Well what can we say, we woke up to prepare to leave Albufeira and it was cloudy, overcast, dull, a shock.The wind started
to get up a bit as we readied the lines to cast off and do all the other little jobs we had to do. The lovely marineiros came over
and gently pushed Andromeda's stern round and held the bow in so we sedately left our berth and made our way down the
channel to the sea. I bought in all the lines and fenders and stowed them and by then we were at the breakwater and into
some choppy water. We could see the rain behind us and clearer sky in front and off we set, we were only going back to
Portimao, about 11 miles and we thought we might beat the rain but no such luck.

 

First of all there was the thunder banging and crashing overhead then the lightning started, fortunately miles away and then the rain.  Good old english type rain. We put on some raincoats but still got soaked and saturated as the heavens opened.  The rain was bouncing off the sea, the deck, running down the rigging and
the boom and making us thoroughly soaked but it wasn't really cold and just when I  thought that maybe I should go and get some
shampoo and make the most of it it pettered out and stopped. We did however get a bucket under the end of the boom and there seem to
be a lot of water still coming down and so we practised our first bit of rain catching. Fortunately we could still see the postmarkers but the
water was too rough to catch sight of any dolphins. By the time we were anchoring in Portimao the sky was lifting and once we had made sure we were dug in the sun came out again and it was a lovely afternoon, all the better for the freshness in the air.
 
We had a great weekend; we rang Andrew's Mother on Sunday as it was her birthday and subjected her to our wonderful singing.
We also caught up with the rest of the family. Currently Phil and Ruth are on holiday in Chicago, Chris is in Libya till the 20th
October, Isaac is nearly walking and Alice is enjoying school and Liz has a new tom tom to play with - hhmmmmmm. Nick is still having driving
lessons and settling into his new home and Jenny is holding the fort in Reading.

Our next stop now will be Portimao, we are staying in the bay till Wednesday or Thursday and have been enjoying the delights of
swinging at anchor.  We have been entertained by all the coming and going again as boats of all shapes and sizes and nationalities have
been anchoring, re-anchoring, or going off and currently there are 23 of us here, several of which we have seen in various places
on our trip down here.

 

This morning we deployed the dinghy and had a brief trip to the marina to sort something out on the internet. We were going to
get some bits and pieces but suddenly realised as we stepped ashore that we had completely forgotten to put any footwear on so it was
only along to the marina office and back again.  I did however get some nice piccies of Andromeda on the water and will post them
sometime.

 

So that's it for now - I shall have to go and have another sit in the sun as I have now cooled off a bit sitting below writing this.

We'll let you know about Lagos in due course.......