Last week we explored the Algarve. It is here again very different from Spain or the west coast of Portugal. First of all it is warmer there (25+ degrees). And also the sea water has a more comfortable temperature so swimming becomes fun. The sea is calmer with less swell. Unfortunately we also have very little wind here. Usually it is at night and in the morning it is windless and in the afternoon there is a breeze until about 19.00 (the sea wind) and then it subsides again. It is quite touristy and now the main season has ended on October 1st only a few holidaymakers and the retired hibernators remain. The good thing is that from the water we mainly see the beautiful nature. The first part the beautiful high chalk cliffs with caves and in between small beaches. The second part a low flat coast with tidal lagoons, a kind of wadden area, where it is good anchorage.

From Lagos (where the previous voyage report stopped) we sail on the next day. The plan was to go to Alvor, but the entrance to this lagoon is too shallow for us and we get stuck three times. Turn around quickly, especially since the tide is halfway towards low tide (rule 1 of the sailing manual: "never sail into an unknown shallow harbour when the tide is going towards low tide"). It ends well, but we could have been stuck for a few hours as well. Let's go to the next bay a few miles away, and that's Portimao. An excellent anchorage in a large bay. We stay there for three days and nights. The internet supply is good, so Toine and Jan are busy ordering new autopilot parts for the broken autopilot of the Barbarossa. In return we are taken out for dinner; in a nice little restaurant on the beach with delicious food and a somewhat oriental atmosphere. We sit there all by ourselves, but that doesn't matter and the food is the tastiest food
become a telephone network.

On Thursday 1 October we sail on to Faro, a tidal lagoon where we sail against (4 knots) with maximum current. What a violence at the narrow passage, but with the engine a little harder no problem. We drop anchor near the island of Culatra. In the evening the Valentine joins us again and that's cosy. They have accelerated a bit to be able to experience the cosiness of the three boats for another week. Culatra is a weird island; there is a lot of sand, on top of it a village with small houses where actually families live from fishing. Time seems to have been put back decades. There is a school for only a small group of children. There are no cars and only a single tractor. It looks special but also a bit messy. We take a walk there and afterwards drink a nice beer on a terrace overlooking our boats.

Saturday the 3rd of October we want to go to Olhao a little further into the lagoon, but we are not welcome there. Although there is more than enough space in the harbour, we are sent away with the message that they are full. So far we have not been received that unfriendly. We are already moored to a jetty and still stay for two hours (with electricity and internet) to do some shopping on the shore for tonight's BBQ. The others are already through to the anchorage of Faro town and there we go packed with enough meat and bread as well. It is a beautiful place in the middle of a wadden-like nature. In the evening we go BBQ on the beach of the small island in front of our boats. That is very cosy. Complete with a homemade campfire by the men who broke two pallets (which were lying there). The children have already gone back to the Brandaan to watch a movie. And we adults are contemplating the good life with a glass of wine by the campfire.

The next day (about 4 Oct) we go with the Barbarossa to Vila Real. That's the last place in Portugal and it's on the border river with Spain. Ellen's parents have their boat there and live there in an apartment for a few months a year. Again all day motorbikes, this time against a weak wind. Good fishing water, because we catch in no time three big mackerels of which we throw back the last one. And that on animal day?!

We thought we had correctly calculated our arrival in Vila Real (exactly at high tide and the turnaround), but apparently we're an hour early, as it still flows quite a bit on the river. And that's difficult to moor in the marina, but thanks to Toine's good helmsmanouvre it's fortunately without any damage.

Vila Real is a great place to lie down for a couple of days before we make the crossing of 4 to 5 days to Madeira. We enjoy ourselves with washing, school, cleaning, shopping and making mosquito nets in front of the windows of the boat (against the mosquitoes). That's how the days fly around. In the meantime we keep a close eye on the weather charts; at the moment the wind to Madeira is still strong due to a low pressure area above the Azores. But that will be replaced in the course of this week by a high pressure area that will give us the right wind for the crossing, so we expect to leave on Thursday or Friday.
On Madeira we'll see Mom, Inge and Luc!