Positively pushed to Portimao
andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Thu 17 Sep 2009 15:30
Positively Pushed to Portimao
After a leisurely breakfast we upped anchor from the bay at Sagres and
waved goodbye to our friends on Drifter and September Song, we had already
seen two other boats leave before us but we were leaving behind 3 of our
friends in their boats and a rather interesting Junk rigged boat, but the
wind was calling and it was time to go.
We put up the main whilst still at anchor as, very conveniently we were
head to wind, and once out of the bay out came the genoa, and there we
were sailing along in 20 knots of wind and no engine – brilliant!!!!
At 12 o’clock we talked to our friends, Ian and Glenda from Lucy Alice, on
the SSB. They have reached Gibraltar now and can relax for a few weeks.
They are going back to the UK for a couple of weeks before returning to
Gibraltar for the start of the World Blue Water Rally; we shall follow
their progress closely.
The wind steadily built up so we sensibly put a reef in the genoa but
will still doing 7.4 under sail, zoom zoom, and the time and miles flew
by and our destination came into view – we know that keen observers will
have noticed we sailed past Lagos but as we don’t need to be there before
October we are doing a little bit of exploring.
We passed a nice anchorage on the way into the marina in Portimao so may
go there in a few days time. For now though it was time to see what yet
another place that we had been reading about was like. Portimao is one of
the bigger marinas that we have been to and our feet will certainly
testify to that having registered and been allocated a berth. The kind
marineiros led the way only to find the one we should have been in was
occupied, meanwhile we were committed to going down the channel with very
little manoeuvring room what so ever. With a quick bit of radio work it
was established that we could go into the berth we were beside and with
some deft moves Andrew got Andromeda round and going the right way with
what felt like millimetres to spare and we tied up. However as the
marineiros were leaving us I pointed out that an alarm was going off on
the boat next door, they shrugged and we thought maybe it was a proximity
alarm as we had got rather close.
As were doing the usual arrival chores necessary when tidying up the boat
when moored, someone from another boat came and told us that the alarm
was driving everybody mad as it was going off all the time day and
night......we decided to time it and it was going off every 5 minutes for
2 minutes....you can guess what we did next. Yes back to the office to
request another berth, and fortunately, we were able to move (quite
smoothly with the kind assistance of the marineiros again) a reasonable
distance away and can only hear it now if we really listen for it. It is
noticeable that there are quite a lot of empty berths around that boat -
apparently the alarm has been going off for over two weeks but the owners
aren’t coming back till the weekend. Boy are they going to be popular and
no doubt will get some choice words from the marina management and the
live-aboard’s around the marina!
After a peaceful nights sleep and leisurely breakfast we sought out a few
provisions and then went for a swim in the sea – yes both us actually got
wet in the sea. It was luuvveeeeerrrrlllyyyyyyyyy!!!!
We will probably head off to the anchorage next and see what the weather
brings before making our next move. More in due course..........