Position           37:06.67N 8:40.45W

Date                Thursday 30 September         

A 07:15 departure from the anchorage at Sines saw us rounding Cape St Vincent at 14:30, with a particularly interest 3 - 4m swell, into the Algarve where we at last had the wind on the beam for a brilliant 8 – 9 knot reach with 2 reefs in everything, for the last 20 miles of this 75 mile leg to Lagos which we reached just before 17:00.

Departure was made more interesting by a 190m tanker being tugged out from the nearby oil terminal and a 280m fully laden tanker incoming taking up the 4 tugs, 2 to slow it down dragging this behemoth  down to a quay destroying 3 knots.  One Skipper and one Mate reached for various aids, just to check you understand, what on earth three vertical lights and a yellow over white on the stern actually meant.  We now understand that Portuguese tugs show three verticals, towing over 200m, irrespective of what they are doing – a macho thing I suppose – sort of hairy chest and gold medallion, not that we know anyone like that of course.

We entered Lagos with 25 knots of wind, typical of afternoon’s in this part of the world, which does nothing much for the skipper’s peace of mind.  Life was spiced up by the harbour entrance leading to the marina being more of a canal with minimum room to turn about if required, the requirement to come alongside a reception pontoon  and then a lifting foot bridge with 12m width (we are 4.7m) to negotiate and then a stern to berth to finish off.  Thank you Mr Amel, fortunately Caduceus manoeuvres astern particularly well using the bowthruster and we came to rest with no disasters and to be greeted by Celia and Andrew from the Moody 54 Alice; ARC members who we last met in Cascais.

We now have two days in Lagos for some competition shopping and walk ashore time.   The marina is known for being expensive in high season, however our one night in high season, ends 30 September, was free for ARC members and we then get a 10% discount on a low season rate half of the summer one.

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