Thursday – Funchal, Madeira

Today, we dropped anchor in Funchal Bay, in Madeira.

It being New Year’s Eve, quayside slots come at a premium, and are probably bagged many years in advance. Today, the Oceana, an Aida ship, a Thompson Ship, and the Black Watch had taken prime spaces in the harbour, leaving Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth, Saga Pearl, the Megallan (CMV), another massive Thompson ship and the Marco Polo out at sea, with tender boats being the only means of getting passengers ashore.

Tender operations can be fraught affairs at the best of times. Today, with the swell being as it was, the job was just that little bit harder, with one tender boat being damaged early on, and needing urgent repairs. Despite having arrived at around 9am, tender boats didn’t start operating until about 11:30, and their first job was to get all those folks on excursions to the shore.

The weather was damp and claggy, with the higher slopes of Funchal disappearing drearily into low, thick cloud. Anyone taking a trip up the cable car today would have been mightily disappointed.

Needless to say, Tracey and myself spent most of the morning updating our blogs, and had a leisurely lunch. Around 2pm, we finally managed to catch the tender to shore, where we spent a lovely afternoon soaking up the festive atmosphere that Funchal lays on every year. We meandered through the colourful stalls and enjoyed the live entertainment, had a relaxing drink at one of the many outdoor bars on the main street and polished off more ice cream.

The low cloud remained in place for most of the day, only clearing in the early evening.

As I write this, we’re less than two hours away from 2016. At midnight, everyone will be out on deck to see the 2nd largest firework display in the world….