Up The Rio Guadiana Again

Having done the laundry and bought the new chain in Ayamonte we felt ready to take ourselves up the Rio Guadiana to Salucar/Alcoutim again with the intention of doing some more serious walking. The omens certainly looked good as a weather forecast was for strong to gale force winds in the Straits and around Cadiz but light southerlies around the Guadiana. The only thing to alarm us was an account from another boat who had just come down. The wife had gone for a swim to cool down and had then been very ill all night. She mentioned that there were a lot of dead fishes and we speculated on the possibility of pollution or an algae bloom.

Aside from reports of toxic water, all sounded good though and the southerly at the mouth carried us all the way up the river. Sailing is certainly nicer than sailing even if you do have to do an awful lot of gybing in a narrow river. There were certainly a lot of dead fishes in the river so we were concerned not to go swimming. I have no idea what caused the number of dead fishes but is is very hot up here. The thermometer has been pushing 37 to 38 most days and the log sensor tells us that the water temperature is 24!

These very high temperatures have rather curtailed our activities as neither of us feels up to doing a long walk in such heat. We have ambled around both villages and even climbed up to the Don Quixote windmills on the Spanish side from where we got a superb view of Sarah Giddings at anchor.

The winndmills are pure Don Quixote as can be seen and have lots of atmosphere.

Finally, we do usually get an afternoon breeze and when combined with loose clothing you can get this amusing view of Audrey!

We are likely to spend another couple of days here before heading back down river. Firs to Ayamonte for laundry and then on to Rota before our eventual departure from mainland Europe.

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

On The Move At Last

We have been out of wifi and such like for a while so there is quite a lot to catch up on. This was written around 21 June.

After nearly a month sorting stuff out at Portimao we are on the move again! The first sail was not too long as we only went to Culatra again. It was however a very nice sail. We got underway at about eleven and had a nice westerly seabreeze to push us past Albufeira and Vilamoura. It was our first real sail with Henry the Navigator doing the work as well. Needless to say he behaved impecabbly.

Here is our lovely new sprayhood!


Although we spent rather a lot of time in Portimao, it was certainly productive if rather expensive. As noted from previous ramblings on this blog, we have a shiny new outboard and a bright blue new sprayhood. Henry the Navigator aka the Aries now works properly and we have also done some other maitenance tasks of our own. We have retrieved the paperwork we sent to the letting agent and, thanks to my Mother I have a nice new hat (complete with spare) so Audrey can have her red one back and I don't have a sunburnt head. We are still waiting a package at Lagos though. The Portuguese postoffice seems to be very leisurly when it comes to packages. This is the set of spares for the heads and we do hope it arrives soon. This will give us the chance to catch the Algarve train line from one end to the other.

Meanwhile, we are comfortably anchored back at Culatra. The contrast with when we were stuck here a month or so ago is striking. Then, we had near gale force winds and a very uncomfortable time. Now, there are at least twenty other boats here as well as a few permanent ones and the wind is, as I write this, non existent. We were planning on moving on to the Rio Guadiana today but didn't really feel like it. We will move on tomorrow tough the wind is forecast to be very light tomorrow.

This is a picture of yet another incomparable sunset in the Rio Formosa.

In Ayamonte and other stuff

I'll put some more details up soon. We are in the Rio Guadiana now and have just forked out for a 3G dongle so should find it easier to update now though the stated reason is to be able to get GRIB files easily.

Times have been quite good since we finally got on the move again. Once I work out the costs of uploading stuff on this thing, I'll look at getting the pictures of the spectacular sunset we had at Culatra.

In other news, we have finally got around to replacing the anchor chain which should be arriving from the excellent Nautic Ayamar this afternoon.

Last Bit of Major Work Done

We are now in posession of a shiny new sprayhood which is an enormous improvement on the old one. I can't bore anyone with photos yet as I have forgotten to download them off the camera but you can now see through the windows and not through the canvas. This is the reverse of the old one so we are very happy.

Plans now are to get back on the move. Originally we thought to head straight to Vila Real de Santo Antonio and up the Guadiana again but the amount of fishing traffic at night has put us off doing any night passages so we will most likely break the journey at Culatra.

It feels nice to be getting back on the move though we have enjoyed our stop here at Portimao.

Got A Shiny New Toy

Two posts on one day as well!

It works anyway and is much quieter than the old Honda was being water cooled. That completes all the work done by Bluewater Algarve who have proven very helpful with sorting out several important issues.

For the yotties amongst the legion of readers here - We can thoroughly recommend using them if you need some work done around the south coast of Portugal.
Bluewater Algarve

Getting Ready To Move On

We seem to have been sitting still here in and around Portimao for ever but we should finally be able start moving along again. The new outboard has arrived and I will be collecting it today. The spray hood is also due to be finished by Friday. So, all things being equal and the weather playing ball we will head for Vila Real de Santo Antonio on Saturday.

