~17th September 2000  -  Here we are on/in/at the Algarve (South Coast of Portugal) where it is supposed to have a more Mediterranean style of climate than the rest of Portugal, and so we should have less fog and we should be cooled by pleasant afternoon breezes. Presently it is blowing about Force 5 and Wroderick the Rutland 913 Wind Generator is putting out about 3-4 Amps. This I believe compares well with other Wind-Gens of similar size like the Aero4Gen and the Ampair and will be less powerful than the larger ones like the Aero6Gen and the noisy American Air Marine and the rather obscenely named WindB****r. This shows that the word can’t mean the same in American as it does in English !

Bad news to report - Lily has to leave us and fly back to England to go back to University in Wales after over 6 weeks aboard. Also Rauni has to fly back to Finland in about a weeks time to see someone in an office and then will rejoin us later on. Merel remains with us for the time being and Robbie too.

On Friday morning we left Cascais marina near Lisbon where we enjoyed a welcome 50% discount on account of being ARC competitors. We had had a couple of nights at anchor outside the marina from where we had enjoyed a visit to Lisbon seeing the restored Portuguese Navy Frigate “D. Fernando II E Gloria” built in India in 1843, and climbing the hill to see the impressive St George’s Castle. The trip from Cascais was fairly windless (but progress was good with able assistance from Eric the Perky) until we rounded Cabo de Sao Vicente (the SW corner of Europe) and the nearby Punta de Sagres, from which we experienced a very helpful WSW breeze and sailed into Portimao past the new Marina right up to the commercial dock.

Two views of Cabo de Sao Vicente  -  the South-Western corner of Europe

We dropped anchor off the village of Ferrogudo, had a Rum punch and then went to see Mike and Anne on “Mithril” with family on board in the new marina ( - buildings still under construction but the development seems to be being done in good taste). Certainly the pizzas in the marina seemed to be in good taste! It was very good to see Mike and Anne after so long and we even met Steve and Janet from “Scandar” next day. Yesterday after a shower in the marina we had a look at the village of Ferrogudo and were quite impressed. There is a lot to cater for the visitors including restaurant menus in English and Portuguese, late night bars with good cocktails AND internet connections and Lily, Robbie & Merel even found a very reasonably priced restaurant after a little stroll.

The village of Ferrogudo on the East bank of the river leading up to Portimao

Today has been taken up with a dinghy trip to Portimao with the Calypso inflatable and Outboard proving to be a good combination even for 5 and a load of shopping for the 1mile each way trip. Certainly this sort of trip would have been quite unthinkable in the Seahopper folding dinghy. Portimao is I suppose quite the commercial centre for this still developing tourist region. Certainly it was the place to go to for a choice of Travel Agents, the original purpose of the trip.

Tue 19th September 2000  -  I’m writing now from the boat anchored outside the town of Faro, close to the international airport which serves this region. We sailed here today in the increasingly strong Westerley downwind from Portimao, a bit over 30 miles away. Two years ago I came here in fog with no more information than the position of the entrance from the Macmillan Iberian supplement and next day in clearer weather worked our way up the winding channel looking carefully to see the colour and shape of each buoy. I am glad to say that I am a little better prepared this time with the RCC guide to Atlantic Spain and Portugal but with it being 10 years out of date my memory has been serving better than the guide in many respects. In the upper part of the channel above the Commercial quay the channel gets indistinct at high tide after the buoyage finishes and we got into some very shallow water for Ramprasad just before the anchorage (now rather full of moorings) which is situated perhaps a quarter of a mile from the town. Tomorrow we shall take Lily ashore for the last time for her to fly back to England with our best wishes for all who remain there !

Fri 29th Sept 2000  -  Now I am writing from the top of the safe navigation of the Rio Guadiana which marks the Southern border between Spain and Portugal, or at least I thought it did ! Yesterday we motored up from the pretty but quiet border town at the mouth on the Portuguese side called Vila Real de San Antonio underneath the new-ish road bridge of height 22metres (-uncomfortable close to Ramprasad’s mast height of 17.7 metres).

The Guadiana suspension bridge linking Portugal with Spain 

The water is chocolate brown and full of all sorts of floating debris (mostly of vegetable origin but some of animal, and plenty of made-made origin). The banks are low lying to start with and later quite hilly with the river winding through the obstructions and as the RCC guide suggests it is quite a change from seafaring. The villages on either side seem quiet but welcoming with pontoons and mooring buoys and quite a few visiting yachts. This village of Pomerao may not be typical of those on the Eastern (or Spanish) bank. We went ashore last night armed with pesetas only to find many sign that this is Portugal ! Portuguese car number plates, “Welcome to Pomerao” written in Portuguese, Portuguese TV and conversation in the bar - which produced a very fine Sangria - but clearly preferred payment in Escudos. Further evidence revealed itself this morning in the colour of the Post Box - Pillar Box red - and the Telephone box. The evidence is incontrovertible - OK I was a little suspicious of taking the word of the lad in the bar and seeing the clock there showing Portuguese time ( - the same as BST), but it seems as if this is some kind of a Portuguese enclave on the East Bank of the Guadiana. Certainly further downstream on the East bank there was a place called Sanlucar do Guadiana which looked very Spanish.

A view of Alcoutim and the moorings from Sanlucar do Guadiana 

No contact with the officials of either country yet. We decided to avoid the big marinas on this South coast like Vilamoura which going by my previous experience there had very vigilant officials who were very interested in Australian passport holders - we have Robbie the Aussie this time being quite distinct from Rob the Aussie last time! - but undoubtedly an encounter would be equally time consuming. We had a super time since my last missive (-sent from Faro) quietly looking around the estuary and Salt Marsh area near Faro - including the fishing port of Olhao and the sand dune island of Culatra. There seemed to be the perfect hide-away for Multihull and shoal draft cruisers in a drying lagoon behind Ponte Cais which we named Eccentric Bay. One long tern resident had made himself reasonably comfortable in a tin shack (- next to his very small yacht) and had furnished his shack with no less than four wind-generators and was keeping himself busy with various projects - like the construction of a paddle-wheel propelled dinghy!

Eccentric Bay on Culatra (near Ponte Cais) is an ideal hide-away for multihulls and shoal-draft cruisers

 Today Robbie and Merel have hired a canoe/surf-ski to paddle upriver to the next town where the canoes are based ...

Tomorrow we shall probably go downriver to Sanlucar and/or Alcoutim then on Sunday back down to Vila Real where we expect to meet Rauni who is flying back from a week in Finland and will have to get a bus or train from Lisbon. From there probably the Atlantic islands of Porto Santo, Madeira and the Canaries ! For those of you in Britain you’ll be glad to hear that the weather here is cloudy with a cool breeze and showers.

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