SailBlog - A quiet night in Funchal Harbour...or not...

Mark A

10/10/2008, Funchal Harbour, Madeira

The curious incident of the boat(s) in the night time.

A short but breezy sail from our marina to Funchal, anchoring just off the shore outside the small harbour, a bottle of wine and dinner looking across the night lights of Madeira's capital on a warm evening. What could be more perfect?

And so to bed, to be rocked to sleep by the (not so) gentle swell. And so up again at 1am with the bleeping of one of our anchor alarms, which tells us the boat is moving from its anchored location. Three men in underwear rush on deck but all seems ok, we have just swung round completely as the wind has moved 180 degrees but our anchor is still holding. And so to bed again. And so up again at 2am. Both anchor alarms this time, but the same thing has happened again. We also note that unusually not all the boats are swinging in the same direction as the wind changes. We are closer to some of the boats now than last night. We watch and wait as the wind gusts from a few knots to 30 knots but deem it ok, and so to bed. And then at 3am.. bang. Three men on deck in underwear once again to find another boat has swung round catching our bow. No damage to us luckily but after a quick debate we decide to re-anchor, further away from the other boats' erratic swinging that seems to be a result of strong and changing winds from the island and a swell from the sea.

With all four of us up we move the boat and then sit under the stars in the cockpit with a snack monitoring things. One of the boats seems to be getting closer again, but then it seems to be getting further away. And further away. And we realise that its anchor can not be holding and it is being blown out to sea. We shine our high power light on it, hoping to wake the occupants, as does another boat, but to no avail. We try to raise the Port Authorities on the radio while the other boat eventually sends out a dinghy and motors out, wakes the drifting boat's crew and we see lights and frenetic activity. It eventually comes back to shore and re-anchors.

And so to bed. And then at 7.30am the boat is lit up like a disco. Now there is a coastguard vessel alongside shining lights on us. It seems that a big cruise ship is inbound and all the sailing boats at anchor need to get closer to the shore to give it room to manoeuvre as it enters the port. Just the time you need the electric windlass for the anchor to fail on you.  But we managed to move and yes, it was a big ship.

Forget bed now. Welcome to Funchal and the best protected anchorage in Madeira.