Back To The Rio Guadiana

After an extra night at anchor in Culatra we continued our westward crawl.

The sail from Culatra started well with a bit of wind which even got up to force five. We had a reef in the main for a while though it died away by mid morning and we wound up having to motor about half the distance. At least this has been the first proper motor for a while.

We really wanted to visit Vila Real by boat so braved the alarming descriptions of maneuvering in the marina and went in. It is a tricky marina as it is out in the tidal stream of the river and is also very tight meaning that you have to be quite smart about knowing how your boat will behave. In addition, there is a very bossy Portero who gives very explicit instructions which do not necessarily comply with the handling characteristics of your boat. Still, we got tied up OK and enjoyed our stay though we didn't visit the town much. More in desperation than hope, we called Marina Lagos only to be informed that the package of spare parts for the heads had finally arrived. We did some checking on train times and found we could do the round trip in one day with a couple of hours at the other end for lunch.

I am not sure how far in kilometers it is between Vila Real and Lagos but it must be around sixty or seventy miles by sea. The train takes three hours to cover that distance. We enjoyed the outward journey but the return one dragged a bit especially as it involved a half hour wait in Faro for a “change of train!” even though exactly the same train continued the journey. Still the heads is now fully rebuilt with a non repaired nut holding the pump rod in. That particular saga can now be said to be closed.

On the morning of the twnety fourth we crossed the river to Ayamonte to catch up on laundry, we also visited the chandler here which is by far one of the most useful ones on this coast. For the non yottie type this will need clarification. It is the nature of boats and boat owners that they should be constantly fiddling with them and finding little things to fix. In our case, some of this is even a bit important as will be noted shortly. In order to do this you want a constant supply of little bits and pieces such as hose connectors and nuts and bolts. Nautic Ayamar has all of that and is not packed out with endless zinc anodes for large powerboats and giving pride of place in the shop to an accursed jet ski.

Thus, we have now made up a new anchor hook to replace the one I lost at Alcoutim, the pump tap in the heads now works properly thanks to an insert of new pipe, we have a good padlock for the new outboard and we are likely to buy 50 meters of new chain from them as well. The latter is a much bigger purchase of course but one that is prompted by their having the smaller stuff unlike the other chandler we have visited on this coast. Any yotties who need to get the endless but diverse bits and pieces that are needed to keep a boat together would do far worse than call at Nautic Ayamar