After our eventful few days in Porto Santo, we left for the archipelago’s main island, Madeira. The sail was quite enjoyable and since it was only a few miles, we could leave in the morning and arrive in the early afternoon. The first night we spent on anchor because we wanted to go swimming and snorkeling, but sadly it was very windy and rainy. It was also quite rolly and we decided to leave after one night and go to a marina first thing in the morning.
The marina is part of a closed hotel complex, so the atmosphere was a bit strange. But the marina itself was like a small town, it had a bar, supermarket, chandlery and laundry, everything we could wish for.
We rented a car which was delivered to the marina for us and went to explore the beautiful island. On the first day, we drove to Funchal, the largest town on Madeira. The small car we rented was really struggling on the highway. Usually, I pressed down the gas pedal as far as it would go and it still struggled to gain speed, the roads were that steep (or the car that weak). The highway brought us up and down through many tunnels and over bridges until we finally arrived in Funchal where the roads became really narrow and very steep. We drove down a street so steep, that we feared we had no chance of getting back up again. In Funchal, we parked the car in an equally narrow underground car park in a shopping centre and went to the Ritz Hotel, where my parents sponsored a lovely afternoon tea for us. Just before the sunset, we went to a botanical garden situated on a hill above Funchal, which was absolutely stunning. It had such a big variety of different plants from all over the world. The garden overlooks the city and the sea, creating an amazing backdrop to all the exotic and fascinating plants. Even I, who really am not very invested in plants, was lost for words sometimes.
On the second day, we decided to get up very early, three hours before sunrise, and go onto one of the famous peaks of Madeira to watch the sunrise. We left at around five o’clock and just about managed to drive our little car up a very steep mountainous road. The walk up to Pico Ruivo was quite enjoyable, although we didn’t see that much as it was still dark. Of course, we forgot to bring our headlamps, so we either walked in the dark or used our phones. But it wasn’t really a problem as the path was very well maintained. We arrived 15 minutes before sunrise and the peak was already full of people (sunrise hikes are very popular among tourists on Madeira).
As we had already rented the car for the whole day we had quite a long program planned for the day. After coming down from the peak we jumped into the car and went to one of the many ‘Levadas’ on Madeira. Because we started our day so early, we arrived at the café at the beginning of our walk before it was even open. It was quite fresh and misty in the forest and we would have liked a hot beverage very much. Nonetheless, we started our walk into the forest, which had an “elven” feel to it. After seeing a sign which pointed to a birdwatching spot and lagoon, we deviated from the Levada trail before we even started. Jenny was looking at the birds while the other girls were warming themselves up in the morning sun next to the lagoon.
After our detour, we went back to the Levada trail. Levadas are small water channels which were used by the first European settlers to collect and redistribute water for farming, especially sugarcane, similar to the “Suonen” or “Bissen” in Wallis. They are placed around the hills to collect as much water as possible and they have a very small slope, which makes walking along them very easy (you don’t even realize if you’re going up or downstream). The only tricky part is when they go into tunnels which are pitch black and very muddy (yes, we did step into several puddles). At the end of the 1.5-hour-long walk, we arrived at a picturesque waterfall. But the highlight of the walk for us was the steep cliffs of immense height next to the trail with a view of the ocean. Even though it was a bit touristy and sometimes difficult to cross paths on the narrow trail, it was definitely worth a visit.
After coming back from our hike, the day was not over due to our early start and it was only about noon. So we decided to check out a “beach” on the north coast close by. This “beach” was made up of football-sized rocks and some smaller ones that were thrown up with every wave from the open Atlantic Ocean. Nobody dared to go even close to the shore. But on the other side of the beach there at least was a small and very rocky lake where Flurina and Clara went swimming. Only then was it slowly time to start thinking about dinner and we went back to Funchal for some delicious Indian food. We looked at the weather forecast and decided to cross to the Canaries the next day. So after dinner, we quickly went shopping for groceries. Coming home in the darkness we started pre-cooking some food for the two-day-crossing. After the long day we had, we were very tired and mentally not really ready to go out to sea again, especially after the ordeal we endured from Lisbon to Porto Santo. Jenny and I were really rethinking this whole Atlantic crossing at the time, maybe we were not the right people for it. But we decided to give it another try to the Canaries, as the sea state and wind direction would be similar to what we expected on the long crossing and thus we thought it would be a good test. This, and the horrendous marina price (>100 euros per night) made us leave in quite a rush.
Off we went the next morning, and luckily nobody got really seasick. In fact, it was quite a relaxed and as usual boring crossing…
Meine Lieben Seefahrer,
Es ist immer so spannend, eure Berichte zu lesen, und ich bin jedes Mal dankbar, dass ich festen Boden unter den Füssen habe.
Wo und wie habt ihr Weihnachten verbracht? Wir waren in Sporz (Lenzerheide) bei Cornelia und ihrer ganzen Familie inklusive Urenkel. Zum Glück geht es Franz wieder viel besser nachdem er vier Stents bekommen hat. Joshua und seine Frau sagten, er hätte ohne diese OP bald einen weiteren und diesmal tödlichen Infarkt bekommen. Nun sehen wir den neuen Jahr hoffnungsvoll entgegen und wünschen euch, dass ihr glücklich mit dem Wind im Rücken in selbiges hinein segelt 🍀🍀🍀