Madiera – Lanzarote

13.10.2009

We ended up staying in Madiera for quite a few more days. After studying the weather charts and despite Catia (excellent receptionist at marina, spoke several languages fluently and was extrememly helpful) trying to persuade John it would be fine to go we opted not to. The rain continued to pour torrentially for several more days and the winds were pretty strong at times. That of course meant that sitting in the marnia was rather uncomfortable. So we opted to hire a car and see a bit more of the island. We had a lovely day travelling into the mountains and John was in his element going up these hairpin bends that turned almost 240 degrees. The were particularly exciting (not) when the rain was teeming down!. A lot of the travelling was through tunnels. The Madeirians have been very clever using the volcanic terrain to tunnel through and create a road network which once you figure it out is actually quite efficient. Some of the tunnels are very long and then you get a short respite where you actually see some scenery before you head back into another tunnel. However once up into the mountains it was amazing but we did wonder what people do with themselves as there is no industry about. We managed a visit to Sao Vincente an did the tourist bit through the lava caves. First time I had thought about work in a while. Having just completed a topic on Volcanoes before I left I kept thinking how fab it would have been to have had a visit there.
The day went by very quickly and ended with trip to a supermarket to stock up on all the heavy goods such as water, milk, juice etc. as lugging that weight is not really an option as we don’t have the mscles from Brussels to do it.

Another day we did a walk out to the point to Sao Lourenco which was stunning and quite challenging at times. We had waited until later in the day to do it as the humidity really saps ones energy level.

The day before we left there had been really heavy downpours and when we walked up the hill to catch the bus the sea had was reddish brown for over a mile out. As we drove in to Funchal it was the same all the way along the coastline leaving one in no doubt this was definitely a volcanic island.

Fortunately the weather improved a day earlier than forecast and we decided to head out. We knew it would be a bit rough till we got past the Islas Desertas (a nature conservation reserve) and it was. However after that we began to make some real headway, alas it was under motor and the main only served as a stabiliser. That was the pattern for the rest of that day and night. We only had about 2 hours of total darkness before the moon came up and lit our passage all the way. It was still out at 10.00 a.m. along with the sun.
Just after lunchthe wind picked up and we managed to get all the sails up. Stayed that way throughout the next night. We had thought that with the engine off we would get some sleep but it didn’t work that way.

We picked up the lights of Lanzarote about 6.00 a.m. and by dawn had the headlands of the two islas in view. A downwind sail finally brought us safe in to Puerto Calero (28 55N 13 42W )about 3.00 pm. All in all one of the best sails to date. May there be many more like that please!

There s a real buzz in the marina as the GP42′s global challenge is taking place here this week. It is a lovely marina with good facilities and we are content to linger while we have John’s sister and hubby with us this week. Hopefully we will get out for few casual sails (that will be novel as to date we have always been heading somewhere) and take in some of the serious racing.

Can’t believe we are on the coutdown now to the start line. Six weeks to go – scary.