Hanging Around SW Portugal

After al sorts of ideas of this being the end of a stage in our cruise, we are now spending a lot of time in the Portimão/Lagos area. As noted previously, we have knocked the idea of going to the Azores on the head we have come up with an alternative plan which is much looser and has room for variation. Essentially, we will do what we need to round here then do a bit of revisiting The Guadiana and possibly up the Guadalquivir to Sevilla before heading to Morocco for a while and then to Madeira and so on south.

We will have to spend a bit longer at the western end of the country though as there are things that have to be done. Yesterday, we took the plunge and ordered a new sprayhood as the one we have is really on it's last legs. I have done some digging around about our aries windvane – “Henry the Navigator” - and he is going to have to have a rebuild and possible replacement of bearings. This is all conspiring to keep us here for a while. We have also elected to commision a diver to clean the bottom and replace the anode as he will be cheaper than hauling out.

Today, being 30 May will be the last night in the marina for a few days and tomorrow we will head round to Alvor to spend a couple of days at anchor. We will also try the Sopromar chandler in Lagos for an anode.

Alvor was one of the highlights of our cruise in 2011 and we are looking forward to spending some time there again. The town is very touristy but it is at the top of a sandy lagoon very like Ria Formosa but on a smaller scale. The entrance is easy enough but pilotage up to the town is quite challenging as there are a lot of shifting sand bars which mean you have to be careful to pick the channel. Last time we were there, the wind was very light but that will not be the case this time in which case we will have to cut our visit short and go round to the very expensive Lagos for a night. We will have to go there anyway as we have some post to pick up and there is a good supermarket conveniently close so we will do some stocking up as well. We have found the excellent supermarket in Portimão though. The biggest chain here has the wonderful name of Pingo Doce

As I write this we are sitting at anchor just in the entrance of Alvor with 25 to 35 knots of wind but the compensation is that there are lots of kite boarders around. We will go into Lagos tomorrow though as getting ashore would be a bit of a challenge at the moment.

We also have a small but geeky celebration to make as I have got the 3G working on our phone and by using the phone as a wireless hot spot we can now ruin the isolation of this spot by getting internet here as well. At least we will not likely be doing that with the satellite phone!

Photos will have to wait I am afraid as it would be prohibitively expensive to upload pictures.