Porto Santo

Porto Santo is one of the islands in the Madeira archipelago, it is the only island other than Madeira which is populated, it is approximately 30 miles from Madeira and it only 12km by 7km.  We knew in the right conditions we would be able to anchor off the beach at Porto Santo so it would be a cheap place to rest for a while but we had not expected it to be quite so nice.

Sunset over Porto Santo in our peaceful anchorage

We were able to check in the customs, etc at the marina but with the sun shining and light north easterly winds we could anchor just off the golden beach which stretched for 8km.  The marina were quite happy for us to leave our dingy to go ashore and the main town of Vila Baleira was only about 20 minutes walk, We were surprised by how nice the town was, it is really well maintain, with lovely tropical flowers and cute little cafes, bar and restaurants and still quite busy with tourists which mainly seemed to be Portuguese, possibly from Madeira.

Miles of golden sand in Porto Santo

We were pleased to have a reasonable sized supermarket although shocked that it was really busy probably because it is the only real shop on the island! In some of the smaller places we stop you find a tiny supermarket with limited produced but not here and I was also loving being able to buy local bananas!

We decided that a fun way to see the island would be to rent a scooter! I had never been on a scooter so was very excited, not really what Mark has been used to in the  past with his sports bikes but loads of fun.

Our mean machine

We slowly headed up hill to the east end of the island which provided a fantastic view down to the beach and the anchorage.

Looking west along Porto Santo

Magnum looks so small in the great big Atlantic

We headed around the north of the island, it is very desolate, a few house dotted around and some derelict buildings, not much vegetation mainly rocky and baron.

Baron landscape with just a few trees on the highest peak

The Atlantic looked a beautiful blue breaking against the rocks and we were amazed when we saw someone fishing off the rocks surrounded by the breaking sea.

There is someone fishing in the middle of these rocks!

Look at the colour of the water

After a morning of being rattled to pieces on the scooter we were glad to stop for a short walk up Pico Castelo (2^nd highest peak on island) although after a few days sat on the boat without walking very much even this was a bit of a struggle but worth it for the views and also for a shady spot to eat our picnic.

We could see the entire island

A shady spot for a welcome rest

We then rode to the west end of the island, on our way we passed the majority of the hotels on the island, most of which look really nice and right on the beach front. The beach on the far west point overlooking Ilheu de Baixo ou da Cal, it seemed to be the nicest beach on the island and we would have loved a dip but unfortunately we did not have our swimming stuff with us – Mark was tempted to have a skinny dip but bit busy for that!

The final stop of the day was Quita Das Palmeiras which was a small garden and bird park inland and difficult to find.  The greenness was such a contract to the rest of the island but the tropical plants seem to thrive with some water.  Some of the birds are flying free but most look quite happy in their cages and we always enjoy a chat with a parrot or two.

ahh always love a Macaw

With numb bums we were happy to finish our adventure around Porto Santo.