The far eastern end of Madeira is more like Porto Santo – very dry and rocky with minimal vegetation.

We anchored in the bay protected from the brisk northerly winds for a few days so we decided to head our for a walk along the peninsular. The dinghy landing was interesting – the shoreline being a rocky beach with a sudden drop off ensuring that even small waves can cause dinghy occupants get a righteous dousing! (2016 was the year we went through no less than 5 dinghies – trying to come up with the best alternative. We’re now re-thinking that again!)

Our walk was interesting along the barren peninsular and up to the peak at the far end of the island. Loads of people about sharing the path and if we’d planned better we’d have had some cash available to purchase a beer at the surprising bar we found at the base of the peak! The rock formations of the coast were dramatic indeed.

We finally said goodbye to Madeira and set off for Santa Maria – the southernmost island of the Azores. With not much wind, it was always going to be a bit of a slow and noisy passage – but even so, we managed to sail nearly half of it – including a nice patch with the spinnaker.

I also managed to break a multi-year duck by catching my first fish – a small Tuna – in ages – right after we’d set the spinnaker – and we enjoyed a couple of nights feasting on fresh Tuna! Also while out with the Spinnaker, we spotted a large orange fender floating on the ocean – and managed to steer our way to it and Laurie captured the errant item – which had made it’s way apparently from Canada!

We arrived in Santa Maria nearly 4 days later – and were quickly put into quarantine until we had negative results back from a PCR test… Santa Maria awaits us…

 

We moved Toodle-oo! from Calheta on the western end of the island to the capital, Funchal where we spent nearly a week at anchor, rocking and rolling on a daily basis. Our last night at anchor was so difficult we had to sleep in the main salon for fear of getting thrown out of bed! The following morning, we wimped out and took a berth in the marina.

We did however get out and about for some excellent meals – and the odd glass of Madeira!

We did two long walks. The first was a levada walk – the benefit of which is that it was all downhill! We got a bus up to the start at Ribeiro Frio and were delighted to find that the 11km walk was not only downhill all the way, but nicely shaded – almost a forest walk. There were quite a few groups walking the same trail – including a friendly group of Czechoslovakians on holiday for a couple of weeks hiking.

We finished in Portela where we were able to secure the necessary post walk brews and watch parasailers launching right below us and flying way off into the distance, before hoping on a bus back to Funchal.

The second walk was quite demanding! We’d arranged a taxi to bring us to the start of the “Ridge Walk” at Encumeada who would also pick us up at our destination, Pico do Areeiro, some 18km distant. One might expect (if you had reasonable foresight – unlike us) that the trail would be lots of up and downs when one considers the landscape – what took us a little by surprise was just how steep the ups and downs were – and the constant zig-zags and double-backs that the route had to take in order to even make possible the given trail.

The scenery was spectacular and we enjoyed particularly good weather for the walk. The trail would take us over several arêtes giving us splendid view on both sides of the trail – provided one didn’t succumb to vertigo! Two thirds along the way, our trail (officially PR1.3) intersected with two others PR1 and PR1.2 at the mountain hostel on Madeira’s highest peak, Pico Ruivo. Even though we were both already very tired, we avoided going down PR1.2 (which we’d previously walked with Anette and Anders) and kept to plan by following PR1 to our intended destination – though we did make a call to the taxi driver to delay his pick-up by 90 minutes! A brutal downhill, including several places where they’d installed metal staircases was followed by a very interesting undulating section that took us through numerous tunnels cut through the mountain – some of which were 100’s of meters long. Of course, the finale was a climb to the top of Pico de Areerio which totally exhausted us. Happily, that summit is accessible by car – and there’s a place to get that well earned post walk brew – again! The walk took us 8.5 hours…

We had planned to leave Madeira the following morning, destination Santa Maria in the Azores, but have decided to delay for a week or so, so that we can investigate the anchorage at the far eastern end of the island, Baia d’Abra. The sail up here was painful with strong 20 – 25knot winds right on the nose, so we ended up motoring while hugging the coast to keep out of the worst of the wind and the very steep chop. In the end we arrived and anchored in 25 knots, to find a landscape similar to Porto Santo and clearly some popular walking trails as we watch numerous hikers up on the surrounding cliffs.