out on the ocean.

Machico

Quinta do Lorde was a strange place, a very sheltered harbour surrounded by an entirely new-built town, still under construction, complete with church and lighthouse - and yet unoccupied. We very much enjoyed the luxurious hot showers (the marina even has its own heraldry on the shower curtains), but it's really targeted at the luxury market and isn't a spot we would would choose (or could afford) to linger.

The ghost town of Quinta do Lorde

The forecast for our 30-odd mile passage to Porto Santo had been Force 3 winds from the northwest. In fact, we experienced everything from Force 3 to Force 6, with one rain squall, reefs taken in and out and a few headsail changes - good experience for Sara and Sergio - but all in all a good sail with two dolphin visits. In Porto Santo we were happy to be reunited with the Roede Orms, though unfortunately this is our last common port as they are bound for the Med and we want to continue to Santa Maria and then back to Sao Miguel. The wind is blowing straight from the Azores at the moment so it looks like we will get a chance to do a lot more hiking on Porto Santo.

Cross country back to the beach

Towards Capela de Nossa Senhora de Graca

Welcome find in the rucksack: a bottle of Madeira wine

Crowded and deserted islands

Rugged terrain.

The central highlands.

North coast.

Madeira is indeed a beautiful island, but it's also at (or even beyond) its tourist capacity. Every day, the cruise ships dump 5-10,000 well-heeled passengers into Funchal and they join the thousands already here in being bussed around the island, crowding the more beautiful of the walking trails, viewpoints and every sort of attraction. There are souvenir stands in their hundreds and Peruvian pan pipe bands all doing their utmost to extract a few more euros from this mobile bounty. One always has to be on one's guard to avoid being ripped off here. Sonja was stung in the fruit market by exorbitant maracuja prices and we once found ourselves paying €2.50 for a coffee (normally €1 or less in these parts).

Tasty but dear. 3 types maracuja, custard apple and melon pear

Still and all, we were able to make a pretty good go of it, banding together with the crews of Frigg and our old friends the Roede Orms to hire a 9-seater minibus for a couple of days and see some quieter parts of the island, as well as the more popular.

The view from the world's second highest sea cliff.

The famous levadas - tough to get a shot with no other people!

The 25 fontes.

Marina prices are in proportion to everything else here and we didn't dare stay longer than a week in Funchal before taking off to the Islas Desertas, a nature reserve about 20 miles to the southeast. These are lonely and beautiful, populated by quite a number of rare or endangered species including monk seals, several varieties of storm petrel and tarantulas (!). There is a research station on Deserta Grande where the park rangers live, next to the one and only anchorage. It's fairly marginal, as anchorages go, with a stony bottom and being wide open to the southwest, but the shelter from the prevailing northeasterly swell is good. The wind fairly whistled through though and it is with some relief that we can confirm the statement in the pilot book to the effect that the holding is 'better than you'd expect'.

The anchorage

Unfortunately we didn't see any monk seals, but we were very warmly welcomed by the park rangers who showed us a fun and interesting time.

Sunset at Deserta Grande.

And it kept getting better.

We only stayed the one night, due to deteriorating weather, and had a bit of a slog to get back up to Madeira the next day. Because of the high cliffs, conditions were very gusty near the Desertas. One gust of 30 knots or more pulled the slider at the clew of the mainsail right out of its track on the boom! A belated reef took care of that until it could be properly mended and we bashed our way on up to Machico where we plan to lay at anchor a few days while waiting for a parcel delivery expected in Quinta do Lorde marina. We can't afford to wait there though as it is outrageously expensive (€23 per night AFTER the 20% OCC discount).

Machico is a nice town, once the island's capital, and much less busy than Funchal. No loud bars, no pan pipes.

A chance encounter with fellow OYCOA member, Nacho
on his Halcyon 27, Xebec.

Back to Green

We sailed from Ponta Delgada for Madeira on the 30th of October last year. Little did we think that it would take us over 5 months to get there, but here we are at last after a moderately strenuous three and a half-day passage from La Graciosa.

