Pete………..
Yesterday,
We awoke to an abated wind and raised the mainsail before taking-up the anchor. When taking the anchor chain in, it pulled-up short at 30 metres, we were stuck! I put the engine in ahead but it simply pulled the chain over the gypsy on the windlass. I put the anchor snubber on and reversed hard and suddenly we were freed and the anchor came up fine. Off went the engine and we had the jib out and were roaring along at 8 knots towards Lagos. Even after the wind died to a light breeze, we were still doing over 5 knots….amazing what new sails and a clean bottom will do.
We were headed straight for Lagos, but there is a headland just before. We ran out of wind just at that point but the headland was an intricate carving of arches, caves and inlet-grottoes. We dropped anchor and set about exploring in the dinghy. We rowed in, out and around the beautiful coastline as tourist dories roared back and forth – we should have arrived a little earlier!
Lagos
Eventually, we set the headsail and gently slid past the rest of the cliffs to Lagos where we dropped anchor off the beach (the marina is 40 Euros per night!!)
After the heat of the sun had abated, we took the dinghy up the river towards the marina and left it to re-provision. On the way back, the wind had come back with a vengance and the outboard motor decided it was time to play-up. We coaxed it with many pulls of the starter cord and eventually got back even if a little wet.
Today, we set off under headsail only bound for Alvor, a massive 2.5 miles away. The town is inside a shoal inlet and the guidebook suggested that you could probably get a boat with 2 metre draft in there. We went into the entrance just after low tide so that we could see the channel before the shallows were covered with water. However, the pool of water at the town is small and there were many masts sitting close together there. We decided that we could wait until high water and then find nowhere to anchor so it would be better to go straight on to Faro. We set sail again, 6 knots under headsail alone.
As we were skirting the coast, I noticed a bay, rock formations like Lagos and a few masts. We detoured for a look and liked it so much that we have stopped for the night. This has the same rock-arches and many pinnacles thrusting out of the water. Beautiful bay and clean, white sand. Much less touristy that Lagos and the better for it. The really good thing about this cruising lark is that, if you don’t have any hard timescales, you can change your itinerary as many times a day as you feel like. Bliss.
Portimao
Fliss….
Yes the trip back after provisioning was interesting with Pete uttering the immortal words of “Start you child of unwedded union” after a soaking & me leaning forward to keep the nose down we arrived back at Chez Nadezhda.
The trip to Alvor did leave sweat beads on the forehead, I helmed and Pete piloted us in, it was unbelievable! The sand spit must have been 10 foot away! Yes there were masts and yes it looked busy but in all honesty we chickened out! It was hard conditions as the wind was blowing the nose off and you had to give Nadezhda rev’s which isn’t ideal when approaching serious shallows. When the depth dropped to 2.3m Pete made a call to anchor. I’m sure we touched bottom as the depth alarmingly showed 1.8m, I’m glad we didn’t go further as I’m not sure my nerves would have held up for the rest of the trip.
It’s lovely here really laid back.
We’ve been for swim but I must add getting into the water was a challenge but Pete wasn’t a gentlemen and splashed me so I had no choice but to go the whole way.
I agree life’s a beach when you have options and it was a superb call on Pete’s part as we are sheltered and the sun is shining and it’s a good life.
Tonight just chilling on deck, I-pod with speakers a few vino Portuguese and an early start tomorrow for Faro.
Evening in Faro Lagoon
P.s we have mastered a new technique for launching a dinghy in surf, it’s called the Hawaii 5-O technique. We don red swimsuits and pick up the dinghy and run out with it and then leap onto the boat grab oars and paddle for all it’s worth, we look total plonkers but hey!
Wednesday 2nd August 2006
Pete…………
Yesterday, we raised the anchor early and set-off for Faro, the wind was light and the sea was calm. Every so often, the wind died completely leaving the boom wandering gently from one side to the other. We stuck-it-out with no urge to resort to the engine since we thought that the afternoon breezes would eventually arrive. And so they did. We finished our uneventful sail at 7 knots and practiced our gibing into the narrow entrance of the inland waters of the Faro/Olhao lagoons. We anchored half-way up the channel to Faro all alone. Listening at night, we could have almost have been back on the River Hamble as we heard the familiar sounds of warbling waders.
