PR8 from the Sea: Ponta de São Lourenço from the Side Nobody Photographs

If you have been in Madeira more than two days, somebody has probably told you about the Vereda da Ponta de São Lourenço, the PR8 trail. It is the most photographed walk on the east coast and one of the most walked on the whole island.

The boat leaves from Marina da Quinta do Lorde in Caniçal, the closest marina to the peninsula, so the sailing starts where the PR8 trail ends.

Do it. Seriously. Take more water than you think you need, go early, and expect wind.

But there is one thing the trail cannot give you, however well you walk it: the peninsula seen from below. And it happens that we sail exactly there.

The Same Place, a Different Scale

From up on the trail, the cliffs are scenery. You see far, you see beautiful, you see small.

From the water, the cliffs stop being scenery and become wall. The boat closes in, the rock rises, and suddenly those red, black and ochre stripes that looked painted in the photographs are fifty metres of stone standing over you. The caves at the base, which you cannot even guess at from the trail, open at water level.

Same place. Not the same thing.

Baía d'Abra: Tie Up and Swim

Baía d'Abra is where the trail begins, the car park where everyone laces their boots. From the sea it is a sheltered cove with clear water and mooring buoys.

We tie up to a buoy, shut everything down, and the boat sits still. Then you swim. No engine running, no rush, nobody else competing for the same square metre of water. We carry snorkelling gear for anyone who wants to see what is underneath, and there is always someone who would rather just float and look up at the trail they may have walked the day before.

The Boqueirão Crossing

And then there is the part almost nobody knows about.

At the far end of the peninsula, beyond the last point the trail reaches, the land does not simply stop. It separates. Between the tip of Ponta de São Lourenço and the Ilhéu do Farol, the lighthouse islet, runs a narrow channel: the Boqueirão.

Crossing it is the moment people remember most. The boat enters the channel with rock on both sides, the water changes colour, and on the other side something completely different is waiting.

Two Seas, Metres Apart

Madeira has two seas and most visitors only ever meet one.

The south is the sheltered one, warm and calm, the sea in every photograph of Funchal. The north is the real Atlantic, open, with swell that has travelled a long way and nothing to stop it. They have opposite temperaments.

The Boqueirão is the door between them. You pass from one to the other in under a minute and you feel the change in your body, in the movement of the boat, in the colour of the water, in the sound. It is one of those things that explains badly in writing and lands instantly when it happens.

When conditions allow, it is the best part of the day.

The Horizon Opens

And there is the view, which on the northern side is a different view altogether.

Porto Santo appears in the distance to the northeast, that long low line you rarely see clearly from land. To the right, the Desertas Islands, the steep profile closing the southern horizon. And in between, the Atlantic, with nothing on it for a very long way.

This is where marine life shows up most often. Dolphins, turtles, seabirds working the surface. We promise no sightings, because the sea signs no contracts, but these are among the richest waters in the North Atlantic and it happens regularly enough to be worth watching for. If that is what draws you, we wrote more about it in our guide to dolphins and whales off Caniçal.

Where We Leave From

We depart from Marina da Quinta do Lorde, in Caniçal, municipality of Machico, at the base of the peninsula itself. No crossing the island, no driving around anything: we are already there.

The marina sits inside the Hyatt Ziva Madeira resort, formerly Dreams Madeira. For guests staying there, this means walking out of your room and onto the boat. No transfer, no car, no road. For everyone else, access is through the Quinta do Lorde entrance with a security checkpoint on arrival, and you simply say you are heading to the marina.

If you want to know what else is worth your time in the village, we put together a guide to Caniçal.

We Sail Whenever the Wind Allows

The boat is a Dufour 325 sailing yacht, the 4WINDS, with skipper. It is not a catamaran and it is not a shared boat.

We sail whenever conditions permit, and that is not brochure language. When the engine goes off and the sail fills, the noise stops and there is only water running along the hull. On this coast, with the peninsula on one side and the Atlantic on the other, that is where the trip stops being a trip and becomes sailing.

When the wind does not cooperate we motor and the programme happens anyway. But when it does, it is the whole difference.

What You Need to Know

This route is our Half Day Tour, four hours, which is the time the peninsula and the crossing actually need.

• Private, your group only, up to 6 people
• Four hours, morning or afternoon departures
• Priced per boat, not per person
• Included: snorkelling gear, life jackets, light snacks and drinks (water, soft drinks, beer, white wine and sparkling)
• Minimum age 5
• Meeting point: Marina da Quinta do Lorde, Caniçal, 15 minutes before departure

The Boqueirão crossing depends on sea state and northern swell. It is not always possible, and the decision is always the skipper's. When it is not on, we stay on the southern side, which is no bad place to be either.

Do Both

Our recommendation, if you have the time, is simple: walk the PR8 and sail the same peninsula.

It is not repetition. It is one landscape showing two faces that look nothing alike, and the second one exists only for people who arrive by water. Afterwards, when somebody shows you a photograph of Ponta de São Lourenço, you will recognise it from two angles almost nobody has.

Check availability for the Half Day Tour or message us on WhatsApp at +351 966 147 611.