Blog update: Rio Guadiana and Portimão

Escape on CAPE
David, Sarah and Bryn Smith
Sat 27 Nov 2010 00:20

Rio Guadiana revisited

Alcoutim was just a lovely as the last time that we were there (May 2008 http://blog.mailasail.com/cape/52), and it was great to be able to show Mandie and Mike around.

 

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PAX, CAPE and TENGY (plus a stray cat) alongside the south pontoon at Alcoutim.

 

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Looking down river from the south pontoon in Alcoutim.

 

Wildlife spotting

The wildlife spotting opportunities were excellent. We saw egrets, herons and storks on the way up the river, the odd European tarantula, and a water snake sunbathing in the shallow water of the Praia Fluvia (river beach), On a return trip up the Rio Vascao we saw kingfishers and terrapins again, but not as many terrapins as before – the locals reckon that the bad flooding last year has reduced their numbers. Praying Mantises/Mantes/Mantids (take your pick) were everywhere!

 

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The odd European tarantula (sorry, nothing to show scale).

 

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A female Praying Mantis checking whether Bryn had washed behind his ears.

 

Jackie and Stu

Jackie and Stu (formerly MYMAX, now SUKI) chose a nice wet weekend to come and stay, so we were forced to stay indoors and talk rubbish, eat and drink. They brought with them lots of goodies (including engine spares, printer cartridges, and rude letters from the bank), as well as Crunchies, Fruit Pastilles, mixed spice, The Hobbit and Percy Jackson. Rather than singing along to recorded hits from the ‘80s like last time, we dragged them along to PAX and made them join in with live stuff. Stu we noticed that you knew all the words and are expecting great things in the music department when you guys make your escape...

 

Meeting MOXIE

We met up with the Beck family on MOXIE (mum and dad, Mike and Denise, and Asia and Aranya) who got in touch with us about 18 months ago to say that they were following the blog. They left the UK in July this year to sail (slowly) back home to NZ (http://blog.mailasail.com/moxie).

 

The ‘ABBA’ Gang (Asia, Bethany, Bryn, Aranya) played for hours – scooting, watching DVDs, Nintendo DS sessions, sleepovers, and lots of noisy games involving sticks and rope (which eventually had to be banned in the name of safety).

 

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The ABBA Gang spreading the joy of crumbs on PAX.

 

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The ABBA Gang War Paint Department.

 

The rest of the time

The rest of the time we kept busy with work, boat jobs, shopping, laundry and school. David joined Hilary and Paul on PAX on a job towing an old RAF launch that had got damaged in the floods, down the river and on to the boatyard in Faro. David and I did a dash to Gibraltar and back (a gruelling 10-hour drive) to collect my new glasses that I’d ordered when we were there, but which hadn’t been delivered in time to collect before we left. We got our rig checked out by marine surveyor and fellow Welshman, Gwilym, who we’d met in Pomerão last time we were there. (It got a clean bill of health.)

 

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Bryn dangling aloft to replace the tennis balls that stop the genoa (the big sail at the front) getting shredded on the cross-trees.

 

We squeezed in a few BBQs and quite a bit of music.

 

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Jamming in the Vila Vehla.

 

Return to the Rio Vascao

We went back up to the Rio Vascao a couple of times, collecting figs, almonds, pomegranates and quince, and swimming in the pool above the Roman dam.

 

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Anchored in the Rio Guadiana near the entrance to the Rio Vascao.

 

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The Rio Guadiana on the left and the Rio Vascao meandering off to the right.

 

We borrowed an area of decking (owned by the Portuguese Tourist Board, apparently) for a BBQ and some music.

 

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Borrowed decking overlooking the river.

 

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Music with Paul and Moira (NOBLE WARRIOR).

 

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David showing his true colours.

 

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B&B using the empty swimming pool as a sound box for a rendition of Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ (the closest that a boat kid gets to singing in the bath, I suppose).

 

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Expedition up the Rio Vascao with Hilary and Paul (PAX).

 

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Stopping for a drink break on a walk above the Rio Vascao with the MOXIE crew.

 

Someone pulled the plug out!

When we first arrived (towards the end of September) the days were still long and hot. It was warm enough to sunbathe at the river beach and to swim in the river.

 

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Mike, Bethany and Bryn playing ball on the river beach.

 

Then the weather cooled and the nights drew in. With the summer season over, the river beach was put to bed for the winter – someone pulled the plug out of the swimming pool stretch, and took up the board walk.

 

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Who pulled the plug out?

 

Leaving the Rio Guadiana

At the beginning of November we said goodbye to PAX and set off, with MOXIE for Portimão. MOXIE had lost a blade from her propeller, so we stuck close in case she needed towing out of trouble in the confines of the river; luckily we had the wind with us and were both able to sail all the way down river to Ayamonte.

 

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MOXIE sailing down the Rio Guadiana.

 

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CAPE squeezing under the bridge (photo courtesy of MOXIE).

 

Portimão

We motor-sailed to Portimão, anchoring off Ferrogudo beach for a couple of nights for old times’ sake until a forecast for bad weather sent us scurrying into the marina (we wintered in Portimão from October 2007 to April 2008 http://blog.mailasail.com/cape/29). We caught up with Mike and Mandie (TENGY) for blue cheese burgers, prawns (in various disguises), steak and a tad too much rosé wine. It was great to see some other old friends too; ‘Dynamite Mike’ (DYNAMITE, duh!) and Jim (MBOLO). The kids made new friends – Sam and Luke (and their mum and dad, Mel and Pete on SAMBA http://burchfamilyontour.wordpress.com/) – who swelled the ABBA gang into something unpronounceable and took scooting and noisy games involving sticks to new heights. We ventured into wetsuits, onto Praia de Rocha and into the water on belly-boards a couple of times, but the surf wasn’t really up to much – it takes a bit of bad weather to get good belly-boarding waves.

 

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Bryn not sure which angle of attack to take with a monkfish and prawn kebab.

 

When the wind promised to blow in our favour, we said our goodbyes and headed south towards Morocco.

 

Hilary and Paul are looking for crew to help sail PAX to the Canaries in December if anyone out there fancies a taste of ‘The PAX Experiencehttp://paxnostrum.blogspot.com/ (you can contact Hilary and Paul on hppax1928 at yahoo dot co dot uk for further info).

 

We’d like to thank Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson Ltd who are kindly sponsoring us by providing charts and pilots for our trip www.imray.com.

 

Thanks to everyone who got in touch to tell us that they follow our blog. If there’s anyone else out there who would like to get in touch, please e-mail us comments and questions to smith dot cape at gmail dot com.

 

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