Santa Maria!

There is just one more day to go on the island now. These last hours will be spent topping up the tan before we return to cold old blighty!

The second week here has been much cooler than the first; with about ten degrees being knocked off last week's scorching thirty odd degree heat. To me, it has been more traditional Madeiran weather; warm and sunny with some cloud during the day, and cool by evenings, there is also the possibility we have acclimatised as well of course. All I know is that it is going to be a bit of a shock getting out of arrivals at Birmingham on Monday evening!

We spent this morning by the pool, after a wonderful champagne breakfast. One of my aims was to catch up with a backlog of my Fortean Times magazines, I only have one more to go, so I am quite pleased with that.

I have been wanting to blip the Santa Maria for a few days now, but chose something else instead ... her time has come!

The Santa Maria is based on a Portuguese Galleon and started operating here in 1999. You can book a trip on here for a spot of whale and dolphin watching, and she does two voyages a day. She is fully equipped with a bar and snack type restaurant and looks wonderful (although in the ten years I have been coming here I have never seen her with her sails down). I still haven't done a cruise on her, and it is not going to happen this year either. Never mind, there is always next time. I still find it quite exciting when she sails past right outside the hotel along the coastline.

We ate in the Real Canoa again tonight ... one last steak on a stone before we return home. I suppose we had better sling everything back in the case tomorrow. All good things and all that ...