My abiding memory of Funchal is going there on the old Canberra, sitting above the harbour having a beer when the ship blacked out, myself and another junior engineer jumped up ready to run back to the ship and rush down the engine room to get everything running again when the old second engineer who was with us told us to sit down, have another beer and wait for the lights to come back on.
We let the lights come back on, gave it 30 minutes or so to make sure they stayed on and then sauntered back to the ship and all looked duly surprised when the coxswain on the gangway told us that there had been a blackout, the second engineer called the engine room to see if they needed a hand only to be told that it was all OK now.
