Desembarcadouros (islet)

The Carta Geo-Hydrographica da ilha da Madeira by General A. Pedro de Azevedo marks this islet with the name of Ilhéu Vermelho or de Ametade; it is also known as the Ilhéu da Cevada or dos Embarcadouros, as other sources record. The Ilhéu de Agostinho, this Ilhéu dos Desembarcadouros and the Ilhéu de Fora are regarded as part of the Ponta de São Lourenço (see that entry) and lie in line with its extension. The smallest, and the closest to the point proper, from which it is separated by a narrow channel, is the Ilhéu de Agostinho (see that entry); next comes the Ilhéu dos Desembarcadouros and, to the east of it, the Ilhéu de Fora or do Farol. The Ilhéu dos Desembarcadouros thus lies between the Ilhéu de Agostinho and the Ilhéu de Fora. These two islets, dos Desembarcadouros and de Fora, are separated from each other by a channel called the Boqueirão Grande (‘great gap’), which is 180 metres wide and about 8 metres deep. It is therefore navigable for the ‘barcos de carreira’ and coastal steamers, which frequently pass through it. The Ilhéu dos Desembarcadouros has a height of about 100 m, known as the Pico Vermelho (‘red peak’), and a small beach that gives access to the upper part of the islet. Of these three islets, known as the Islets of the Ponta de São Lourenço, the Ilhéu dos Desembarcadouros has the largest area, and its terrain is quite rugged.

The upper part of the Ilhéu dos Desembarcadouros is hard to reach, but once the coastal rocks have been climbed it is easy to walk over it in every direction. The naturalist Richard Thomas Lowe called it the botanical garden of the Ponta de São Lourenço, because many rare species, hard to find elsewhere on the island, grow together there. Beta patuta, Crepis divaricata, Asphodelus fistolosus and Phalaris maderensis are plants which, in Madeira, have not been found outside the Ilhéu dos Desembarcadouros.

This islet is also known as the Ilhéu da Metade, Vermelho, da Cevada and dos Embarcadouros, and is separated from the Ilhéu de Fora by the so-called Boqueirão Grande. On its west side it has a beach or pebble beach (calhau), which is covered by the water in two places at high tide.