Sunny Algarve!!

Oriole
Sat 14 Sep 2002 16:23


After having had a fairly disturbed last night in Cascais (the rather
piercing fog horn kept us awake) we set off for Sines, a charming little
harbour, the oil terminal being hidden from view. We spent a couple of
nights there before rounding Cape St Vincent on Tuesday the 10th. We dropped
anchor in the bay of Sagres, where Henry the Navigator is reputed to have
built a school of navigation. While we were ashore exploring, a thick fog
bank rolled in around the cape and we high tailed it back to the boat before
it disappeared from view. In the event the fog did not come round into the
bay. This was a lovely anchorage but somewhat rolly. Anyone who has
experienced a rolly anchorage will know of the problem of silencing all the
rattles and bangs which the rolling ship produces at night to interrupt your
sleep. One such rattle only experienced with a mega roll caused by passing
fishing boats really had us guessing and we could not find the source ,of
this irritating and sleep preventing rattle. Just as we thought we had got
it the boat would stop rolling and the noise would disappear only to
reappear when snugly back in our bunks. We finally tracked this down in the
cool light of day to a piece of loose asbestos sheet actually inside the
door of our small document safe. What it was doing there we cannot imagine
(perhaps an attempt at sound deadening!), but the Health and Safety
Executive will be receiving a sample to diagnose whether it is blue or white
asbestos and the safe manufacturers will be hearing from our legal advisors.
We are now in the rather pleasant Lagos Marina where we have returned the
borrowed dinghy to Troubadour, the weather has taken a turn for the worse.
You have never seen so many long faced yachtsmen as there were this morning
in the torrential rain, but we are quite used to it after Scotland, Ireland
and home and will happily sit out this hopefully temporary meteorological
blip. We expect to explore the Algarve coast for a few more days before
departing for Porto Santo, the little island off Madeira. At the moment
there are headwinds for that direction so the Algarve may get more
attention. The sea temperature is not as high as usual but Andrew has been
in swimming a few times and John has braved it once.