An island conjured out of the sea — and everything it has traded, hidden and sailed toward since.
Six hundred years ago, this island wasn't on any map.
Then sailors blown off course found it — all forest and fog — and set it alight to make room. What grew back was a wine the world fought over, a harbour raiders couldn't resist, and a young navigator who would one day go looking for something far bigger.
You'll be handed sealed envelopes, one at a time, and sent out on foot through the oldest streets in Funchal to follow it for yourself.
An island this rich was never left alone for long.
Two ways to walk it. Pick your story.
The Pursuit comes to Funchal in three editions — all self-guided, entirely on foot through the old town, roughly two to three hours. Pick the one that fits your group.
Charm a cask across the old town.
Madeira wine once crossed oceans as currency — and came home better for the journey. Rival trading houses move their cargo through the market, the painted-door lanes and the cellars, trading up by charm alone. First house to land its cask at the water wins the trade.
Learn to read the sea, the way he did.
Before he crossed an ocean, a young navigator lived in this town — trading sugar, marrying into the family that found the island, learning to read wind and star and current. Follow the lines he would have walked, piecing together a route that was never meant to leave the harbour. Some charts were worth more than gold.
The year the sea came for the city.
A French fleet once fell on this harbour and held it for days — churches stripped, homes burned, the nuns fleeing into the mountains. Race the raid through the old town, from the fortress that failed to the yellow fort the city built so it would never happen again. Somebody always knew the corsairs were coming.
Whichever story you pick, the shape is the same: a trail that unfolds in your hands as you walk — phones-down on sealed envelopes, or live on the app — and a reckoning at the end.
Open them one at a time, in order, on the honour system. Each sends your team somewhere new in the old town — the story deepening with every seal you break.
Optional — switch it on if your group wants it. Every team starts with one small token and trades it up, charm only and no money, into something better. Best item and best story win at the Tribunal.
No "tap done." You prove you were there and that you found it — on the stone, in the cellar, by the water — before the next envelope opens.
Everyone reconvenes for the reveal over dinner, where the whole night turns on its head and every team renders its verdict.
They're in the market, the painted doors, the cellars and the fortress by the sea. You bring the curiosity. Funchal brings the rest.
Dates for the Funchal editions are being set now. Choose your story — or get in touch to bring The Pursuit to your group.