Sines
Sines (among a whole host of other places that
claim him) is the official birthplace of Vasco de Gama, who was a very famous
Portuguese explorer so I have recently learned. (My history and geography are
improving no end on this trip – I just hope the kids are taking it all in!) De
Gama was the commander of the first ships to sail from Europe (Portugal) around the Cape
of Good Hope to India in the late 1490s. This enabled
Europeans to trade with the Far East without having to rely on the hazardous
overland routes through the Middle East and Central
Asia. (There will be a test on this stuff at the end of this blog,
so I hope that you have been listening…).
Beth and Bryn treading in the footsteps of the man
himself.
However, more importantly for modern explorers
like ourselves, Sines has a Lidl – this was such an exciting discovery! My first
Lidl since leaving Ireland. I managed to get lemon
squash (squash is one thing they don't seem to drink in Spain or Portugal). I had to be very
restrained and resist the urge to buy too much on anything though, 'cos we could
only buy what we could carry back to the boat (about 2 miles). Sines also had a
good sports bar which showed the Rugby World Cup and sold beers at 60c a glass.
Mike and David saw this as a form of missionary work – spreading the joy of
rugby to the world. They even managed to get a game of beach rugby against some
locals whose enthusiasm knew no bounds, but whose skills and knowledge of the
rules of the game left a lot to be desired. Bruised and showing their age (Mike
and David, that is), they spent the next day recovering from the
experience.
Sines viewed from the marina.
Bryn’s birthday
We celebrated Bryn’s 8th birthday in
style. We had an early start for pressies and cards, a trip to the beach for an
over or three of beach cricket with the crew from TENGY, a spot of kite flying,
a birthday tea of fish fingers, pastêis de bacalhau (cod fishcakes) and noodles
(at the request of the birthday boy), followed by lemon birthday cake. Bryn had
a volcano kit, a kite, lime green ‘Crocs’ (with penguin and frog gibbets) and
money – he’s saving up for something big, but he’s not quite sure what it
is…yet! A volcano on board could be interesting…
Bryn’s birthday.
The birthday beach cricket wicket/rugby pitch and
kite-flying venue, with Sines marina in the background (we were going to do yet
another ‘spot CAPE’ competition, but we suspect
that seeing photos of blurred yachts in sunny marinas might be wearing a bit
thin by now).
Downhill and around the corner onto the Algarve
While we waited for our post to catch up with us
(the previous marina forwarded it on to the right place but the wrong office!),
David managed to get hold of and fit a new cylinder and pump for the sea toilet,
so we no longer need to ‘bucket and chuck it’ at sea. We waited a bit longer,
and a bit longer – and eventually the post made it from the wrong office to the
right office and into our hands. With nothing more to hold us in Sines, we set
off at dawn to dry the washing and motor-sail the 76 miles around Cabo De Sáo
Vicente to Lagos (Lagosh) on the
Algarve. On the way we caught two
plastic bags but no fish.
Drying the laundry on the guard wires en route to
Lagos. Please
note the excellent sailing conditions (not even a flutter from a tea-towel), so
much for the ‘reliable’ Portuguese trades!
Cabo De Sáo Vicente (Cape St Vincent) – the most
south-westerly point of mainland Europe.
Anchored in Lagos
Sunrise over the anchorage in
Lagos.
Lagos, sea caves and the rock
cycle
The Ponta da Piedade promontory north of
Lagos is
renowned for its tiny secluded beaches, rock formations and sea caves. We spent
a morning exploring these by dinghy – in and out of the sea caves with
translucent turquoise water, marvelling at the sandstone ‘architecture’, and
revisiting the sedimentary rock element of the rock cycle (school for boat
kids). John you’d have been proud of us!
Secluded beaches, rock formations, sea caves and
some photos of the backs of the kids’ heads.
We recovered from our strenuous morning by lazing
on the beach all afternoon, while David and Mike discussed, yet again, where
they would watch the rugby.
Although we should have twigged that something was
up when the local fisherman removed his pots from the anchorage and when we had
to do a Hawaii 5-O dinghy launch to get off the beach through the building
swell, a benign weather forecast lulled us all into a false sense of security
and we headed en-mass into Lagos for a meal and to watch the evening’s match. By
10.30 pm, things were ‘a little bouncy’ in the anchorage, and the ground swell
was up to about 1.5 metres. This would have been fine had we had been a bit
further from the beach with a tad more water under us (we only had 2 metres
under the keel at low water, which was due at 04.00 hrs). David did the first
anchor watch while I got a couple of hours’ sleep (for sleep read ‘got rolled
around in bed, wide awake’). When after a couple of hours the lightning started
and the swell had built to a little over 2 metres at times, we made the
executive decision that the holding pontoon in Lagos marina might be cosier. So in convoy with
TENGY (who had anchored inside of us), we upped anchor and rafted up alongside
the holding pontoon and had a peaceful night’s sleep. We can report that the
shiny new windlass behaved beautifully.
We left early next morning and motored (a whole 6
miles) across the bay to the picturesque anchorage in Portimão. We will be based
at the marina in Portimão for the winter – well November to March, anyway. We
will continue to explore the coasts of Spain and Portugal, with potential trips planned to
Seville, Gibraltar, and the beaches and salt
marshes of the Algarve and Spanish
coasts.
