Date                Friday 8 October 2010           

Five days spent at anchor allowed time for the long awaited clean and polish of the hull.  This is achieved from the dinghy and involves a great deal of hanging on with one hand and scrubbing away with the other.  All of this is livened up by a constant stream of locals in small fishing boats who appear to drive back and forward at a great rate and bounce said polisher up and down – much to his, i.e. my, joy!  Relief comes for about an hour over lunch time and at about 167:00 when after a busy day burning petrol they retire to the numerous bars.  We now have a clean and polished boat despite

Socially did rather well, considering that we did not go anywhere.  We had a sail past from Tony and Anne Montgomery-Smith in their catamaran Razzmatazze, fellow members of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club who spotted our burgee and ensign. 

They are real purists and appear to sail everywhere; at the time they were on their way to Olhão to shop and check out a boatyard.  The following day they appeared again, this time in a sailing tender and were able to stop for a coffee and chat.

On returning from a visit to see the sites and flesh pots of Ilha Culatra (there did not seem to be very many of either, a lot of sand and some bars) we called on Ocean Cruising Club members Jeff and Ruth with their Amel Super Maramu “Corriandre”.  We had seen them at a distance at Oeiras but not made contact.  They have completed two ARC’s before and this time are sailing independently.  Corriandre was purchased only in March they having lost their previous Jeanneau 51 off the coast of Columbia when in the dark they hit what they think was a tree trunk.  The impact split the bows and flooded the forepeak.  The watertight bulkheads incorporated in the Amel design put Coiandre to the top of the list of possible replacements.  We subsequently spent a very pleasant evening on our boat for a return match.  It is great to meet other sailors and share and benefit from their experiences.