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 8^th 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.