Tuesday 11^th March – Alcoutim – Vila Real De Santo António

37:11.697N 7:24.788W

Today we were up at 6am and just before dawn.  It was beautiful to see dawn breaking as we set off down the river.  Seven Hills were just a little way behind as we both took the ebb tide down to Vila Real De Santo António.  We arrived around 10am which was a bit early for slack water as we had 2 knots of ebb tide helping us along the way.  However, rather than wait for slack water we ferry glided through the narrow entrance and came alongside against the tide.  Seven Hills came in just after us too, both without incident.

The rest of the morning we spent sunbathing (yes, it was a bikini day – very hot). 

After lunch Richard decided it was time to replace some pipework on the stern heads.  Oh dear, not a good afternoon; it took a lot of time and effort to get the old pipework out and tonight we haven’t been able to get the new pipework in.  It has been a very frustrating time with Richard fighting with the pipe and me scouring the back cabin and toolboxes trying to find the various bits he wanted.

We have given up for tonight and we’ll tackle it tomorrow.