Key takeaways
- The boat stops and drops anchor for the swim, so you are getting into still water from a stationary platform rather than off a drifting hull.
- You are swimming in open Atlantic below a cliff face, well out of your depth, with a ladder as the only way back aboard.
- The sea here sits in the high teens in winter and reaches the mid twenties by late summer, warm enough that most people stay in.
- Nobody has to swim. Plenty of guests stay on deck, and the stop is a good half hour of scenery either way.
Where the boat actually stops
The anchorage is off Cabo Girao, on the south coast west of Funchal, roughly a third of the island's width along from the city. The cape is a wall of rock that rises 580 metres more or less vertically out of the sea, and the boat anchors close enough in that looking up from the water gives you the full height of it.
There is something specific about the perspective from sea level that a viewpoint on top cannot give you. From above, a cliff is a drop. From a boat at its foot, it is a wall filling most of the sky, with the terraces and the tiny cultivated fajas at its base putting a human scale on something that otherwise refuses one.
How deep, and can you stand up
No, and it is worth being unambiguous about that. This is open ocean against a cliff that continues underwater. There is no shelving beach, no sandbank and nothing to put your feet on. You are swimming in deep water from the moment you leave the ladder.
That is not a warning so much as a description. Deep water is calm water at anchor, and swimming in it is easy and pleasant. But it does mean this is a swim for people who are comfortable being out of their depth, and it is why the ladder and the crew's presence at the stern matter.
How cold the Atlantic is here
Considerably warmer than the word Atlantic suggests to a northern European. Madeira sits far enough south that the sea around it stays in the high teens through the winter and climbs into the low to mid twenties by the end of summer. August and September are the warmest, because the ocean lags the air by a couple of months.
In practice that means a comfortable swim without a wetsuit at any time of year for most people, and a genuinely warm one in late summer. It is cooler than a Mediterranean August but a long way from bracing. The first few seconds are the only difficult part, and they always are.
Swimmers in the water beside the catamaran below the cliffs
What you see, and what to bring for it
The clarity is the first thing. Volcanic islands with steep drop-offs and no river silt tend to have very clear water, and Madeira is a good example: on a settled day you can see a long way down, and the blue goes from turquoise near the rock to something much deeper further out.
For life, expect the shallow-water community of a rocky Atlantic coast rather than a coral reef. Shoals of small fish around the rock, ornate wrasse, parrotfish and damselfish, sea urchins and anemones in the crevices. It is not the Red Sea and nobody should book expecting it to be. What it is, is clear warm water over interesting rock, which is a perfectly good snorkel.
A snorkelling stop is listed among the inclusions, and basic masks are generally available to borrow on boats of this kind. Bring your own if fit matters to you, as it does to most regular snorkellers. What the operator explicitly asks you to bring is swimwear and a towel: this is a day boat rather than a dive charter with changing rooms.
How long you get
The stop is a defined part of a three-hour itinerary rather than an afternoon at anchor, so think in terms of half an hour or so in and around the water rather than a lazy morning. In practice that is enough: swimming in open water is more tiring than a pool, and most people are ready to climb out before they are asked to.
The rhythm of it is that the anchor goes down, the ladder goes over, people get in over a few minutes, and then there is a period where some are swimming and some are on deck watching before everyone comes back aboard and the boat turns for home.
If you are not a confident swimmer
Then think carefully, and there is no shame in staying aboard. Deep open water with no shallow end is a different proposition from a hotel pool, and a snorkel mask does not make anyone a stronger swimmer. If you are unsure, say so to the crew rather than getting in and discovering it.
The good news is that the stop works perfectly well as a spectator event. You are anchored under one of the most striking pieces of coastline in the Atlantic with a drink available and half an hour to look at it. Several people on any given trip do exactly that, and they are not missing the point of the day.
Why here and not somewhere closer
There is a reason the boat runs west for a while rather than simply stopping outside the harbour. Funchal's own waterfront is a working one, with a commercial port, the marina and the traffic that goes with both, and the water there is neither as clear nor as appealing to swim in.
Cabo Girao gives you the opposite: no development at the waterline, no river mouth putting sediment into the sea, deep clear water and a piece of coast that is genuinely spectacular. The sail west is part of the trip rather than a detour from it, and it is the stretch where most of the coastline scenery happens.
