On To The Canaries
Positions:
09/04/05 32 44.460N, 16 42.702W, Braia d'Abra, Madeira Island
09/05/05 32 05.853N, 16 44.723W, 1700 UTC
09/06/05 31 19.798N, 16 50.468W, 0645 UTC
09/06/05 30 25.210N, 16 53.603W, 1800 UTC
We arrived in Porto Santo, the smallest of the Madeira Islands, on August 30th. The island is very dry and reminded me of Baja California. Christopher Columbus married the Governor's daughter in 1471 and lived here for two years. His residence is now a museum. The marina was quite small but it enabled us to meet most of the foreign yachts in port. We were amazed at the number of yachts with small children. I counted six boats with children under the age of 11 years.
After three days on Porto Santo we sailed to Madeira, 35 miles to the west, and tied up at a new expensive marina located on the extreme southeast coast. We had originally planned on staying on Madeira about five days but the marinas are more expensive than we had anticipated. We don't plan on spending much time in the Canaries either for the same reason.
We took the bus Saturday into Funchal, the main city located on the south coast. It's amazing how much new construction, mostly large apartment buildings, is in progress. The north coast is suppose to be more charming but without renting a car we had to rely on the local buses and the times didn't work out to visit the north coast. Knowing what we know now we would have been better off spending more time in the Azores.
We left Madeira today at noon and have been making really good time. It's 250 miles to our next destination, the island of La Gomera in the Canaries. We plan on spending about 5 days resting up, re-supplying and refueling before heading for the Cape Verde Islands.
The photo (Second of six in the previous message) Mark and Nancy sent of Mark with one of the small cars we saw in the Azores and Madeira is only about six feet long and we call it "The Shoe" since it isn't much bigger and kind of looks like one.
09/04/05 32 44.460N, 16 42.702W, Braia d'Abra, Madeira Island
09/05/05 32 05.853N, 16 44.723W, 1700 UTC
09/06/05 31 19.798N, 16 50.468W, 0645 UTC
09/06/05 30 25.210N, 16 53.603W, 1800 UTC
We arrived in Porto Santo, the smallest of the Madeira Islands, on August 30th. The island is very dry and reminded me of Baja California. Christopher Columbus married the Governor's daughter in 1471 and lived here for two years. His residence is now a museum. The marina was quite small but it enabled us to meet most of the foreign yachts in port. We were amazed at the number of yachts with small children. I counted six boats with children under the age of 11 years.
After three days on Porto Santo we sailed to Madeira, 35 miles to the west, and tied up at a new expensive marina located on the extreme southeast coast. We had originally planned on staying on Madeira about five days but the marinas are more expensive than we had anticipated. We don't plan on spending much time in the Canaries either for the same reason.
We took the bus Saturday into Funchal, the main city located on the south coast. It's amazing how much new construction, mostly large apartment buildings, is in progress. The north coast is suppose to be more charming but without renting a car we had to rely on the local buses and the times didn't work out to visit the north coast. Knowing what we know now we would have been better off spending more time in the Azores.
We left Madeira today at noon and have been making really good time. It's 250 miles to our next destination, the island of La Gomera in the Canaries. We plan on spending about 5 days resting up, re-supplying and refueling before heading for the Cape Verde Islands.
The photo (Second of six in the previous message) Mark and Nancy sent of Mark with one of the small cars we saw in the Azores and Madeira is only about six feet long and we call it "The Shoe" since it isn't much bigger and kind of looks like one.
posted by Photoessayist at 1:19 PM
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