Sy-Resolute's blog

We arrived at the Marina Quinta do Lorde which is situated at the southeastern coast of Madeira at the 6th of September at 17:20 hours. There was a big hallo when we met the trans-ocean yachts ANNI NAD with Rita and Ulli and FLOW with Anne and Marcus, a few days later LA BOHEME with Heidi and Udo also arrived. This is already our 4th time at Madeira and still the island is one of my favourite places to be. At the marina reception we hired a car for 7 days ( 220,-€ ) and the next morning we  drove to our first Levada near Puerto Cruz in the NE of the Island. How  nice it is to walk along the Levada, the landscape green, the wine harvest was going on and the farmers gave us grapes as much as we wanted. Also one farmer invited us into his wine cellar and we had a few glasses of extraordinary wine. Later on the Levada led us into dense forest and at the fountain of the Levada Barbara and Frank had a bath., for me the water was to cold. In the following days we visited 2 more Levadas each one totally different. One day we spent in Funchal visiting the markethall and a winemuseum.
The service in the marina Quinta do Lorde was excellent but heavy swell entered the marina sometimes and it was a big stress for our lines and fenders and I wondered how it would be during wintertime.
On the 16th  at 10:00 h we let go all lines said good bye to Udo and Heidi and started our voyage to La Graciosa, our first Island in the Canaries. After a fine and easy voyage of 280 nm we arrived at La Graciosa  the 18th of September at 01:00 am.
La Graciosa is a vulcanic desert Island with a little village. 18 yachts have anchored in the bay with a white sandy beach. Yesterday we went ashore and had a meal in one of the restaurants. Today Frank cleaned our propeller which was already fouled, Barbara polished all our stainless steel witch got rusty. A few times a day we take a swimm now in the warm and clean Atlantic water.