Funchal as we sail away
A thatched roof house on the northern shore
A view of the northern coast
The Eagle Cliff
We arrived early this morning at the port of Funchal, Madeira. This is the largest of the islands of the Madeira Archipelago. Funchal is about 280 miles off the coast of Morocco. It’s an interesting place historically. It was discovered by an expedition sent out by Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal. The expedition was supposed to chart the coast of Africa, was blown off course and landed in Madeira. There were no native inhabitants but it was a very lush place with fresh water. When they reported their find to the Prince, he immediately sent another group back to colonize the place. Unlike our last stops the island was never colonized by Phoenicians, Carthagenians or Romans.
The island has approximately 250,000 inhabitants of whom 150,000 live in Funchal and its immediate environs. The city’s buildings are very reminiscent of those we’ve seen in both Lisbon and Punta Delgada in the Azores. There are lots of white buildings with red tiled roofs.
Al took a tour which went to the northern shore of Madeira. The island is completely mountainous with virtually no flat lands. Along the way he saw all the terraced fields which have been carved out of the hillsides. They grow bananas, sugar, grapes and all sorts of vegetables but there is essentially no livestock on the island. The forest areas are full of pine and eucalyptus trees so they are very fragrant. Along both the northern and southern coasts there are some spectacular sea cliffs. One on the southern shore is the highest sea cliff in Europe and the second highest in the world.
For the drive back from the north shore the tour drove through a tunnel which was just completed in 2004. It is 3100 meters long and has shortened the trip from what used to be a 4 hour drive across the mountains to a 45 minute one today.
The weather was nice all day until just before sailaway when we had some light showers. As we released our lines and backed out of the harbor, the sun popped through and we had a nice rainbow off our stern. Hopefully it portends good weather on our crossing.
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