Under Arrest, Funchal, Madeira

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Well, day two under arrest was a bit of a waste of time. Essentially, we were given one extension after another, typically of a couple of hours which did not give us long enough to do anything until the evening when we went out again to Câmara de Lobos. However, this time we went to the fish restaurant (there was meat for M) two doors down and owned by the same guy who had the meat place we ate at last night. We had an excellent meal and finished the night off in a bar in the harbour dedicated to football in general and the local superstar, Ronaldo, in particular. With so many signed pictures, we are sure the bar could get more for the photos on the wall than selling the local wine. M can be seen in the bar reading the local paper where the headline read 'Paquete Impedido de Deixar O Funchal - Van Gough com 650 pessoas a bordo, foi ontem arrestado'. A good end to the day yet again and we took the cab back to MSVG. D went to bed, M went to the bar.

Well day 3 of our arrest was handled significantly better than day 2. Instead of feeding us 2 hour extensions we were told at 9.00 am to be back for 12.45 pm and that a court hearing was fixed for 10.00 am when they would be seeking to overturn the arrest. D went out to the botanical gardens (which M had painted on the first tour from a photo) and walked back the 5 kilometres via the market. M slept it off but sufficient photos were taken by D for M to have a virtual trip around Jardim Botanico.

We took lunch on the ship and were told at 1.00 pm that the hearing continued but they were optimistic of a 'positive outcome' today. This was followed by the offer of a free trip around Madeira by anyone who wanted to go and a new time of 6.30 pm was set. We took the free trip which was, arguably, one of the best trips on either voyage, despite there being 8 coachloads of us. First, we went to Pico do Areeiro in the centre of the island from where we could see both the north and south coasts as well as the wild internal scenery and remote footpaths. We then went to Camacha on the east side of the island which is, apparently, the wicker basket capital and went around a factory and a commercial outlet. This, like most settlements on Madeira, was a pleasant little place with a nice town square and church. Madeira really is a smart, upmarket resort island and is perhaps the choice location if you have to be arrested (not personally of course).

We travelled back the 40 minutes or so to MSVG to learn that a deal had been done in court and that the ship was leaving as soon as the last coach had returned. This was delayed for unspecified reasons, but we finally left Funchal at about 7.30 pm with an expected time of arrival in Falmouth of 8.30 pm on Sunday 6 April. However, this was too late for the coaches so most were to stay on board until the Monday. For us it was a bit of a disaster as Julie who had travelled to pick us up had to be back in Bristol for Monday morning and our back-up, Bernard, could not be with us until late lunchtime Monday. Accordingly, we planned to be - and in fact were - the last passengers off the MSVG (our home for the past 6 months) before it went into dry dock in Bremerhaven.

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