Another rocky night…
It was chilly at the restaurant so I brought pancakes and preserves down from the Deck 5 restaurant and ate in the room. The pancakes on this ship are wonderful and there are several varieties. Today, I just had the plain ones along with scrambled eggs. Ellen had ordered from Room Service.
At 10 AM, I went to hear the other speaker, Steve Friedman. His topic today was “Tin Pan Alley – 1930s to 1940s”. Steve is very entertaining and also sings a bit during the talk – our talks could not be more polar opposites.
We passed some islands belonging to the Madeiran Archipelago in the morning, one being Porto Santos, home to Christopher Columbus for a while.
Porto Santos (I think)
Today, we are in the only port of call on this itinerary. Funchal, Madeira is part of Portugal – the name Funchal comes from the spice, Fennel. We are the only ship here today.
Funchal and Ellen
Funchal from the Sea Dream II
After lunch, we decided to walk to the town. It turned out to be quite the walk – around the bend of the harbor and over to the other side.
You can tell there is a connection between Columbus and Madeira because a replica of the Santa Maria conducts harbor cruises here.
Santa Maria Replica
We finally got to the other side of the bay, where we could get a nice picture of our ship docked.
Sea Dream II Docked
We walked through the shopping areas of Funchal – we had not seen any of this on our previous stop here because the tour bus left immediately for the countryside. The town is very clean and new looking. Lots of shops and restaurants – all very pricey.
We found a nice park hosting vendors selling various items. We stopped for a while to admire the greenery.
Funchal Park
Simon Bolivar has quite a reach – that’s his bust in a park in Madeira.
The park also had some very nice fountains.
The walk back did not seem any shorter but soon we spotted the Sea Dream II
The sail away from Funchal took place before dinner. Soon we were at land’s end and headed out to the open Atlantic Ocean for our journey to Puerto Rico.
Funchal Sail Away
There was a note in our cabin inviting us to dinner with Josh. When we got to the table, we found out that we would be joined with our new friends – Steve, Darlene and David (from Grapevine TX), and Tony (from Sweden now living in LA).
Dinner was again excellent – I had a Cesar Salad, mushroom soup and the Halibut entrée. All around good.
Dinner again ran pretty late so we headed for our stateroom.
The Captain promised a smooth night of sailing.
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