Blogs from Madeira, Portugal, Europe - page 19

Set sail for Madeira. Had a steady downwind run under spinnaker to Quinta de Lorde marina, on the easternmost point of the island. The harbour is part of an ambitious development with a church and town square surrounded by smart houses and apartments. Or at least this is the impression you get from the literature. The reality is a smart marina, backed by an empty building site. It appears that the money has temporarily run out! That said, it is a stunningly imaginative piece of design which will be magnificent when it’s finished! We arrived to see a number of familiar boats, and as we moored up the staff brought us a bottle of bubbly from a Madeiran couple we met in Porto Santo. What an outstanding welcome! We spent the next week exploring the island ... read more

Maggie is a little oldish lady, an ex-diplomat who has been everywhere but still adheres to scrupulously high standards of domestic cleanliness. She holidays with Gabriel and Gabriel with her. They are birdwatchers. As a couple, they are unlikely. Gabriel's apartment is a filthy dump. Maggie arrives the next day. Gabriel gets drunk to get in the mood for cleaning and finds he isn't really in the mood. It's 6pm. He needs a cleaner. A cleaner in Funchal at dusk? Probably impossible. He certainly can't clean the place on his own. How about a whore? Whores do anything for money. Gabriel has a few more bargaçeira and makes for the docks where he has seen, but never partaken of, whores before. Gabriel finds a whore. No sex, he explains, just cleaning. She tells him to fuck ... read more

Lagos to the Island of Porto Santo - 450 nautical miles. We spent our last day at the Sopromar Boat Yard getting the boat readied and the last few glitches with the windows being sorted out at last. Final provisioning was done for what we had anticipated was going to be about a four day passage. Debs has been very busy cooking up lots of individual meals that we just have to slip into the oven and half an hour later, voila!! Instant meal. We tried this out on our Bay of Biscay crossing and it worked a treat and I am sure it will be just as successful on this passage. We met up with Kel and Kerry from a Hanse 470 called Freedom. We had spent some time with Kel in the Hamble at ... read more

Hello all!!! I finally got off the ship!!! YAY!! After 7 very long sea days, yesterday I had the pleasure of disembarking on the Portugese island of Madeira. The name of the port was Funchal, and my friends and I left the gangway at noon and started my first European journey. The first thing we did was boarded a shuttle, which cost $5 US for passage to the city and back (a great deal, considering guests had to pay 10 euros for taxis). By the way, the current exchange rate for the US:Euro is 1.35:1....which isn't all that bad. The ten minute shuttle ride took us to the edge of town. Remember, Madeira is an island off the coast of mainland Portugal, and this particular island has all of the homes that people live in built ... read more

A Postcard from MADEIRA - April 2008 It’s now nearly nine months since we returned from our trip around North America, and the English winter has recently been getting to our bones - time for a short break to warmer climes to top up on a bit of sunshine. Why, then, Madeira you might ask? Well; for a start, we had heard about their cake and wine, but more to the point, we remembered my little brother, Michael, had once visited the island and told us how much he loved it. We thought we should check it out. You can’t get there by motorhome, there's too much water in the way, so we took a plane from Stansted, courtesy of EasyJet. Many people we know have already been to Madeira; some of them several times. They ... read more