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.
Wednesday, 19 June 2013
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
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
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.
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.
Saturday, 8 June 2013
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.
Thursday, 6 June 2013
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!
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!
Friday, 31 May 2013
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.
Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Faro to Portimão
This will bring to a close the first stage in our cruise. We are now at a critical point and from here we will have to go somewhere. Our preferred option is to continue to head west from here and go to the Azores. Sao Miguel on Ponta Delgada would be the obvious destination prior to spending the rest of the summer exploring the Azores archipelago. There are however, other options. We could run back east and spend more time in SW Spain and Portugal prior to heading south. We could sail straight to Madeira. Or, we could go to Morocco before heading to Madeira.
As I write this, it is most likely we will head to the Azores though. The original logic of going there was that it would give us a chance to do a real ocean passage without passing any points of no return. The other options below all involve sailing south and effectively you then have to carry on across the Atlantic. Still, nothing is fixed yet. We will be spending a bit of time round here before going anywhere so can take a good bit of time to decide where to go.
Getting here has been both frustrating and also very enjoyable. We managed to catch the tail end of the winter weather here and spent four days stuck aboard while anchored in the Ria Formosa. We then visited Vilamoura, Albufeira and Portimão before getting here.
As noted previously, when dropping Matthew off we felt it would be unwise to come ashore with him as the wind was getting up. That turned out to a fortuitous decision as the wind blew at nothing less than a force six for five days. At one point, we were riding out a sustained 35 knots of wind off Culatra which is effectively a gale. I would like to stress that it wasn't a gale. A gale is made up of more than a wind of a certain strength. We were in quite a sheltered spot and the seas were not particularly rough even though it was not possible to get off the boat. We were getting a bit bored though and at high water there was a near two mile fetch across the whole of the Ria Formosa which made things a bit bouncy and were what precluded going ashore.
After the second day we were feeling a bit uncomfortable as well as fed up with the scenery so we decided to head up to Faro both to get more shelter but also to possibly grab a chance to go ashore if the wind did show any sign of dropping. We were a lot more sheltered but the wind did not drop for another two nights. Finally, the next morning the wind was lighter in the morning and a phone conversation with my brother confirmed that the depression that had been giving us this unseasonal weather was moving off to the north east so we upped anchor and moved back down to Culatra. The wind continued a bit lighter and we got ashore for long enough to visit the shop and have a coffee in a café. While drinking the coffee though the wind started to get up and sure enough it was back up to 35 knots by the afternoon.
It felt as if we were on the East Coast of the UK with lots of marshy mudflats on either side of us and egrets all round. The Storks though reminded us we were fifteen degrees or so south of the Blackwater!
It all sounds a bit more difficult than it really was and boredom was the real issue. We were low on water which was a bit tedious but that was all.
Here is proof that it really was blowing quite hard though. :-)
Early the next morning of the nineteenth, we upped anchor and had a bit of a long motor to Vilamoura. We had not intended to go to Vilamoura as it is a very touristy and rather fashionable watering hole on the Algarve. However, our water situation and the urgent need to do some laundry forced our hand. The first pleasant surprise was the cheap low season rates and the next was the easy communication by bus to other more interesting places. We quickly decided to extend our stay to three nights and make a day trip to Vila Real de Santo Antonio by train as we had not been able to stop there by boat. We also finally gave Audrey a chance to see Faro, a town she had never seen before.
Vilamoura was a bit of a shock at first as it is in complete contrast to Culatra having a completely different sort of tourism to the sandy islands.
The trip to Vila Real or VRDSA as I have seen it referred to was a lot of fun. We always enjoy train rides after all. The only disappointment was that it was easiest to get the bus to Faro rather than to the station nearest Vilamoura. Still, we bought our ticket and then waited around while the very old train wheezed its way into the station. A load of school kids also got on but we managed to get into the other carriage. The Algarve line has to be one of the slowest trains in the world but you do get a good chance to see the country through which you are travelling and it was interesting to see the network of creeks that run all the way from Faro to Tavira not far short of the Rio Guadiana. Slightly disappointingly the Vila Real station was on the edge of town as the chart we have shows railway lines running right to the rivers edge.
