We woke up to a little bit of wind which was great so we rushed about getting ready to leave to make the most of it. I removed the snub line from the anchor only to upset our hold and we began to drag ever so slowly which just increased the pace.  We got ourselves sorted before winding it up on Thursday 25^th September at 9:39AM. We sailed off towards a small town next to Lagos, Alvor 37:07.76N 8:35.90W 

Having the anchor drag on us before we set off did not really worry me at all, I knew we were in terrible holding ground and we had been fine for the last 2 days so it was only because I tripped it that it went. Lately Fi and I have just been rocking up to our bit of water for the night dropping the hook, waiting for it to set and then that is it. Even where we are here in Alvor we just dropped it and were happy, even after having shortened the scoop down to about 18 meters of chain due to being packed in like sardines in the lovely little sheltered inlet. After all I did not want to swing in the night into my many neighbors. Fiona’s navigation teacher Henry wrote to me after dragging several time’s in the beginning that I would grow to trust the anchor.  Well he was on the money, both Fi and I love the thing and would prefer to anchor over being tied to a pontoon.

Once underway we hoisted the kite as the winds were perfect, we had about 10 Knots and the minute we set the wonderfully powerful sail it pulled us along at about 5.5 Knot’s which is pretty amazing for our boat. Today was the first time we rigged up a stuffer line back to the cock pit which meant the sail can now be handled single handedly, in fact when it came time to pull the thing down Fiona did it all from the cockpit, it was a wonderful thing to see. I wish I had of done this earlier. What it is, is a rope to the sock that covers the sail and it is run from the bow of the boat back to the winch in the cockpit.  To get the thing down it is a matter of correcting the boat down wind which Artie takes care of after a few pushed on his buttons and then release the sheet and pull on the winch and no more kite, I still have to go forward to drop it but it is a lot safer. I am now looking forward to using it in stronger wind’s.

Alvor where we have anchored in the first tourist town we have stopped in, after reading about the place we got a real shock to see every thing written in English and to the extent that I thought I could have been in a English beach side resort. The streets are lined with restaurants offering full English breakfast or English bacon all day round and the British flag is flown from every shop and street corner.  It is crazy really to think you would come to such a pretty part of the world only to ruin it with what the Brits have left behind. In the end Fiona and I did not eat out after waiting to arrive here to try the local specialties and instead went back to the boat and had a lovely BBQ on deck and watched the sun set over the water. 

I ran into town on the dingy to get some meat for the BBQ which was fine until on the way back I ran over a rope, my own rope to top it off and snapped the prop off the engine for a second time. This really pissed me off as you could imagine, I was only meters from Silky when it happened and the bow line had wound itself so far around the engine shaft that I thought the dingy was going to wind itself in half. I could do nothing except cut the rope to release the pressure and that was it. No more prop.

Special comments by Fiona:. The kite, or should I say cruising chute, always worries me when Ben wants to hoist it up.  Only because we’ve had a few bad experiences with it, like cruising at night with it up only for the wind to pick up to a steady 25 knots.  Try getting this down in pitch black darkness, strong winds making the boat heel over to the extent you are horizontal to the water…..so you can understand my hesitation!

But this time was different and I enjoyed cruising with it up, knowing I can get the thing down by myself without moving from the cockpit.  Another one of Ben’s wonderful invention’s.

As for Alvor, well it was a bit disappointing having read good things about this little town.  The town itself was lovely with little cobbled streets winding in all sorts of directions, but I couldn’t believe how much it felt like being in Britain.  In fact it seemed no-one spoke Portuguese, even the locals!  I still enjoyed it nonetheless, especially as we are now in the South and the weather is hot, hot, hot!!

Day 65

Destination – Alvor

Traveling Direction – East

Wind Direction – West South West

Swell – Slight 0.5mtrs

Average Speed – 4.1 Knots

Top Speed – 6.4 Knots Through the water

Total distance – 18.4 Nautical Miles

Travel Time – 4.55 Hours

Temperature – 29 degrees

Crew     - Fiona (Happy with the new way to get the Kite down!)

Missing Work – Not Yet

Expenses – Provisions €14.7, Beer €3.6

Next Destination – Portimao