At last an ocean voyage, and we were happy to complete it. Neither of us was frightened as such as El Lobo coped well, but we lie very low in the water compared to modern boats and it is a bit disconcerting when the gunnels are almost constantly awash in the stronger winds. Even so, we did not ship any water into the cockpit, and we were snug and safe inside the doghouse.

At one point, Pat wasn’t sure that she wanted to cross the Atlantic next year (this was only a 4 day trip - Cape Verde to Barbados or Brazil will take over 20 days!) but after a while you get used to the constant buffeting and can even sleep while being tossed about a bit. Anyway, we did it and took great delight in our first port of call in the Madeiran archipelago, Porto Santo.

To be honest, neither of us had heard of Porto Santo before now, but it is the loveliest little holiday island 28 miles north of Madeira itself. There are flights direct to it from Lisbon and Porto and a new service from Gatwick has just begun this summer. There are also daily flights and a ferry from Madeira. Many Madeirans come across to enjoy the truly magnificent beach, which runs the whole length of the south coast. It is totally unspoiled and is really beautiful.

Approaching from the sea, Porto Santo looks really mountainous, but the highest hill, Facho Peak, is only 1,690 feet (515 m). It has it’s own airport and golf course. The capital is Vila Baleira where most of the population of 5,000 live. They rely on summer visitors as there is very little agriculture. There is little natural water on the island and there are two desalination plants. When it was settled in the 14th century it was a profitable colony, producing cereals, wines and sugar as well as dyestuffs from the sap of dragon trees. There are still two dragon trees in the main square. Deforestation at a very early stage in the island’s history led to rapid erosion of the fertile topsoil, leading to the ‘tawny’ colour of the landscape today.

Porto Santo’s main claim to fame is that Christopher Columbus visited the island in 1478, where he met and married the daughter of the governor. It was while he lived here that he apparently watched the vegetation being washed up on the beach and decided that there must be land to the west. He purportedly lived in a house near the church which is now a museum.

We cycled and walked a lot on the island and visited many idyllic coves. We looked in vain for a well photographed abandoned quarry with basalt columns like organ pipes but found many other fantastically shaped rock formations.

We also visited the Seve Ballesteros designed golf course with a view to a game but, as on the Algarve, the prices were way above our budget so we just enjoyed a drink in the luxurious clubhouse and enjoyed the views.

We had intended to stay only for a short while but ended up staying for over two weeks. A combination of urgent jobs to do on the boat (Mikes Page), the strong winds which kept coming along every few days and the sheer beauty of the island kept us there longer than anticipated.

Eventually, on the 15th July, we left for the short hop to Madeira, a 44 mile journey which took nearly 10 hours. We left with Sinbad, owned by Duncan and Rachael, who we first met in La Línea back in May. We didn’t see them again until Rabat, and they came to Porto Santo after us. Duncan is a fine angler, and has been giving Mike some lessons in fishing. Both Dunc and Rach have done very little sailing before. In fact, they bought the boat on a whim, took some RYA courses and left Britain in 2007. They have travelled much the same route as us but are going home at the end of the summer, where they will sell the boat and start a land-based life again. They are a lot younger than us and feel they still have more ‘landlubberly’ things to do with their lives! It just shows though - anyone can do this sailing thing if you put your mind to it. Just go for it!

We have both been to Madeira before, Mike on a short visit on a tanker while in the merchant navy and Pat for a fortnight’s holiday with Barbara. The walking in Madeira is superb and we couldn’t wait to get our boots on again!

Madeira is known as the ‘pearl of the Atlantic - the floating garden’ and is aptly named. For sheer beauty it cannot be beaten. Although we are in no way experts in botany, the profusion of flowers here is just amazing. It seems that every house, every roadside verge, every hillside and every track is covered in flowers of all varieties. A few we recognised were hydrangeas, geraniums, hibiscus, agapanthus, bougainvilleas and fuschias. There is a tremendous Botanical garden in Funchal, the capital, also a Tropical Garden which we visited.

Madeira and Porto Santo were discovered in 1419 by leaders of an expedition from Portugal. The Madeiran Archipelago is volcanic in origin, as are the Canary Islands and the Azores, and Madeira is especially mountainous, with the highest peak, Pico Ruivo, rising to 1862 m/6107 ft). When the discoverers first saw Madeira, it was uninhabited and completely covered in trees - hence the name a ilha de madeira - the wooded island. It is still almost completely covered in trees, especially laurel, but the iniquitous eucalyptus seems to have taken over whole swathes of hillside. Funchal’s heights were covered in wild fennel, hence the name, fennel garden.

