Sea distances 1Distances to Lisbon, Africa and Porto Santo
Sea distances
Original title: Distâncias marítimas
Gives approximate sea distances in nautical miles between Lisbon, the African coast and Madeira, and between the ports and landing places of the archipelago, largely based on a table by the merchant-navy officer Afonso Coelho.
1Distances to Lisbon, Africa and Porto Santo
The distance between the ports of Lisbon and Funchal is generally reckoned at 520 nautical miles.
The point on the African coast closest to Madeira is Cape Cantin, and the distance separating the two is 350 miles.
The stretch of sea that separates the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), known as the Travessa (‘crossing’), measures 21 and a half miles between the Ilhéu de Fora (Ponta de São Lourenço) and the Ilhéu de Baixo (Porto Santo). The distance between the harbour of the city of Funchal and that of the town (vila) of Porto Santo is approximately 41 miles.
Drawing chiefly on a table compiled by the merchant-navy officer Afonso Coelho, we give below the approximate distances between the various ports of this archipelago, the figures expressing the number of miles and their decimal fractions:
2Table of distances between ports
| Route | Distance (miles) |
|---|---|
| From the harbour of Funchal to Câmara de Lobos | 4 |
| From Câmara de Lobos to Campanário | 3 |
| From Campanário to Ribeira Brava | 1.7 |
| From Ribeira Brava to Ponta do Sol | 2.1 |
| From Ponta do Sol to Fajã do Mar | 2.4 |
| From Fajã do Mar to Calheta | 2.3 |
| From Calheta to Jardim do Mar | 2.1 |
| From Jardim do Mar to Paul do Mar | 1.2 |
| From Paul to Pesqueiro | 2.3 |
| From Pesqueiro to Ponta do Pargo | 0.7 |
| From Ponta do Pargo to Porto Moniz | 7.5 |
| From Porto Moniz to Seixal | 4 |
| From Seixal to São Vicente | 3 |
| From São Vicente to Ponta Delgada | 3.6 |
| From Ponta Delgada to São Jorge | 4 |
| From São Jorge to Faial | 3.2 |
| From Faial to Porto da Cruz | 2.5 |
| From Porto da Cruz to Ponta de São Lourenço | 9.3 |
| From Ponta de São Lourenço to Caniçal | 4 |
| From Caniçal to Machico | 1.6 |
| From Machico to Santa Cruz | 4.3 |
| From Santa Cruz to Porto Novo | 2 |
| From Porto Novo to Funchal | 5.9 |
| From the harbour of Funchal to Garajau | 2.9 |
| From Garajau to Ponta da Oliveira | 1.1 |
| From Ponta da Oliveira to Ilhéu de Fora | 10.6 |
| (Ponta de São Lourenço) | 21.6 |
| From Ilhéu de Fora to Ilhéu de Baixo (Porto Santo) | 4.3 |
| From Ilhéu de Baixo to the landing place of the town of Porto Santo | 21.5 |
| From the harbour of Funchal to Deserta Grande (Carga da Lapa) | 21.5 |
| From the harbour of Funchal to Ilhéu Chão, Desertas (Porto de Santa Maria) | 19 |
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 35
Abroad
- Calheta
Coastal stage in the distance table.
Calheta is a town, parish and municipality on Madeira's south-west coast and one of the island's oldest settlements. The Elucidário covers its name, early settlers such as Pedro Berenguer, its church and many chapels, including one of a former Franciscan convent, and the 1834 riot.
- Câmara de Lobos
Port 4 miles from Funchal.
Parish west of Funchal. The Elucidário traces its name to Zarco's discovery voyage and describes its churches, chapels and collegiate chapter, early settlers, fishing community and renowned vineyards. It also records the parish's localities, boundaries, levadas and population.
- Campanário
Ribeira Brava. Coastal stage in the distance table.
Campanário is a parish in Madeira, formerly part of Câmara de Lobos and later joined to the municipality of Ribeira Brava, drained by the Ribeira do Campanário (or da Lapa). The Elucidário records its landing, its band, its capitania-mor, its tithes paid to the Jesuits, a former chapel of St John founded in 1728, and the vicar sentenced by the Alçada of 1823. It was also the birthplace of Bishop D. Manuel Joaquim Gonçalves de Andrade and the jurist Francisco Justino Gonçalves de Andrade.
- Caniçal
Machico. Coastal stage in the distance table.
Isolated fishing parish at the eastern tip of Madeira, at the root of Ponta de São Lourenço. It originated as a Moniz entail and João Teixeira's hunting reserve and became a parish around 1561. It holds a Piedade feast with a boat procession and has a fort built after a pirate raid.
- Cape Cantin
Morocco. Nearest point of the African coast, 350 miles from Madeira.
Cabo Cantim is the Moroccan cape that is the nearest point of the African coast to Madeira, lying at roughly the same latitude. The Elucidário gives its distance as about 350 miles from Madeira and Funchal.
- Carga da Lapa
Desertas. Landing on Deserta Grande.
Carga da Lapa is a landing place on Deserta Grande. It lies about 22 miles from Funchal.
- Deserta Grande
Santa Cruz · Desertas. 21.5 miles from Funchal to its landing at Carga da Lapa.
The largest island of the Desertas, 490 m high, seasonally visited by hunters, fishers and orchil gatherers. The steamer Lagos ran aground there in 1902, and it was visited by the Prince of Monaco in 1888 and by the Dana scientists. Its landing at Carga da Lapa is 21.5 miles from Funchal.
- Faial
Santana. Coastal stage in the distance table.
Faial is a north-coast parish of Santana municipality created in 1550, whose mountain springs feed the Levada da Serra. It contains Chícharos and the Diferença chapel, owns the eastern part of Pico Ruivo, and is noted for cheese-making and columnar basalt.
- Fajã do Mar
Calheta. Coastal stage in the distance table.
Fajã do Mar is a coastal fajã in the parish of Arco da Calheta, Madeira, with a small landing place also called Nossa Senhora da Vida. Its surviving chapel stands on a rise above the sea, and it lies 2.3 miles from the port of Calheta.
- Funchal
Main port from which most distances are measured.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Garajau
Santa Cruz. Point 2.9 miles from Funchal.
Garajau is a headland closing Funchal bay to the east, 2.9 miles from Funchal, named after the terns found there by the discoverers. It is topped by a basalt dyke, bears a chapel of Nossa Senhora das Neves and the 1927 Sacred Heart statue, and had a telegraph from 1839 to 1847. It is noted for volcanic bombs, a surviving dragon tree, the only wild norça, Senecio incrassatus and deep-water shells, and is recommended as a viewpoint.
- Ilhéu Chão
Santa Cruz · Desertas. 19 miles from Funchal to its landing, the porto de Santa Maria.
The Ilhéu Chão is the smallest, flattest and northernmost of the three uninhabited Desertas islands, 93 m high and 19 miles from Funchal to its landing at the porto de Santa Maria. It is the only known home of the endemic grass Lolium lowei, and it once belonged to the captains of Funchal.
People
People mentioned · 01-
Merchant-navy officer whose table of distances between the archipelago's ports is the main source for this entry.