This morning, we motored-up the channel on flat, glassy waters and have got just about as close to Faro as is possible before the shallows make further progress impossible. The lagoon is full of narrow channels bounded by flat grassy areas just above the water-line and the occasional sandy hummock. Navigation is interesting and the deep water is not always where you might expect it.
Although when leaving this morning, the day was quiet and peaceful, we are now anchored under the airport approach and ‘planes are roaring above our mast every 5 minutes. The airport is 6km away, so we are well positioned to pick-up Bobby who will be joining us tomorrow morning.
Close to the shoals
Fliss
We haven’t told you about the super yacht we’ve seen a couple of times, she’s a British boat and must be about 50 metres or more, a real stunner. I reckon she’s owned by someone famous as the skipper speeds past us in his powerful launch so that the owners can’t be recognised.
We might not be a super yacht but we also have a skipper, 1st mate, cook, and bosun on board.
Nice gentle sail yesterday that I managed to cook a lasagne on route, the only thing is I made far too much so it’s lasagne for the next three weeks.
Anyway got to go and finish making mossie nets for the guest bedroom.
Friday 4th August 2006
Fliss………………..
Bobby arrived at 9:30am and getting to the airport was really easy we took the local bus and it took around 20 minutes.
Faro is really quite lovely but not that big. We visited the cathedral, which was absolutely lovely and very ornate.
Faro Old Quarter
Usual provisioning, what do you cook for veggies? The choice in Portugal is very limited.
Early afternoon we picked up anchor and headed off for Ilha da Cultra jib out and sailing gently down the river, watching out for the ever-closer shallows.
Robyn was tired and had an early night.
Illa da Cultra in the Portuguese pilot book is said to be stunning so in the morning off we went in the dinghy and weaved our way through the anchored fishing boats.
The part of the shore where we landed was dirty, broken glass, fishing hooks and generally looked neglected. After quite a long trek we found the raised path, which leads to the beach, who needs the Great Wall of China! It seemed like miles.
The beach was very winding with lovely soft sand but the water had loads of weed in it. No one went swimming.
Back to the boat and we decided to go to Olhao only a short trip up the river again a gentle sail up.
We dropped anchor just off the harbour & I went down below to cook a shepherd’s pie.
The harbour master or some chap in uniform told us we couldn’t stay and to move over the other side of the river or go into the marina, so we moved only for him to turn up again to tell us we couldn’t stay where we were. We could only assume that they try to bully you into going into the marina.
So were back where we were last night.
Sadly there’s not a lot to say as I don’t find it that exciting here.
Pete……………
Anchored in Faro, we were spitting distance from the sudden shallows. We only realised this as the tide went-out and the land came ever closer. A boat came in late in the evening and thought it was a good place to anchor behind us, I jumped-up and made hand-signals saying “no, no, shallow!”. He was Spanish but got the gist of it and moved elsewhere. I am sure he was grateful after he saw the terrain at low water.
We inched out of Faro at low water. For a time, we only had one centimetre of water beneath our keel but soon found deeper water downstream and had a lazy sail to Isla Culatra.
Note to ourselves: Don’t leave the engine on the dinghy when towing no matter how short the journey, it looked like it was going to turn-turtle and drown the outboard.
Today was a bit of a let-down after the pilot book rated the place so highly. However the pilot book, although bought recently, is utterly out of date and is written by a marina-dweller who has no sense of adventure. Tomorrow we shall go to Tavira which the Lonely-Planet guide suggests is a bit better.
Robyn………………..
What can I say…The 4.30am start to get to Southampton on Thursday was not my idea of fun…but it was definitely worth it. I arrived at 9.30 in Faro…a quaint village with a beautiful cathedral and lovely walkways….yesterday we motored down to ilha culatra but did put some headsail up at the end and were really gunning it.
We sailed on to Olhao ( pronounced Oh haowl … how people get Oh Haowl from those letters ill never know) … anyway … the washing up awaits….
Oh and dad, fliss and I were doing a crossword… and the clue was _ _ _ p _ s of wrath … a film…. We got fed up as a lot of the clues were this hard and put in silly answers so it looked finished and we didn’t feel bad about not completing it…..so dad said…..the Grapes of Wrath… at the end we looked in the answers and….it was right!!! What a guesss….. you go daddy….
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