The sea water is what surprise me the most in Madeira. The high cliffs go down in a crystalline deep blue sea and few emerged rocks create incredibles spots. But also deep green forest and suddenly waterfalls and 360 panoramic points of view… make this small Island a hiking treasure.
We spent only one month and preferred to stay in the comfort of the marina exploring the island by land also because we had to settle few documents. In few days we decided to change our plan and to sail to north Europe, instead of going to the med, to haul out Eidos in Belgium and make some routine maintenance work while spending some time with our son Milo that is studying in Delft (Netherlands).
Missy and Steven (from US but travelling in Europe) join us for the 20 days trip from Madeira to Nieuwpoort. We left Madeira for a night in Porto Santo and then Spain.
It has been a quite fast move and a lot of motoring but with nice stops in Spain and France. We have crossed the ship lane in the night approaching the Spanish coast and being the first time for us it has been quite impressive, with so many huge ships going regularly at 20-30 knots of speed!
Finally we arrive in the fishing village of Malpica where we stop for a well-deserved cold beer and nice dinner. In Malpica there was a kind of holiday or festival as we found a street market and an improvised stage for a concert in a boat yard.
The day after on our way to Viviero, we hear a strange noise and then the boat start going in circle… we had broken the line that connect the 2 rudders and the boat was sailing without use of the rudders! Likely the sea was quiet and no wind so we managed to rearrange the line having the control of one rudder only, but enough to sail to an open anchorage. The day after we fixed the line and ready to continue!
broken rudder’s line 
Camaret-sur-mar has also been a beautiful stop. Walking in this small French village full of art and cozy café.
Eidos is quite large (9.10m) and it’s not easy to find a boat yard able to take us out of the water and definitely we have quite an experience in Nieuwpoort where Acqualift carried us with a truck and a big hydraulic trailer that was holding Eidos from the center underneath!
