Here, Madeira

The Madeiran archipelago is a sometimes overlooked gem. Few know it better than Don Street, who talks us through the islands in his inimitable fashion

Madeira and its smaller sister island of Porto Santo are the logical first stops for boats enroute to the Caribbean but are also an ideal adventure destination for sailors planning to leave the UK in the spring or summer. They are approximately 1,200 miles from Falmouth or the south west coast of Ireland, 535 miles from Gibraltar.

Madeira is a high island, highest point about 6,100ftwith other peaks only slightly lower. In 1975 on my boat, Iolaire, at we picked up the lights high up on the mountains of Madeira at night when we were 40 miles out. The climate is mild; average temperatures in summer are around 23°C and in winter, 19°C but remember if exploring the higher hills it can cool surprisingly quickly. The low eastern half of the island is very dry, the rest of the island gets rain but seldom heavy rain. The rain falls manly in the mountains.

At 33° N Madeira, is not in the trade wind belt but the wind is largely from N or NE. Especially in the winter the bottom edge of the lows that march across the Atlantic reach Madeira. This sometimes produces strong SW winds, and swell that can make things a bit uncomfortable in the two main marinas but, as mentioned, the breakwater keeps them protected from the worst.

Ugly fish and Winston Churchill