Absolutely melting in Albufiera - it ain't half hot mum!
andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Tue 22 Sep 2009 14:54
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37.05.063N 08.16.012W
Well, what an interesting day on the trip from
Portimao anchorage to Albufiera. The first thing was that Susan saw a large
cruise liner, the Rotterdam, outside the harbour entrance to Portimao with
3 of its lifeboats milling around. As the queen of melodrama, she wondered
aloud, at 07:30am in the morning, when us more serious cruising folks are
still asleep or at the very least wondering whether to get up and make a cup of
tea, whether there was a case of swine flu aboard and all the passengers were
being taken ashore as part of an emergency evacuation!! As there were no hoards
of boats with blue flashing lights and the pilots were happily going backwards
and forwards, and other fishing vessels and yachts were being allowed to enter
an leave, it was clear that little miss melodrama may have been slightly off the
beaten track. As it turns out the liner was simply too big to come into Portimao
and that those wishing to see the bright lights of the town (and if they can
find any we'll be surprised having walked around the place already) and using
the lifeboats was a way of easily and safely getting them from the ship to the
port. We later heard two Ausie sounding voices on the VHF repeatedly asking "how
many left in the lounge, how many in the lounge??" Brings to mind the phrase, I
counted them all out and I counted them all back - what fun to be employed on
these liners. The lifeboats were kept very busy ferrying the passengers too and
fro and probably would be all day long.
When the sense of adventure and excitement had
calmed down on Andromeda we raised the anchor and set off west towards
Albufeira. After passing the giant block of flats that was the Rotterdam, we
were overtaken by a 25 metre replica pirate ship taking folks out to see
dolphins - and dolphins we saw too. About an hour out of Albufeira we too came
across dolphins happily swimming around some ribs. We slowed down and they swam
around the boat. They were very much larger than those we saw approaching Cape
St Vincent, almost 2 metres in length and almost wholly dark in colour. They
stayed with us all for about 15 minutes before they grew bored with the boats
and probably went off to see what all the fuss was about around the Rotterdam -
if only they'd asked, we could have saved them some energy! However it was
absolutely great to see dolphins again, fantastic creatures.
Albufeira is an intriguing sort of place. The
marina is in the middle of a partly completed complex of brightly coloured
apartments - yellows, greens, blues, pinks, orange etc all of which appear to
have a form of nautical theme. Its referred to in the pilot books as "legoland"
and its quite easy to see why - we will post some picture somewhere so you can
see. Being the end of the season it's quite quiet, though a range of tripper
boats continues to operate through-out the day. The marina is reached through a
narrow canal, cut into the rock, before opening out into a basin that now makes
up the marina complex. To get into town, which is about 1.5km away, you have to
go down the Rua da Sir Cliff Richard (and we are being serious here), and very
happy we were too - there is a link with the man, but we've not yet summoned up
the energy to find out what it is as the temperature outside is over 26 degrees
C, with not much wind and lots of sunshine ;-) Maybe later. There was a
picture of him holding a bottle of wine called Vinho Verde - perhaps he's an
investor or perhaps he has a place nearby? The town is very touristy with many
little back streets full of the usual shops but in unusually larger numbers from
our experience so far and it seemed quite busy, so we are glad it is not
high season. Amenities overlooking the beach include a glass lift and,
believe it or not, 2 escalators to take you up the 80 - 100 ft cliffs which we
happily took advantage of. The beaches are ok and water the right side of
freezing - we did paddle and who knows, we may take a dip at some stage. Again
there was the biggest number of folks enjoying the water as well as a few being
taken skywards on the parasail boat.
The marina advertises WIFI, and indeed there is a
vey strong signal, but we can't use it because we can't buy time online as the
application crashes, and the marina office says" we've been waiting for cards
all season, but none have arrived". Sure is frustrating - however there is an
Internet cafe on site so we've been able to sort out a few things on the
domestic front.
Yesterday was Isaac's birthday and, just like his
sister, has started walking on his first - well done Isaac - worn out parents
look out!!!!
Not sure what we will do over the next few days,
but do stay in touch for more thrilling adventures from the Queen Melodrama
and Captain Bligh..............
Andrew & Susan
S/V Andromeda |