Heading to Agadir from Madeira

March 23, 2013
We arrived on the island of Madeira at the capital city, Funchal, yesterday.We had traveled 3,365 miles from Fort Lauderdale to Funchal, Madeira. It sits about 400 miles off the coast of North Africa. Madeira is the largest island in the archipelago and has 270,000 residents with half of them residing in Funchal. It was discovered in the early 1400s by a Portuguese explorer. There were no people living on the island but there were seals, birds and lizards. The island is 35 miles/56 km long and 13 miles/21 km wide and has a weather pattern which is varied. Funchal is located on the Bay of Funchal on the south side of the island and has ideal weather. Funchal got its name from the vast amounts and the aroma of the fennel plant which is used in cooking. It seldom snows and when it does it stays on the mountains. The island has the second highest sea cliff ( 1900 feet) in the world, the highest is in Taiwan. Madeira is to the Atlantic what Hawaii is to the Pacific. People fly there from mainland Portugal for vacations. Our tour of the island was outstanding as we covered and saw the high cliff and drove to a place that Winston Churchill stayed at when he did his painting.Then we drove to the north side of the island and saw many terraced gardens where all kinds of plants are grown. Since the hilly geography makes it hard to grow items the terraces are the best. Some land plots are so small that potatoes are grown under grape vines so the land is used efficently. We had lunch at the Restaurante Cachalote which is located in Port Moniz on the northwest corner of the island with a great view of the ocean and the waves breaking against the rocks. Our view reminded me of the Oregon/Northern California ocean views. On our drive back to Funchal we climbed over the mountains and went up into the clouds and had a bit of rain but as we went down the southern side of the mountain range the sun broke through and we once again had a beautiful sunny day. The island is governed under Portugal but it does make some of its own laws and has its own government. Words used to describe that relationship are "sovereignty" and "autonomy" both of which have not been fully explained in discussions. I did learn that there are taxes paid to Portugal. There are 136 tunnels on this island ( the longest is 2 miles) and a major road infrastructure was completed in 2006. I suspect but didn't ask if most of that infrastructure money came from mainland Portugal. Madeira has some exports but again I didn't ask about their GDP. Flowers are in abundance all year around though not all varieties, then that wonderful dinner addition of Madeira wines, and bananas that have been grown in terraces at about 15 tons per year, fishing, but their economic mainstay is tourism with the celebrity endorsement of Winston Churchill. Tourism is 80% of the GDP with 950,000 arrive by plane while 350,00 come on cruise ships. Traffic moves on the right side of the road and all drivers were exemplary in their road conduct.
During our crossing of the Atlantic I awoke to see my first up close deep ocean super drilling platform which at first looked like an aircraft carrier. It was about 1 to 1 1/2 miles away. Our crossing was almost 8 full days arriving in Funchal 5 hours late which caused the cancellation of all shore excursions for that day. Due to a North Atlantic storm our crossing was south of the great circle ( shortest route ). That Atlantic storm created 35 foot swells at times giving the vessel a corkscrew motion through the waves.
March 24- a sea day
We were suppose to leave Funchal at 5 pm last night but because of an engine maintenance issue we finally were underway at 2 am this morning. There was an problem with the head gasket on one of the diesel engines. Today is sunny and we are headed for Agadir, Morocco. Hopefully we can make up our lost time.