Wednesday 2 September
Today we are staying put to catch up on sleep and clean the boat.
We swam in the sea and Alex checked out the town for us, sadly he leaves us today.
Thank you Alex for being wonderful crew and company and helping us so much. We are so glad you returned again to sail on La Bamba who will always be hoping you will come back soon.
We walked along the long beautiful beach into the town.
We bought some Porto Santo wine – not sure if it’s the best stuff here…
We met Christopher Columbus who used to live here – he married the governor’s daughter, Filipe Perestrelo. His house is now a museum, but it’s not in the town so we didn’t visit.
There’s also a sculpture to the early discoverers who were in the service of Infante Henrique in 14OOs, sent by King John I to discover lands for Portugal, partly as a reaction to the Spanish claiming the Canaries.
João Zarco and Tristão Teixeira were blown off course on their way back in 1418 and claimed Madeira for Portugal.
Porto Santo means Holy Harbour as it gave safe shelter in the storm.
There were a lot of decorations by the church – looks like there’s going to be a fiesta or something.
We had another delicious meal. My very few phrases of Portuguese are going down well!
And I shall translate this poem for you:
Oh Island of Porto Santo
With your delicious grapes
Your sun so enchanting
And your beautiful beach
As Zarco discovered you
Stepping onto your friendly soil
He seemed to be asking you
For safe shelter and protection
(With some help from google!)
At the restaurant we chatted to a British couple who had emigrated here on Brexit having fallen in love with the island, and their German friend from Hamburg who has also become a resident.
After diner we found out what all the excitement was about: today is the relaunch of the Porto Santo football team, they haven’t had one for several years. Maybe the next Christian Ronaldo is here! – he was born in Funchal just over the water and has Madeira’s International airport named after him.
There was an art exhibit in the town hall
There was an enormous queue for ice-cream – they do a sort of Mr Whippy thing here, and about 10 yards down the road there was the same brand in a shop with no queue! So we went there – maybe the flavours were less exciting, the server was particularly grumpy too.
Tomorrow we sail for Madeira, although it doesn’t look like there’ll be any wind…