But, just before we leave Graciosa, and luckily just after we scrubbed the hull, the harbour was invaded by a plague of medusas:

A discouraging forecast on Monday morning left us thinking we'd be there for another week at least so on Tuesday morning we visited the small supermarket to stock up on beer. On the way back to the boat we paused near the internet cafe to check the weather once more, for form's sake. An unexpected window had opened, for immediate departure. The laundry was soaking in its basin on deck, so it was with clothes still hanging to dry down below that we set sail five hours later.

Shakin' out a reef. Also, spot the dolphin!

The first night was moderately lumpy, bashing away into a steep head-sea but we were cheered by our first sighting of Atlantic white-sided dolphins and a sea turtle. The following day (Wednesday) the wind edged around, forcing us to tack away to the northeast. That night we found ourselves in the main shipping lane from the Med/Europe to Africa which was a bit of a pain since we were forced to dodge cargo ships as well as rain squalls. Thursday the wind swung back around in our favour but that night it picked up quite a bit and things got a bit unpleasant for a while. These things never look like much on the GRIB files - just an innocuous wee yellow area on the map that only lasts a few hours. How bad can it be? On the ground (so to speak) the picture looks a little different. There was nothing on the menu for dinner that evening, not even instant mashed potato - the new 'Smash' hit easy passage food on board (bit of an in-joke there for British readers).

Bashin'. But at least the sun was shining.

Friday morning, things are starting to settle down.

Friday, after things settled down again was a good genoa-sailing day all day, especially when we were in sight of Madeira. From about five miles off we could smell the sweetness of lush green land. Musky incense, flowers and a touch of wood smoke.

Land ho! The Islas Desertas.

And Madeira itself.

Imagine our delight, when pulling into Funchal at midnight, to find our friend Stefan (of Roede Orm) waiting for us on the reception pontoon to take our lines and offer us a glass of Madeira wine.

Madeiran rope trick. Amazing what a bit of salt can do.

Funchal marina, right in the town centre.

Easter island

Easter on board! Eggs decorated with the Roede Orms.

Hopefully no one will mind seeing yet more photos from Graciosa!

Over Easter, this normally sleepy island was transformed into a noisy, crowded(ish) party place as fery load after ferry load of tourists were deposited. Happily, most of the visitors simply spread around the beaches, leaving the volcano tops to the more intrepid. We took the opportunity to complete our collection of Graciosan volcanoes.

The largest and least climbing-friendly.

View from the big one.

We climbed one of the peaks a second time with the Roede Orms to enjoy the view at sunset:

Great visibility, great light - Alegranza in the distance.

Sonja and the Orms.

We were hoping for a green flash but no dice.

And moonrise...

Der Mond ist aufgegangen.

Still waiting for the right Madeira wind. Maybe this week, maybe not. Anyway, we've given the hull another clean and will be ready to go when the moment comes. Sadly, the Roede Orms are feeling the pressure of their homeward bound deadline and sailed/motored north yesterday. We hope to catch them up again in Madeira.

It's Easter Sunday and the island is getting back to normal, the crowds departing and last night was peaceful once more. Happy Easter!

I'd like to be...

It's time for another photo blog. The wind is still holding us in Graciosa and we're taking full advantage of the good snorkelling and hiking here. There's also a surprising amount of bird life on this dusty wee island. Notables include: Berthelot's pipit (loads of them), Trumpeter finch, Hoopoe, Southern grey shrike and the Barbary falcon.

A couple of days ago eyebrows were raised by a highly unusual heavy shower of rain! Those of us under shelter were looking around delightedly at the rare sight. It also served to dampen the spirits of the bongo 'players' on the campsite.

Playa Cocina, from Montana Amarilla

Raven on the heights

The yellow in the yellow mountain

Preparing to snorkel

The view from below

Reef

On the bottom

School's out

They look a bit old for school...

Hosing down