Saturday 12^th January – Albufeira - Vilamoura

37:04.567N 8:07.191W

This morning we awoke to bright sunshine, not a cloud to be seen.  I put my washing out to dry and by late morning we were ready to set sail.  So we left the multi-coloured buildings and piped music of Albufeira marina, and headed off for the short journey to Vilamoura, about 7nm along the coast. 

For the first time in ages we had some reasonable, albeit light, wind to sail in and managed to sail the whole way across the bay in brilliant sunshine. 

We had a very enjoyable passage with very little swell and Pyxis making good speed; we had lunch as we went along, arriving in Vilamoura early afternoon.  As we arrived at the reception pontoon there was even a member of staff there to take our lines.

Vilamoura is a large, long established marina with around a 1,000 berths; the pilot book describes it as the longest-established marina in southwest Iberia and says that the large tourist complex behind it claims to be Europe’s largest private tourist development – it certainly looks big.

Once berthed, I had a quiet afternoon whilst Richard went exploring in search of chandleries – still no luck with the blue sail thread as they were closed.

This evening we have checked out the facilities – good showers here J