Well, we’ve been here for sometime, said goodbye to Barbara, Mick, Janice and Anne (oh, and the fuse!).   The old city is very nice, separated from the tourist resort by an airport, which – as we keep saying – is very quiet.   We set sail tomorrow morning, through a very narrow channel and then head for the Gibraltar shipping lanes, some 70 miles away.  We will negotiate them in daylight, but the forecast is not for much wind, so guess how we will be making our way (most of our previous guests feel that the boat has no sails, but hey, she motors well!)  The trip should take about four days, and we’re booked into a marina called Quinta do Lorde, Funchal being over-rated and likely to be full!  Tom has taken the opportunity to feed a few of my favourite Lakeland pegs to the fishes – and our can of fly spray ran out today, luckily we’ve got another…

Here’s some pictures for the hard of hearing!   We will be blogging, but just words – they may even be positions for those practicing their nav skills (you know who you are).

Storks make their nests on the City Hall                                                  The Lagoon and invading charter flights

High tide keeps us inside the doca –                                                                   The doca and old town

Headroom at high tide about 6 inches!