Vilamoura to Vila Real De Santo Antonio
Minka of Southampton - Cruising Log
Edmund Wigan
Tue 4 May 2010 19:05
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Very glad to leave Vilamoura this
morning.............not my sort of place. But I could not leave until I had
returned my swipe card as the deposit is 30 euro. To do this I had to take Minka
to the reception pontoon and tie her up whilst waiting for the office to open. A
real pain as it then took ten minutes to turn on the computers da da
da.............
We sailed all the way with true winds up to 25kts
which was great. A beam reach to Cabo de Santa Maria so she was doing 7 to
7.5kts. The little navy ship came and had another look but this time much
closer.
 After we altered course at the Cabo, which is the
entrance for Faro, we had a small wind shift which meant we were quite tight on
it. I ended up with two reefs in the main and about four rolls in the genoa and
she was still putting her toe rail in.
 We averaged just under 7kts for the whole trip of
45nm. The entrance to the river (Guadiana the boundary between Spain and
Portugal) has a sandbar across it so I was glad it was a rising tide when
the depth sounder got down to 1.9 mts. Not really a problem as the bottom is
nice soft sand. The river seems to have a few boatyards on the Portugese
side.
 The town is unspoilt by commercial developments and
there are some quaint little streets. The square is quite imposing particularly
the paving.
 There is a Rival 34 in the marina belonging to a
couple from Doncaster so I went and had a quick chat before going
shopping.
 Tomorrow I am aiming to get to Rota which is about
65nm so an early start to get there in daylight. Rota is just north of Cadiz
across the bay. You will probably have gathered I have scrounged a Wifi
connection and sorted my technical problems..................well at least until
I press the wrong buttons again.
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