The Marvels of Madeira

Madeira is full of surprises.  After our 495-mile crossing from the coast of Portugal -  Saecwen’s longest passage to date - we were greeted in the early hours of the morning by the lights of the Holy Island of “Porto Santo”.  Approaching at night we were able to pass the lighthouse on the north eastern outlying island before rounding up into the main harbour. It was chilling  to think how the very first ships to discover these islands made a safe landfall hundreds of years ago.  

Anchored at Ensenada do Ambra

Zarco and the Portuguese mariners of the 15^th century apparently discovered the island by mistake, as they had been tasked by the king of Portugal to discover new lands west of Africa.  They had got caught in a  storm and were blessed to find shelter on this island - hence the name Holy or Blessed harbour “Porto Santo’. A few decades  later, Colombus lived here and learnt how to navigate before setting out on his historic voyages. Sailing to or from the Madeiran archipelago in those pre-charted times must have been quite a feat.

Heloise at the summit of another Porto Santo peak

Arriving at night always brings a surprise at dawn. This time waking up to discover we were anchored under some very steep, barren reddish-brown hills, very striking after four days of nothing but blue.  The next surprise was the somewhat eerie vibe of the harbour with several abandoned yachts, and possibly abandoned dreams? 

If you get this far and don’t keep going, there really aren’t many other options.

Porto Santo is just 6 miles long and 3 miles wide, has several peaks and is largely barren, due to the invasion of rabbits which destroyed most of the flora including the islands’ native dragon trees.

Porto Santo Hoopoe 

We enjoyed a number of very hot hikes and had the lovely surprise of discovering that one of the peaks had been re-forested by a noble Portuguese gentleman who led a successful reforestation program with the construction of stone walled terraces and “levados” (water canals) to protect the slopes from erosion. The program continues to this day and more trees are being planted, which has provided habitat for a variety of birds, including kestrels, buzzards and the stunning hoopoes.

Painting the ship's name on the harbour wall

The geology of this little island is quite unique, with giant Basalt columns not dissimilar to the Giant’s causeway and after much scrambling we were able to find the famous cave near the summit of Pico da Ana Ferreira where in 1617  a few locals were able to hide whilst the majority of the island’s population were abducted by Barbary corsairs and taken off into slavery. After leaving Saecwen’s mark on the wall of the Porto Santo harbour, alongside the names of so many other seafarers before us we continued our journey south to the main island of the Archipelago, Madeira itself.  

Pico da Ana Ferreira Cave

Madeira means wood in Portuguese and thankfully on Madeira the forests are still very much alive.  A much larger and higher island with many peaks, waterfalls and valleys, Madeira has a temperate climate and is home to an abundance of lush, verdant sub-tropical  forest, characterised by evergreen and hardwood trees and the most surprising array of wild agapanthus and chrysanthemum.  The system of levados, or water canals we had first seen in Porto Santo are a key part of the landscape here, some centuries old and still very much fully flowing and often flanked with flowers that you would usually see in an English garden.

Waterfalls in the Madeiran cloud forest

The levados capture the pristine water that has been evaporated off the sea, rises up the warm slopes and drips off the mossy walls and runs through the waterfalls of the cloud forest where it is channelled back down to the productive agricultural slopes by these ingenious canals. 

Levado do Rei, Madeira

The capital city of Funchal is home to several stunning gardens and we explored the curious Monte Palace garden, home to hundreds of species of trees and incredible views of the harbour below. Almost every garden on the island has at least 10 banana trees and the markets are brimming with tropical fruit, including a surprising ‘banana-pineapple’ fruit that looks like a prickly cucumber and tastes like a soursop.

One of our favourite anchorages was off Funchal harbour where the sky is lit up with the lights of the capital that reflect onto the water for a spectacular display every night. 

Another unexpected and very welcome sight.

Madeira's stunning interior

The diversity of ecosystems and geology on this archipelago is truly a marvel and we were sad we could not spend more time exploring these stunning islands. However, with a fair fresh north easterly blowing it was time to continue our voyaging. So, leaving the last islands of the archipelago, the ‘Islas Desertas’, to port we headed back out into the ocean.

Funchal Harbour by night

Next stop: the Canary Islands.