We tied up in Funchal marina alongside some other new friends, Graham and Joanie from Northern Ireland in their beautiful boat Karma. They have lived on boats for most of their married life and have crossed the Atlantic more than once so have given us many tips. They were expecting family out for a visit so had come into the marina. Before that they had just lain at anchor in the harbour. After a few days in the marina we anchored out as well. The costs involved in moorings vary from country to country and from season to season. Nowhere is as dear as the south coast of England though! In Porto Santo marina it was 22€ a night for our length boat, and in Funchal 21€ a night. This includes electricity and water and free wi-fi internet access as well, a bonus!

We did a few touristy things the first day, took the cable car to Monte, above Funchal, and came back down on the Carros de Cesto, the toboggan ride. We spent the next days walking on many of the superb mountain tracks and the easier levada pathways (the irrigation ditches which run for over 1400 km all over the island). We WILL get fit! On one really steep descent into the Curral des Freiras - ‘the nun’s shelter’ - Mike slipped and landed on his bum not once but twice while Pat, having escaped so far, duly joined him once!

Duncan and Rachael joined us for a spectacular cliff walk along the northeast coast from near Caniçal to Porto da Cruz one day. We had a great walk, the only downside being that Pat left her telescopic walking stick behind in a bar there! It sounds idle not to have gone back for it the next day but the bus journeys take so long here and if it had not been handed in it would have been a waste of nearly a day! The sticks only cost us £6 each back in Dorchester last year so we’ll pick another one up somewhere, we hope.

Duncan, Mike and Graham went out for some serious fishing one day and they came back with a medium size tuna which managed to feed the 6 of us on the barbecue that evening with some left over. We have bought a barbecue ourselves now. We had fancied buying a gas one but they are very expensive so Mike has cleverly mounted an ordinary charcoal burning one on our rail and we can now cook ‘al fresco’ whenever we want. The temperature here on the islands is not as hot as Morocco but cooking on the cabin cooker makes the whole boat so uncomfortable that barbecuing is a necessity almost!

We visited the Madeira Story, a museum on the history of the island, and one fact stood out. Porto Santo erupted 14.2 million years ago while Madeira didn’t appear until only 5 million years ago. (How do they know?)Maybe that’s why there is a sandy beach on Porto Santo, but only the black volcanic beaches on Madeira. Don’t know.

After a few days at anchor in Funchal the swell became really uncomfortable so we moved the short distance along the coast to Calheta, a new marina and resort with just one hotel and two man-made sand beaches. There is a small supermarket here so we were able to survive all right while we took the opportunity to explore this end of the island.

On the 1st of August Pat had just got the web page ready to upload when disaster struck. The computer was running on batteries OK then when she plugged in to recharge, nothing! No green light, no charging taking place, no access to the hard drive! Panic! She found a computer shop in Estreito de Calheta, the village above Calheta marina. When she says above, she means above! It is only a couple of kilometres away but it is all uphill. After a hot climb carrying the computer in a backpack, she found a shop where a young technician looked at it, shook his head and professed he couldn’t mend it, but could recommend a good place in Funchal! Back down to the boat (all downhill this time, thank goodness), thought about getting the bus which takes about 2 hours, then jumped in a taxi which whisked her there in 35 minutes on the motorway. The taxi driver could not speak much English but he was very good, phoning a friend for directions to the shop then asking a passer-by when he couldn’t find it at the other end!  We left the computer in the capable hands of MCI (www.mci-madeira.com) and returned to Calheta. We had talked about copying the web page and program onto Mike’s computer ages ago but you know how it goes!

We decided to make the best of it and travelled up to Porto Moniz which is on the north west corner of the island by the local bus one day. The bus journey itself is worth doing. For only €2 each we passed through the most amazing scenery. The bus driver stops at a café aptly named ‘the precipice’ for a ten minute break halfway there!. Porto Moniz is not very big but it has a fantastic sea water pool which only costs €1.25 to get in. There are swimming pools all around Madeira as there are no sandy beaches like on Porto Santo. The one at Porto Moniz is especially spectacular when the tide is coming in.

We stayed at Calheta for a week then sadly said goodbye to Dunc and Rach as they left for the Azores. We then returned to Funchal where we managed to get into the marina again. The computer was fixed and collected on the 11th so we were all up and running again. The repair only cost €34.20 - the taxi fare from Calheta was €45!

We are staying in Funchal until the end of the week then will be making the 250 or so mile trip down to the Canaries. There are still some walks we want to do.

See you next month, hopefully.