Monday May 13, 2024 – At Sea Between Southampton and Funchal, Madeira
Our final day at sea before arriving in Funchal, Madeira. Another day of sunshine, but one that started in fog. The first talk was by the Engineer Andrew Roberts who spoke of the “Lavadas of Madeira”. Lavadas in Spanish is washing, so the “washing places of Madeira” – did not make sense, however as Madeira is an autonomous region of Portugal so in Portuguese Lavadas is waterways. Thus the “Waterways of Madeira”. One of the initial crops was sugar cane which requires about 6 feet of water over the 9 month growing season to reach maturity in roughly equal amounts each day / week / month. The issue however is that the North side of the island is very mountainous and almost impossible to cultivate, but receives virtually all the rainfall. The southern side does not receive the same rainfall, but is much better for farming. So the Water channel system carrying water from the North to the south was devised some 500+ years ago, and is still in use today. Initially these waterways covered thousands of miles, but today still cover over 1,000 miles or about – 2,000 Kilometers. These are open channels built through the mountains that allow water to flow, by gravity to the fields of the south. A large reservoir high in the mountains stores millions of gallons of water that gradually gets released as needed by the farmers. Sugar cane was phased out and grapes took their place leading to the fortified wine Madeira is noted for. Alcohol is added to the wine to bring it from 12% to about 20% alcoholic content. Back to the Lavadas, though, these channels initially had the issue that being trenched through the lava, due to its porosity, much of the water was lost through drainage as well as evaporation. The solution was to crush the lava into powder, mix with lye and water and form a paste that was spread over the bottom and sides of the trench acting like cement. Today hydro-cement is used. Also, along these open trenches, a walkway, some narrow, some slightly wider are made so that repair work or cleaning out of the waterways can be made. Often they become blocked due to debris falling into the channels, blocking the flow of water or even breakages in the walls need repair. Today, these are all managed by the government department dedicated to this. The waterways also now produce about 1/3 of the electricity needed for the island.
We missed the Port lecture, but did return to hear the famous crime fiction writer – Val McDermid from Fyfe, Scotland. She started off her talk amusingly saying that she has killed off more than 100 people, strangled, stabbed etc and is free to go about the world. The people were characters in her novels some have been turned into TV productions. She spoke of her humble beginnings in a small town in Fyfe and her obsession with reading from an early age, leading her to a degree in English at Oxford, then journalism and finally to writing plays and success as a crime novelist. A very amusing life story and also sharing the genesis of some of the plots of her novels.
The Captain’s noon watch comments indicated that we had travelled some 1,057 nautical miles from Southampton and had 302 nautical miles to go to Madeira and we were traveling at an average speed of 16 nautical miles/hour.
We both had afternoon Zoom meetings and enjoyed the evening show – “Let’s Dance” which is the premier of the Cunard show that was developed and rehearsed for three months in Southampton and for the past month aboard the Queen Anne. Tonight was the first performance of what will be a regular show in front of a live audience. Excellent singers and energetic dancing of different genres, made it an excellent performance which played to a full theatre and greatly appreciated by all. Tomorrow we look forward to two days on shore in Madeira.
Roger & Anne Travels 