We have been enjoying staying here in Machico but there are some downsides of a free harbour. The quay is of course a public space and lots of locals and tourists walk out along it. They then have an added bonus of seeing some yachts from much closer than if they went to a large gated marina. For them this is great but for us it means we have a succession of strangers peering into our home. Both of us get very antsy about this. For me, the chief irritation comes when you do something like blowing up the dinghy when you get a line of men watching you sweat away. They are also not shy about doing their best to peer below. We feel like following them home and then staring at them park their car before squinting through all their windows but would probably get arrested for stalking.
More annoying have been the rod fishermen. One of their number succeeded in casting his line over our stern and his line became entangled in the wind generator. Then, rather than politely telling us, he broke his line off and ran away leaving a hopeless tangle round the shaft of Don Quixote. This morning we lowered him down and then with a lot of poking round with a cooking knife and some tweezers we managed to get it all out and are now back pushing the amp-hours into the batteries. Oh well, it is still a really nice spot and much nicer than being cooped up in an all too perfectly clean marina ghetto.
Off to Funchal tomorrow to see the Botanical gardens, try some Madeira wine and investigate the chandler there which carries very good reports.
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