We enjoyed wandering around Vila Real which is chiefly notable for having been completely reconstructed after destruction by the earthquake of 1755 which seems to have levelled most of Portugal. An architect called Pombal redesigned the city on a grid pattern radiating out from a square. This gives the town a very elegant feel and is also easy to navigate around. It doesn't feel like a North American city though as the streets are still relatively narrow and the buildings are clearly Portuguese. We would really like to go back there by boat though. The marina looks quite nice and once moored up, the narrow entrance and strong tides would be no problem.
The next day, we finally left Vilamoura for the resort complex of Albufeira. Just to the east of the main resort area is a very upmarket marina which was excavated from what must have been simply a swamp. An entrance channel was then dug and blasted through to the sea. Someone also built a load of “quirky” condominiums all round the marina. It is the antithesis of a characterful harbour but is still quite a nice place for all that. The enjoyment was, for us, enhanced by the fact that they are still charging low season rates – as at Vilamoura. There was also an excellent service wash there and we caught up on all our laundry. Sunsets were enlivened by a very large dog in one of the villas who enthusiastically barked at everything and everyone who walked past. He was a big dog and the echoes were quite good. For a while he seemed to be barking at his own echo! He didn't do it for too long so it didn't become annoying and it was generally a cheerful bark as well.
After deciding to spend an extra night there on account of the low prices we took our departure for Portimão. The forecast was for light winds but we fully expected the strong sea breeze to get up from the west as we had observed almost every day. To our surprise, this did not happen and we had a nice gentle broad reach for the whole 14 miles to the mouth of the Rio Arade. The expectation of a sea breeze prevented us from getting the cruising chute up till it was too late to be worth it. Finally we rounded off the sail by sailing onto our anchor just under the eastern breakwater.
There were a few boats anchored there including the obligatory Wharram cat and a few steel boats. Near us was a very substantial aluminium Dutch boat called Synergie. Over the course of the four days we spent there we got talking to them and found out of their plans to sail to British Columbia. It was a lot of fun to come aboard and show them where to go around Sidney where I grew up and also to recommend visiting both Barklay sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island and also up Jervis Inlet on the mainland to the north of Vancouver.
We certainly wish them luck with their trip and hope to meet up in the Canaries later on in the year.
After four days at anchor we felt the need of showers and laundry so we have pulled into the Marina de Portimão.
We also need to do some maintenance work. The bolt on the heads has started leaking so that needs replacing. We are also acutely aware of the fact that the bottom needs scrubbing. The boatyard here at Portimão seems to be excellent so we are going to spend a while here. We may even lift out here though I have contacted a diver who offers to clean bottoms and change anodes without the need for a lift out. All in all, we are much more minded to do the essential maintenance here rather than in Lagos as originally planned.
Finally, we have also been doing some thinking about what we do from here. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we have made some changes to our plans. Essentially, the Azores trip is off in favour of longer along this coast, a visit to Morocco, longer in Madeira and the Canaries.
We have been downloading some GRIB files and looking at the routing charts for the passage to the Azores and find it's attractions rapidly waning. You have to make quite a lot of northing from Cabo Sao Vincente to be able to reach Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel. This is both to make the two degrees of northing but also to counter the southerly current. The prevailing winds are north or often Northwest at this time of year for the first few hundred miles. Then, as you get further out into the Atlantic you are going to get closer to the Azores High which will lead to light winds. Thus we would be faced with two or even three hundred miles of stiff beat followed by possibly hundreds of miles of windless motoring.
By contrast, we can ride the sea breezes east from here and revisit places we rushed past on the way down. This might quite likely include another trip up the Guadiana but also a trip to Sevilla up the Guadalquivir. Then, after a month or so we would strike out south for Rabat in Morocco. After some time exploring some of the most ancient ports in the world, we would strike out for Madeira in August. Finally, we would have two or three months to explore the Canary islands in detail before joining the transatlantic crowd at the normal time of November.
Of course, such long term plans are quite likely to change again but that will at least give us more chance of having mostly downwind sailing till we reach the Leeward Islands after Christmas.
