Madeira - Lanzarote

After dropping Els off at the airport at the crack of dawn, it’s back to the boat, where the gentlemen are still blissfully asleep. In the evening Paz and Carlos come aboard for sushi, which I make with some delicious Madeira tuna Paz still had and a fish Miguel caught the week before: a Cavala da India (wahoo) of at least 1.5 metres. Delicious, of course. On Monday we go swimming in Porto Muniz. The waves are bigger and more spectacular than I’ve ever seen there, and the lifeguard regularly blows his whistle to get us away from the edge. Every now and then I get dragged all the way back to the middle of the pool. Brilliant! The video was shot after our swim, but it gives a good idea of the conditions.

We do some last-minute shopping at Madeira Shopping and decide to grab a bite while we’re there. The gentlemen go for the kebab place, which even sells a ‘Kapsalon’, that great Dutch contribution to world cuisine.

The next day we leave for Lanzarote. After a fair bit of back-and-forth emailing and phoning, Kees has found us a berth in Porto Rubicon. With the harbour in Las Palmas packed with boats about to cross the ocean with the ARC, the other marinas are overflowing, so it wasn’t easy.

As we leave Quinta do Lorde and hoist the sails, we spot the Gulden Leeuw at anchor a little way off, so we make a small detour to sail past her and take some photos.

There’s a good breeze and the weather is fine. We sail past the Ilhas Deserthas to check whether they really are deserted. They are, so we can carry on. The passage is 300 miles, and at night the three of us stand watches of 2 hours, sometimes 3. It’s a bright night with plenty of moonlight and we don’t meet a soul. After 31 hours at sea we arrive in the harbour just after dark. Once we’ve checked in, the marina staff escort us to our berth, tucked right away in the corner. We want to moor stern-to, but without a bow thruster and with the stiff wind that’s blowing, that’s easier said than done. Fortunately the harbourmaster’s boat gives us a little nudge, so we get turned around and Kees expertly brings her alongside. We eat at one of the first restaurants we come across, which has a nice lively buzz. We go for the local wine, which goes down very well. Tired but happy, we roll into our bunks.

The next day we have a look at where we’ve ended up. It’s a very touristy marina, surrounded by restaurants, shops, shops, holiday homes, hotels and yet more shops. Beautifully laid out, clean, and friendly people. And a few tourists too. Something that never got done on Madeira, so I sort it straight away: the hairdresser. By popular demand, though not exactly wholeheartedly, here’s a photo of the result.

On Saturday we do an organised tour of the island. Quite an experience. Nothing grows here at all because it never rains; it looks like Mars, or the moon. What they can grow, we learn, is grapes. The vines are planted in a hollow, sheltered by a half-moon-shaped wall. The lava-stone soil provides warmth and condensation. There was a time when wine was cheaper to make than drinking water. It wasn’t until 1964 that they got a machine that could take the salt out of seawater. We don’t mind drinking the wine.

The island’s first settlers brought along lots of slaves from Africa, and camels too (dromedaries, actually). So we could take a little camel ride, but we give that a miss.

There are also a few demonstrations of the heat inside one of the volcanoes (there are 100 of them on the island). Just below the surface it’s extremely hot, as much as 400 degrees, so they use it as a gas cooker, a branch bursts into flames instantly, and water poured into a hole turns into a geyser.

At the end of the day we visit some caves that have been brilliantly turned into a restaurant, a pond, a bar and, most spectacular of all, a concert hall. Fantastic!

It was an eventful day and we saw a lot, but we don’t feel inclined to recommend this island as a holiday destination, even though it welcomes 3 million tourists a year. I’m writing this while the gentlemen watch a thrilling Formula 1 race. It sounds very exciting! Tomorrow it’s back to chasing Vetus, to see if they can help us, either here or in Las Palmas.