Avalon Progress Report 07.02.01
Portosin to Madeira
Jim and Rosemary left Portosin on Sunday 21st January, heading southwards, but encountered strong headwinds which made the going difficult. In the end they motored most of the way to Bayona, still on the North of Spain where they stayed for a week or so exploring the town in indifferent weather. The High weather system that they had been waiting for finally came along, and on 30th January they set out heading straight for Madeira.
The Zoro's description of their journey to Madeira
It
took us 6 days from Bayona to Funchal. En route the weather was kind, in fact
so calm that we had to motor some of the way to make any progress at all in
the calm conditions. On the way we saw lots of dolphins, 
turtles, Portuguese Man-o-war jellyfish, but in spite of trying caught no fish.
One or two passengers joined us on the way - one small squid which landed on
the deck 
, and one pigeon which perched on board as we went past the island of Porto Santo.
Passing along the coast of Madeira we could see the new airport runway, which looked to be rather short and rather too near the mountains. We also had an interesting encounter in the dark with a 3 mile long fishing net which was not properly lit up at its far end, and it took us some time to find our way round it.
As we approached the harbour of Funchal all sorts of things were happening as we ran the gauntlet of wind surfers, anchored cargo boats and sailing vessels. As we slowly furled the mainsail to enter the harbour we were passed by the replica of Christopher Columbus' 15th Century caravel - the Santa Maria, Wow!! Christopher Columbus married the governors daughter and lived on Porto Santo for a while.
It was a tight fit getting into the marina but it was safely accomplished with the help of a German man on the quay. There are very few visiting yachts, (no room for them anyway) so most of the boats are local - motor boats for tourist marlin fishing or ferries to Porto Santo.
The mountains are very impressive with the tops covered with cloud on the first night, and it was lovely as the sun set coloured the clouds. Then the lights of Funchal started to come on and it was like fairyland.
We hope to go walking in a day or two. There are levadas - the water channels used for irrigation (therefore on the level) which you can walk along. I don't think we want to do the high mountain. The town of Funchal is very clean and pleasant, with mosaic pavements, old buildings which give atmosphere. A good spot for a winter break. There are lots of tourists here but it has started raining, so umbrellas out now..
Ed: Rosemary finishes by saying that they fancy the tobogganing down the mountain. I think they intend to stay in Madeira for a few days before heading for the Canaries, intending to arrive in Tenerife on or around the 15th. They will then be busy provisioning and preparing for the next stage.
On a technical note, Rosemary says that the windvane steering that Jim fitted while in Falmouth has worked very well and has been a godsend on this latest crossing.