Note. For those who are not into the geeky language of sailing: a GRIB file stands for Gridded Binary file and is a highly compressed file containing meteorological information. They are very useful as they are very small but contain a lot of weather information. They have to be treated with caution as the information is raw data with no interpretation but for getting an idea of overall trends they are very useful.
As I write this, it is most likely we will head to the Azores though. The original logic of going there was that it would give us a chance to do a real ocean passage without passing any points of no return. The other options below all involve sailing south and effectively you then have to carry on across the Atlantic. Still, nothing is fixed yet. We will be spending a bit of time round here before going anywhere so can take a good bit of time to decide where to go.
Getting here has been both frustrating and also very enjoyable. We managed to catch the tail end of the winter weather here and spent four days stuck aboard while anchored in the Ria Formosa. We then visited Vilamoura, Albufeira and Portimão before getting here.
As noted previously, when dropping Matthew off we felt it would be unwise to come ashore with him as the wind was getting up. That turned out to a fortuitous decision as the wind blew at nothing less than a force six for five days. At one point, we were riding out a sustained 35 knots of wind off Culatra which is effectively a gale. I would like to stress that it wasn't a gale. A gale is made up of more than a wind of a certain strength. We were in quite a sheltered spot and the seas were not particularly rough even though it was not possible to get off the boat. We were getting a bit bored though and at high water there was a near two mile fetch across the whole of the Ria Formosa which made things a bit bouncy and were what precluded going ashore.
After the second day we were feeling a bit uncomfortable as well as fed up with the scenery so we decided to head up to Faro both to get more shelter but also to possibly grab a chance to go ashore if the wind did show any sign of dropping. We were a lot more sheltered but the wind did not drop for another two nights. Finally, the next morning the wind was lighter in the morning and a phone conversation with my brother confirmed that the depression that had been giving us this unseasonal weather was moving off to the north east so we upped anchor and moved back down to Culatra. The wind continued a bit lighter and we got ashore for long enough to visit the shop and have a coffee in a café. While drinking the coffee though the wind started to get up and sure enough it was back up to 35 knots by the afternoon.
It felt as if we were on the East Coast of the UK with lots of marshy mudflats on either side of us and egrets all round. The Storks though reminded us we were fifteen degrees or so south of the Blackwater!
It all sounds a bit more difficult than it really was and boredom was the real issue. We were low on water which was a bit tedious but that was all.
Here is proof that it really was blowing quite hard though. :-)
Early the next morning of the nineteenth, we upped anchor and had a bit of a long motor to Vilamoura. We had not intended to go to Vilamoura as it is a very touristy and rather fashionable watering hole on the Algarve. However, our water situation and the urgent need to do some laundry forced our hand. The first pleasant surprise was the cheap low season rates and the next was the easy communication by bus to other more interesting places. We quickly decided to extend our stay to three nights and make a day trip to Vila Real de Santo Antonio by train as we had not been able to stop there by boat. We also finally gave Audrey a chance to see Faro, a town she had never seen before.
Vilamoura was a bit of a shock at first as it is in complete contrast to Culatra having a completely different sort of tourism to the sandy islands.
The trip to Vila Real or VRDSA as I have seen it referred to was a lot of fun. We always enjoy train rides after all. The only disappointment was that it was easiest to get the bus to Faro rather than to the station nearest Vilamoura. Still, we bought our ticket and then waited around while the very old train wheezed its way into the station. A load of school kids also got on but we managed to get into the other carriage. The Algarve line has to be one of the slowest trains in the world but you do get a good chance to see the country through which you are travelling and it was interesting to see the network of creeks that run all the way from Faro to Tavira not far short of the Rio Guadiana. Slightly disappointingly the Vila Real station was on the edge of town as the chart we have shows railway lines running right to the rivers edge.
We enjoyed wandering around Vila Real which is chiefly notable for having been completely reconstructed after destruction by the earthquake of 1755 which seems to have levelled most of Portugal. An architect called Pombal redesigned the city on a grid pattern radiating out from a square. This gives the town a very elegant feel and is also easy to navigate around. It doesn't feel like a North American city though as the streets are still relatively narrow and the buildings are clearly Portuguese. We would really like to go back there by boat though. The marina looks quite nice and once moored up, the narrow entrance and strong tides would be no problem.
