Finally the cruising has started and last Tuesday we left the marina at Quinta do Lorde and headed for the neighbor island of Porto Santo. Already at the eastern end of Madeira it was only a short 30+ mile passage. While normally, at least in the summer months, the wind blows strong from NE, which would be fully on the nose, we had the nice exception of a moderate NW allowing us to beam reach comfortably and swift to Porto Santo where we anchored near the harbor, off the 3 mile long sand beach.
With the winds around North we have now been happily anchored here for three days and plan to enjoy another day before sailing back to Madeira, this time just for a short last visit in Funchal. We expect a similar if a bit longer passage back.
Here in Porto Santo, we drive the dinghy up the shore on its wheels and are this way quite close to the largest super market, which would otherwise be a two kilometer walk from the harbor. There doesn't seem to be any public transport on Porto Santo, so the tender comes in quite convenient. In calm conditions there is no advantage going into the harbor and the small marina which doesn't have much space for boats of our size anyway.
It is a rather sleepy place here and the ferry from Madeira has thinned out its schedule compared to last year. For us cruisers this is off course all fine and we enjoy the island thoroughly.
As always a few picture. By the way, if you click on them you get them in bigger size and you can page through the set that goes with one blog entry.
Next report will probably be sent from somewhere on the Canaries, but let's see…..
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