Madeira

8 – 28 October 2009

We finally got a good weather forecast of north-easterly winds and at the very last minute changed our minds and decided to go to Maderia before the Canaries.

Our first 24 hours were excellent and we made over 120 miles. The next 3 days were slower, and we motor-sailed the last few hours in light winds in order to arrive in daylight. We made landfall at Porto Santo, the smaller inhabited island of the Madeira group, 4 days and 4 hours after we left Portugal – a very good trip and our longest so far.

The island is small, dry and barren, but the scenery is very dramatic with a classic volcano. The north coast and the off-lying small islands have dramatic cliffs, but along the south coast is a very long beach of golden sand. The main town is lovely, mainly white painted buildings with terracotta roofs.

We stayed for 5 days (instead of the originally planned 2 days) then motored (there was no wind) to Funchal on Madeira and anchored off the town.

We were surprised to find Madeira so completely different from Porto Santo – cooler, wetter and with very lush vegetation. Funchal itself is very busy and its old town is particularly attractive. There’s very little flat land so bus rides were along hair-raising roads up the sides of mountains, along narrow ridges and bridges across valleys. In many places the roof of one house would be level with the floor of the next.

The island is famous for its levada walks along the maintenance paths of the water courses which were constructed along the side of the mountains, some of them dating from as far back as the 15th century. The walks are of varying levels of difficulty and through different types of scenery – we did 3 of the easy ones and really enjoyed them. There were fantastic views, especially from the walk to Cabo Girao – the 2nd highest sea cliffs in the world. Many houses are only accessed from these levadas and numbered along them; and it must be quite a feat to get supplies, furniture etc to the properties.

For more photos please click here