The next day, we finally left Vilamoura for the resort complex of Albufeira. Just to the east of the main resort area is a very upmarket marina which was excavated from what must have been simply a swamp. An entrance channel was then dug and blasted through to the sea. Someone also built a load of “quirky” condominiums all round the marina. It is the antithesis of a characterful harbour but is still quite a nice place for all that. The enjoyment was, for us, enhanced by the fact that they are still charging low season rates – as at Vilamoura. There was also an excellent service wash there and we caught up on all our laundry. Sunsets were enlivened by a very large dog in one of the villas who enthusiastically barked at everything and everyone who walked past. He was a big dog and the echoes were quite good. For a while he seemed to be barking at his own echo! He didn't do it for too long so it didn't become annoying and it was generally a cheerful bark as well.
After deciding to spend an extra night there on account of the low prices we took our departure for Portimão. The forecast was for light winds but we fully expected the strong sea breeze to get up from the west as we had observed almost every day. To our surprise, this did not happen and we had a nice gentle broad reach for the whole 14 miles to the mouth of the Rio Arade. The expectation of a sea breeze prevented us from getting the cruising chute up till it was too late to be worth it. Finally we rounded off the sail by sailing onto our anchor just under the eastern breakwater.
There were a few boats anchored there including the obligatory Wharram cat and a few steel boats. Near us was a very substantial aluminium Dutch boat called Synergie. Over the course of the four days we spent there we got talking to them and found out of their plans to sail to British Columbia. It was a lot of fun to come aboard and show them where to go around Sidney where I grew up and also to recommend visiting both Barklay sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island and also up Jervis Inlet on the mainland to the north of Vancouver.
We certainly wish them luck with their trip and hope to meet up in the Canaries later on in the year.
After four days at anchor we felt the need of showers and laundry so we have pulled into the Marina de Portimão.
We also need to do some maintenance work. The bolt on the heads has started leaking so that needs replacing. We are also acutely aware of the fact that the bottom needs scrubbing. The boatyard here at Portimão seems to be excellent so we are going to spend a while here. We may even lift out here though I have contacted a diver who offers to clean bottoms and change anodes without the need for a lift out. All in all, we are much more minded to do the essential maintenance here rather than in Lagos as originally planned.
Finally, we have also been doing some thinking about what we do from here. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we have made some changes to our plans. Essentially, the Azores trip is off in favour of longer along this coast, a visit to Morocco, longer in Madeira and the Canaries.
We have been downloading some GRIB files and looking at the routing charts for the passage to the Azores and find it's attractions rapidly waning. You have to make quite a lot of northing from Cabo Sao Vincente to be able to reach Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel. This is both to make the two degrees of northing but also to counter the southerly current. The prevailing winds are north or often Northwest at this time of year for the first few hundred miles. Then, as you get further out into the Atlantic you are going to get closer to the Azores High which will lead to light winds. Thus we would be faced with two or even three hundred miles of stiff beat followed by possibly hundreds of miles of windless motoring.
By contrast, we can ride the sea breezes east from here and revisit places we rushed past on the way down. This might quite likely include another trip up the Guadiana but also a trip to Sevilla up the Guadalquivir. Then, after a month or so we would strike out south for Rabat in Morocco. After some time exploring some of the most ancient ports in the world, we would strike out for Madeira in August. Finally, we would have two or three months to explore the Canary islands in detail before joining the transatlantic crowd at the normal time of November.
Of course, such long term plans are quite likely to change again but that will at least give us more chance of having mostly downwind sailing till we reach the Leeward Islands after Christmas.
Note. For those who are not into the geeky language of sailing: a GRIB file stands for Gridded Binary file and is a highly compressed file containing meteorological information. They are very useful as they are very small but contain a lot of weather information. They have to be treated with caution as the information is raw data with no interpretation but for getting an idea of overall trends they are very useful.
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