*August 2020 South of Portugal

2020-08-23

Saturday August 15, it is 8:30 am we leave Nazaré in the direction of Cascais. We have 68 MN to go.
We have no wind and are going to discover the bay of São Martinho do Porto, a small pleasant tourist port.


We are heading back to the SW. We decide to stop at Peniche for lunch – Mer thought to arrive in a small typical fishermen’s port: But No! It is a large fishing port. Regardless, the cooker has prepared some delicious Octopus dishes for us!

2pm we set off again, sailing this time at a speed of 6 Knts towards Cascais. Around 5.15 p.m. the wind released us again and we finished the road with the engine until our arrival at 9 p.m. We anchor in the bay and quickly disembark to eat a risotto at the club, but no, the restaurant is closed due to Covid.

Sunday 16 we leave again towards Sines (53 MN) a long sailtrip because on this part of the Portuguese coast there are few shelters for MR. Today we have 7 knots of wind we have a little 7 to 8 knots of average.

We catch up and overtake a Contest 56, which left an hour before (regatta spirit again & again), but this one leaves us to take the direction of Sesimbra, after having contacted us by VHF to know our destination, he being on his way to Lanzarote.

Once anchored we disembark for dinner, but on Sunday evening the restaurants are closed. there were only 2 including the one where we ate in 2018. So we came back, the boss is a bit gruff but overall friendly and the food great and inexpensive.

Monday we leave for Sagres  (60 MN) which is a cove after Cape Saint Vincent (end of the Portuguese world). The local fog accompanied us most of the road (the engine too). We then familiarized ourselves a little more with our electronic equipment (cartography, Ais, radar) to avoid collisions. And then, engine problem code 128 / sdi 50 and drop in speed. This one we start to know well: it is water in diesel. We sent some canvas and Richard went down into the bilge to empty and replace the pre-filter and bleed the diesel filter. That’s it, the engine started up again. After winding Le Cap Saint Vincent, 20 knots of wind propelled us towards our destination. Cap Sagres to spend the night at anchor. It blew all night.

SAGRES ANCHORAGE


Tuesday 18 we go to Alvor (12 MN), a small Arcachon Basin (very small) in the Algarve, with its channels and sandbanks but without the oysters. It is very picturesque but the village is very touristy.


We take a super caipi (rather 2) in Los Puros on the main street.

During the night, we are both awakened by our subconscious: by turning will we have enough water to float? We launch ourselves into a calculation of the height of the tide and that will not do it at low tide. Conclusion: we re-anchor the boat at 4:00 a.m.

At 11:00 a.m. we open our eyes (afloat) in the middle of a small paradise, but we must already leave for Faro (37MN).

Arriving in Faro we discover a vast lagoon, with channels and mud flats that we go up without being able to go into town due to the lack of water in the channels.

Follow us to Costa Blanca…..