Romantic Sailing on Madeira's East Coast: A Private Boat, Two People, and Nobody Else

There is a word that gets used carelessly in tourism, and the word is romantic.

It appears on catamarans that carry sixty people and a sound system. It appears above photographs of couples who were, in reality, standing in a queue for the deck rail. It appears wherever a marketing department decided that a sunset and two glasses were enough.

We would like to offer a narrower definition. Romantic is when nobody else is there.

That is the whole idea behind a private sail on Madeira's eastern coast. The boat is a Dufour 325 Grand Large, nine and a half metres of sailing yacht, licensed for six guests. If you are two, you are two. There is a skipper, because someone has to sail her, and there is the Atlantic. That is the entire guest list.

What "private" actually means on this coast

Most boat trips in Madeira leave from Funchal marina and carry a group. The route is fixed, the timings are fixed, and the person beside you at the rail is a stranger who booked the same slot.

We leave from Marina da Quinta do Lorde, at the far eastern tip of the island, and we take one booking at a time. Nobody joins you. The route bends to the wind and to what you feel like doing: a longer stop in a cove, a slower way home, a decision to cut the engine and simply sail.

That last one matters more than people expect. Under sail with the engine off, a boat makes almost no sound. Water along the hull, the sheet loading, wind. Conversation happens at normal volume. There is no soundtrack, because we do not play one.

Three ways to do this

The golden hour · Sunset Tour, €450

Three hours, timed so that the sun goes down while you are out on the open water rather than watching it from a wall.

The cliffs of Ponta de São Lourenço are rust and ochre by day. In the last hour they catch the light and burn. The sea goes blue, then gold, then a deep copper that photographs badly and remembers well. Light snacks and drinks are on board.

In winter the sunset is short and cinematic. In summer the golden hour stretches and stretches and refuses to close. Both are worth it. They are simply not the same evening.

The one where you swim · Sea & Chill, €390

Three hours built around anchoring in Baía d'Abra, a turquoise bay minutes from the marina, and getting into the water.

Swim off the deck. Rinse under the freshwater stern shower. Come back up, take a drink, and let the boat swing at anchor while the afternoon does nothing in particular. For a lot of couples this ends up being the more romantic of the two, precisely because nothing is scheduled.

The long one · Full Day, South Coast, €900

Eight hours from Caniçal along Madeira's sunniest shore, as far as Fajã dos Padres, with the sea cliffs of Cabo Girão seen from below. A thousand metres of rock standing directly out of the water, which is not a view you get from a road.

Swim and snorkel stops in coves you cannot reach on foot. Snacks and drinks on board. A whole day where the only decision is where to stop next.

If you are staying at Quinta do Lorde

This is the part most visitors do not realise until they arrive.

The marina we sail from is inside the Quinta do Lorde resort village. From the Hyatt Ziva Madeira, the walk to the pontoon is about 280 metres, three or four minutes. From the Quinta do Lorde apartments it is shorter still.

No taxi to Funchal. No thirty-minute transfer at the end of a long day. You walk down, you sail, you walk back. If you are staying at that end of the island and have been looking at boat trips that all seem to leave from the other side, this is the reason your search kept feeling wrong.

Coming from Funchal is perfectly normal too. It is a half-hour drive along the VR1, and a good number of our guests do exactly that. But the people already living at this end of the island are, without knowing it, the closest anyone gets to the boat.

The small things that make it romantic

Not the champagne. The other things.

Silence you can talk over. Under sail there is no engine noise. You are not raising your voice.

Nobody documenting you. There is no group photographer working the deck, no obligatory group shot at the end, no one you will later have to smile at over breakfast.

A sea that is warm past September. Madeira's eastern coast has no season in the way northern Europe has one. The water in October behaves like the water in July.

Wildlife that arrives or does not. We are not a whale watching company, and we do not promise dolphins. But these waters hold more than twenty-five species of cetacean, and late afternoon is when the sea is most likely to show you something. When it happens, it happens to the two of you, not to forty people with phones.

Proposals, anniversaries, honeymoons

People do propose on this boat. If that is the plan, tell us when you book. The timing of a sunset is predictable to the minute, and it is much easier to put the boat in the right place at the right moment when the skipper knows what is coming.

The same goes for an anniversary, a birthday, or anything you would like brought on board. Ask in advance and we will tell you honestly what is possible from Caniçal and what is not. We would rather say no in an email than disappoint you at sea.

Practical

Where. Marina da Quinta do Lorde, Caniçal, at the eastern tip of Madeira. Three minutes on foot from the Hyatt Ziva Madeira, roughly thirty minutes by car from Funchal.

Boat. Dufour 325 Grand Large. Maximum six guests, always private to your booking.

Best light. Sunset departures year-round. Summer gives you a long golden hour, winter a short and dramatic one.

Best swimming. May to November, though the eastern coast stays comfortable well beyond that.

Booking. Direct on this site, or send a message on WhatsApp and we will answer personally. There is no call centre.

In brief

A romantic sailing tour in Madeira does not need to be sold to you with adjectives. It needs the boat to be yours, the coast to be quiet, and the sun to go down while you are still out on the water.

That is what we do, three or four minutes' walk from where you are probably already sleeping.

Sunset Tour · 3 hours · €450 · max 6 guests
Sea & Chill · 3 hours · €390 · max 6 guests
Full Day, South Coast · 8 hours · €900 · max 6 guests

SeaYa! Madeira, private sailing from Marina da Quinta do Lorde, Caniçal. RNAAT nº 1040/2025.