Madeira

We woke and some had a swim. We were all going to town and to provision and to visit the market, which has a good reputation. We took the dinghy to the marina and walked to the market.

The market had a number of floors and was a mass of colour from all the vegetables and fruits and chillies which are grown on the Island. We walked through to assess the different stalls and noted that many of the stall holders were in traditional costume of the Portuguese colour. At the end on the floor below was the fish section and it was interesting to note the difference in the fish being sold compared to Spain and Portugal. There were no prawns or squid etc but there were tuna and now scabbard fish. Mark wanted to make another fish stew but with the change he had to adapt the contents.

 We found a good vegetable store and stocked up with fruit, salad and vegetables. We then needed to visit the supermarket but in order to keep the momentum going I suggested a coffee and a pastais de nata to keep everyone going which went down well. It was very pleasant to sit, chat and watch the world go by just outside the market.

 The supermarket was a good one and we got everything we needed and the time was shortened by different people getting different things. We decided to hijack the trolley and wheel it down to the dinghy and no on the others e stopped us. A few of us when back to the boat with the provisions and the others returned the trolley and went back to the same café. We all met up a decided to wander down to the Cathedral and to see that area.

Unfortunately, the Cathedral was closed but as we passed the entrance, we heard lovely jazz music. There were 3 mature men playing and the main guitarist walking between the line of restaurants and bars. We therefore decided to have some lunch and we enjoyed the music in the background and it was relaxing in the warm sun. The man came round with his hat of course!! and Mark enjoyed it so much he bought the CD.

 Keith (Watson) had been to the tourist office and had got a restaurant recommendation, so we booked it. Everyone wanted to return to the boat to relax and swim. We relaxed for a few hours although Peter and I changed the oil for the engine as we were now over 200 hours since it was last serviced. This was the first time I had done this and helpfully the boat has a special pump which pumped the old oil out from the dipstick aperture which did not take long and then we refilled the engine. I also changed a water filter and cleaned the engine’s water strainer. It felt good to do these jobs and it is all part of keeping the boat working. I then planned our passage to the Canaries as we were leaving the next day.

 We went ashore and walked to the old part of the town which has lots of restaurants and bars and found the one we had booked. This area was very interesting with narrow streets and the doorways all being painted with a variety of scenes. We all had a delicious fish supper at the restaurant and felt we had a good sense of Madeira and most of us thought we would come back one day.

 We returned to the boat for the cheese course and tried a bottle of the Madeira wine which we had bought at the supermarket. It was not bad. We had had a good couple of days in Madeira and were now ready to move on.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions – do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com