Day 5: a final morning in Funchal.

Dawn was exceptional this morning; vivid yellow and orange hung in the sky as the sun slowly emerged from clouds clinging to the horizon.

I thought I'd heard orbital cleaning machines working diligently during the night but woke to see two cruise ships had docked opposite us.

Both were smaller than the Tui Mein Schiff which had pulled out yesterday. I heard someone saying Mein Schiff was the size of a large town with 5000 passengers! 

Nope. Not my idea of fun.

The other ship, the one I didnt recognise, was 3000. Yuk.

Ours you ask? About 700-800, a much nicer size.

I didn't go off ashore I used the quiet to hit the pool on deck 12 and the laundrette on deck 8. I'm sitting here on my balcony with my washing gently blowing and drying very nicely indeed.

As I watch Funchal disappear into the distance I note the heavy rain clouds in the hills and the slowly spreading, over cast day. Yes, when we left it had just turned cooler but as I swam this morning it was 28°C.