Disembarkation Day 20 Monday 8 December 2025
🌤️ Lots of sunshine, dry 20°c + today
Awake and up at 0715h as usual. After breakfast at 0800h I had just an hour to finish my packing and get my luggage on deck. We were leaving it on deck for the morning and returning to collect it with a taxi at 1200h. Meanwhile we walked to the bus station to make sure we had the Bay number, bus number and times correct. 59, 112 and every 30 minutes with 1h 03 minutes journey time. Next stop was a return to the Art Museum, truth be told we needed a coffee but decided to take in a couple of exhibitions, one of erotic paintings and another by a number of different photographers called The Vertigo of Images which was about the use of AI in manipulating media. The introductory text in the gallery was a turn off straight away 'Images and their potentials configure a territory of realities and experiences as vast and heterogeneous as it is difficult to define.' I lost the will to live after the first sentence and decided it WAS time for coffee and a pastry after all. Once that was fixed, we walked slowly back to the taxi rank by the liner terminal to find  taxi to take us to the ship to collect our luggage and on to the bus station. The driver at the front of the rank didn't speak English so with the help of his mate and the translate app on my phone, we managed to get back to the ship to load up our bags. While we were there, we had a quick hello/goodbye to Gerben who was taking over as Captain for the next leg of the voyage to Cape Verde. Our driver dropped us off at the bus station OK. When the bus arrived we were a long way back in the queue and our luggage had to go on the 'wrong' side of the bus but the driver retrieved it for us at the stop in Los Cristianos so we didn't have stand in the middle of the road to get it out. The journey was very fast with no stops through very dry and sometimes bleak areas of lava fields. We arrived at 13:30 with plenty of time before our 15:00 check in, so we stopped at a cafe to have some lunch and a welcome beer (it was quite warm for December). Just after 14:00 we set off to find a taxi to take us to the Paradise Park Hotel. Not our usual type of hotel but it was just for one night and close to the airport. We checked in a 14:30 and waited 15 minutes for our room to be ready. The room was nice, and we repacked our bags for the flight home tomorrow. We had a lie down but no sleep. The activities by the pool were a bit noisy. We went for supper at 18:30, reasonable food, and a lot of choice. The only fly in the ointment was being charged €2.10 for a bottle of water. While at breakfast, water is  included in the range of beverages on offer. I made my displeasure known in my review!

A selection of iPhone images taken in the old town of Santa Cruz. I have included the introductory text to THE VERTIGO OF IMAGES exhibition. It was this kind of dense rambling verbiage that was the final nail in the coffin of my photography degree. Wading through stuff like this while studying Critical Theory took all of the joy out of my photographic education.

Voyage Day 19 - Sunday 7 December 2025
🌤️ Sunny all day 20°c dry and warm
It was a quiet night with earplugs in. I went on deck at 0730. An island was visible in the mist - probably Tenerife but we were motoring away from it. It turns out we were killing time. After breakfast, we turned and slowly motored towards it. Aiming to berth before lunch, we motored in and met a pod of Pilot whales (probably the same pod we saw off the coast of La Gomera three years ago!) The ship made its way into the marina just before lunch. Immediately after lunch, Angie, Nick, Andrew and me walked with Boudawein (the mate) to the Port Office to get entry stamps in our Passports. We walked into town to see if the Tourist Information office was open but  on a Sunday in December it was a forlorn hope, so we sat at a table outside Doris’s bar in the main Square and drank a beer and people watched in the afternoon sun. On our way back to the Marina, we stopped for an Ice Cream. Back on board we started to organise our packing for the morning, had a nap, then a delicious supper of Lamb fillet! There was a lot to sort out out before turning in, a money transfer in Euros for the hotel payment, and finding the details of the 112 bus to Los Cristianos tomorrow. While I was doing that, Angie was packing.

Voyage Day 18 - Saturday 6 December 2025
⛅️ Dry sunny spells, 18°c NE wind moderate.
Not a bad night, relatively quiet with a steady heel to port which was quite comfortable. I went on deck before breakfast, all Gaff sails, plus the two Topsails and the Forestay Sail were set, making good speed towards Tenerife. We should be there tomorrow afternoon. The wind dropped a bit after lunch but we are still making good speed SSE. Our logbooks have been handed in for completion. There is not much happening on deck so I have caught up on my notes and made some photos with the X-E1 + 27mm f2.8. The sunset was nice, we saw the whole globe of the sun sink below the horizon - no green flash though. Supper was good - Indonesian pork satay with fried rice cooked without sesame oil. I spent the evening re-reading the Sea Kingdoms and playing Solitaire. Bed at 2220h.

Voyage Day 17 - Friday 5 December 2025 Sinter Klass (sp?) Day
☁️ Dry overnight, cloudy all day. 19°c.
A noisy night with clatter from the doors left on the hook for ventilation!  (It's nice that the nights are now getting warmer). Motoring overnight as the wind dropped and the sails came down until just before breakfast. The Main, Schooner, Forestay Sail,  Inner Jib, and both topsails were up. I helped with the Mizzen and after breakfast the Outer Jib went up as well. We were making 4 to 5 kn SSE to Tenerife. Over the afternoon the wind increased and the Upper Topsail was furled. Also this afternoon, the Secret Santa (Dutch Version) was held in the saloon with Lucas as St Nicholas and Casper as Piet. It was fun, we all received our present and read the poem attached to it  - it took over an hour, while we did it, crew included. I don’t know who was sailing the ship?? I received a nice bar of Belgian Chocolate, Angie got some souvenir shot glasses from Madeira. Supper wasn’t very interesting, Summer Mashed Vegetables and Frankfurter Sausages with potato sticks and dried onion flakes - not the best part of the day if you don’t like frankfurters, but as usual, the dessert was nice. There was only one photo for today. (It is noteworthy that Sinter Klass and Neptune share a wig and beard! 🤣 ​)

Voyage Day 16 - Thursday 4 December 2025, ashore at Machico and Funchal 
🌤️ Rain overnight, sunny spells, dry and warm all day
Nice Day! Once the morning stuff was done, we went ashore on the ‘shuttle’ from the ship to shore around 0945h. A lot of people were waiting for the bus, local and from our ship. The journey was quick and by the time we arrived there were a lot of passengers standing. We alighted at the harbour side and waked to the tourist information office to be sure of the bus stop for our return journey. We then headed for the old town. Along the way we stopped for coffee and Pastel de Nata - delicious. We continued our walk to the old town, chose a bakery for lunch and visited the fruit, vegetable, flower and fish market, sat for a while in the park, returned to the bakery, sat outside to eat our ‘Mafia’ toasties, triple layer, with cheese, tomato, mozzarella, rocket, basil and olive oil. (see gallery) Very nice but very filling. We also had a soft drink and coffee. We then made our way back to the bus stop, snapping pictures all the while as there was a lot of street art to view and appreciate. We caught the bus and got back to Machico in time for an ice cream and the 1600h shuttle back to the ship. Tonight after supper we spent time wrapping our Secret Santa presents for tomorrow’s visit of St Nicolas - it's a long story but there are a lot of enthusiastic Dutch crew on board.