So far those weather forecasts seem to be favouring this as the consistent north or north west winds look set to continue according to the GRIB files.

We have done some maintenance work though the essential work on the heads has been delayed by the glacial pace that the Portuguese postoffice seems to move parcels around. We had a package arrive at Lagos from my Mother but it took three weeks to get here. Thus, we have not yet received the spare heads parts or the spares for the Aries yet. We don't intend to let this stop us from heading east though. The Algarve train line runs from Vila Real to Lagos and it would make a bit of an adventure if we were to take it for it's entire length. We have not been totally idle either but have not been doing as many touristy things as we hoped. However, we did manage a nice walk through and past Praia da Rocha and saw some of the very distinctive sandstone formations that make this coast famous. It would certainly make a geography teachers dream!

A typical sign of coastal weathering and erosion. There are lots of little rocks - most likely weathered Stacks all along the sandstone cliffs. The tripper boats give the tourists a thrill by weaving in and out of the larger ones.

Needless to say, there are numerous pictures which did not successfully capture the spray but that is the beauty of digital photography over the old fashioned silver nitrate form. Storage on an SD card is effectively limitless so you can just keep clicking away and delete the duds. On the other hand, you can check the success of the picture more or less straight away. Highly original observations I know!

This really is the postcard view of the Algarve but these stacks really are very photogenic.

Finally, I have been trying to capture the church across the river in Ferragudo at sunset.

Aries Works a Treat

We took Sarah G out for a quick sail yesterday and were delighted to find that Henry the Navigator is working perfectly now. He seems happy to steer us on all points of sail now. This makes us very happy of course (in a rather geeky way of course). We should have the new outboard early next week and then, when the new spray hood is completed, we will be able to get back on the move.

To and Fro And Spending Money

The next couple of weeks look set to be rather slow ones as we get things sorted out for now. We have a date at the boatyard in Portimao on Tuesday to be measured for our new spray hood. It is to be hoped that the diver there will also be able to do the bottom scrubbing as well. We will then have to hang around while the spray hood is made up and fitted. We have also found other things to do as well. This includes working out if the outboard is finally dead or not and dealing with the windvane.

In the meantime, we have divided our time between Portimão, Alvor and Lagos. The anchorages at Alvor and in the mouth of the Rio Arade here at Portimão are very nice places to be! Lagos is still rather expensive even in the low season and our post wasn't waiting for us either.

This picture is Portimão.


The full moon rose over the hills behind the anchorage and this picture almost does justice to the sight.


Although the sky looks stormy here, the weather was really quite nice though the wind did blow up quite hard in the afternoon.


Finally, this is the view of Alvor from our anchorage just inside the entrance. Once again it was quite windy but that did give the kite boarders a chance to come out and play and they are always good entertainment.


The windvane has proved rather frustrating. I have been hoping that the stiffness in the main shaft has been a function of needing oiling. Obtaining an oil can has proved difficult but we did eventually manage to get one only to find that this was not the problem. There is a little hole near the bottom and also one at the top of the main shaft assembly. I have poured all sorts of oil in there and the whole external casting now has oil all over it but the shaft is still too stiff to work. It seems as if the only option is to have it off and taken to bits and probably replace the main bearings. The Aries website has a rather scary set of instructions involving a sledge hammer and drift but I am hopeful of being able to drop the shaft without having to take the upper wind part of it off as well.

Following a visit to the boatyard, we have got a lot of work in progress. Marine Canvas here have measured up for a new sprayhood and also taken the old one away to work from so we should have that delivered by Friday week. At the same time, we got Bluewater Algarve to do a few things. They have taken our old Honda outboard off and pronounced it effectively dead. More importantly, they have taken the Aries vane and used their hydraulic press to push out the main pin and have also fabricated new bearings from a different material that will not absorb water in the same way that the old nylon ones do. We should be able to fit that today so will do a bit of daysailing to test it out as well as hone our downwind rig using the jib, genoa, spinnaker pole and boom.

All in all, we have had an exciting couple of days here with a lot done. We are sad about the outboard but will probably reconcile ourselves to getting a new one rather than soldiering on without one. We have also decided that we will have to bit the bullet and get a new outboard. After some shopping around Bluewater Algarve have got a deal on a Mercury 2.5 which we should have in four or five days.

So, lots of money going out but we will be in a much better position and will be fully prepared for our further adventures. Finally, congratulations to my Sister and her Husband on making it across the Channel in their Dutch canal barge Archangel who are now in Dieppe and ready to commence their adventures in the French canals.

We have "Henry the Navigator" our windvane reinstalled now and it is very satisfying to see how free the main shaft is now. We will be out sailing tomorrow to test it out but would like to particularly commend Jaoao at Bluewater Algarve for doing such a good job on rebuilding it for us. I have to put this picture in though you really need a video to show it moving freely!