Our sail to Madeira from Porto Santo

Our sail to Madeira was pretty uneventful although we were excited to be heading somewhere new, as we rounded the west point of Porto Santo we could see the clouds over the top of Madeira and the mountains just peaking out above the clouds, at over 1800m at the highest point Madeira is reasonably mountainous.

Our first sight of Madeira through the clouds

We motor sailed to get us round the western point of Porto Santo and then switched off the engine to sail with a light winds from behind but only making about 3 knots, there was an underlying swell which was not too pleasant and we were about to sail for a few hours before the wind dropped away and engine was on to get us the 30 miles to Madeira. 

Approaching the east coast of Madeira

The only possible anchorage in Madeira is at Baia D’Abra at the far east end of the island,  as we approached we could see the 4 other boats anchored all rolling.  With little wind the swell pushing into the anchorage was particularly unpleasant, we made ourselves a quick dinner and decided that we would just try to get to sleep but before we had even done the washing up we decided that we could not do another rolly night and we had about 30 minutes until the marina closed so up came the anchor and we rushed into the Quinta Do Lorde marina, aahhhh how lovely it was to be tied up with no rolling – we would have slept like babies if it had not been for the 3 German guys on the boat next to us have a few too many beers!

Leaving the rolly anchorage

Approaching Quinta Da Lorde Marina - no photos of drink Germans!

It was nice to see the shelter of the sea wall!