36:59.8N 07:50.4W

 

Have escaped Lagos.  I think we were beginning to develop “port rot”, and am pleased we are away.  The plan to go to Rabat didn’t work out.  The winds were from the SE, i.e. on the nose.  We decided, therefore, to go East, and ended up in the Santa Maria anchorage.  Lots of other vessels here, and now anchored just beside Ilha da Culatra, a nature reserve.  Absolutely lovely, no cars, no noise, the only exception is the flights coming in to Faro fly over us.  Reminds me of Barnes!  Fortunately they are relatively infrequent.  Yummy meat balls courtesy of “Cook”, heated up in the microwave running on the generator to save propane, washed down with a little grape juice. 

 

Incidentally, I read another blog about one of our recent stops – Sagres.  They anchored there, and a police RIB came out and checked their papers, that their flares were in date (60 euro fine if not), and that they had an anchor ball displayed (360 euro fine if not!).  All went well, and at 3 am they were swept by a searchlight and “checked” again by radio.  All was OK, but the large police boat then left in a great flurry, only to lurk, unseen, round the corner running on electric motors and with infra red goggles to see what everyone was up to!  Clearly there is a drug problem with the proximity of Morocco, and I can only commend their efforts.

 

Tomorrow is another day.  We will see what the winds bring.  If suitable, we head South to Morocco, if not ????