Portimao - Algarve 37°07'N 8°31'W
Oriole
Sun 29 Sep 2002 19:12
You may notice by the above position that we have not moved very far this
week but in fact we have been further east and have now come back in
readiness for moving off to the Canaries, we hope on Wednesday. Last Monday
we left Alvor and sailed to Faro where we spent three delightful days at
anchor off the island of Culatra. Faro is a mass of narrow channels, sand
flats and reed beds which form a fascinating national park. Culatra is a
mainly fishing community but it had a rather Bohemian air about it, up one
very sheltered, shallow creek we found at least a dozen catamarans pulled up
on the beach. Some were in excellent condition others looked rather sad.
On another day we had a dinghy expedition across to the fishing port of
Olhao, we had been watching the route the small boat fishermen were taking
across the shallows and followed their example. Great fun! Then in complete
contrast we have just had two nights in the marina at Vilamoura. This is a
marina with a holiday resort built around it so no local atmosphere, however
we met up with old friends again who keep their boat there. We have just
come into Portimao and are at anchor off the beach near a rather attractive
castle and plan to spend a couple of days here then head for Lanzarote. We
have had some good sailing this week and apart from one foul day have had
glorious hot sunshine. As its is Sunday night we are bracing ourselves for
the high speed exodus of fishing fleet early tomorrow morning and hope we do
not get rolled out of our bunks..