We pulled up our anchor as it slowly emerged itself from the mud on Tuesday 30^h September at 10:06AM and headed off to Albufeira 37:04.88N 8:15.64W

It was great to have some wind which we made the most of and sailed right in to our little anchorage. It became quite obvious that the locals we not keen on having yachts anchor here as someone had put down about 100 little buoys every 10 meters or so which meant we were pretty much guaranteed to run over a few. It did not really worry me to be honest as long as the prop was not caught we were fine so we dropped anchor. After some advice from our friends on Graceful, Den suggested I picked up a local fisherman’s mooring so Silky could lie head on into the swell that entered the harbor. This meant we could have a peaceful sleep as when the swell is opposing the wind it gets very rolly polly.  So that is what we did and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Another great thing is that I managed to get a second hand prop from the local boat shop and after much negotiation I even managed to talk the guy into giving it to me for the price of a brand new one 25 Euro’s.  He originally wanted 35 so not a bad discount. Anyhow, I did not care as it meant that I did not have to row anymore and better still, he gave me the prop from a smaller engine which meant that the pitch of it was a little more coarse and now our little tender ‘Pillow Slip’ goes like a little F1 racer.

Albuferia was a lovely little town with lots of touristy shops and restaurants a massive beach which was prime real estate to stake your claim to a piece each day. We did the usual walk around to check the place out and went food shopping of course just to see what the shelves might have that we have not every tried before. As far as eating out goes we did not need to as we were lucky enough to go back to our favorite Michelin star floating Indian restaurant of yacht ‘Graceful’ cheffed by Sadie who cooked for 6 of us in the marina. We were once again spoilt. 

Special comments by Fiona:. I was skeptical about anchoring where we ended up, simply due to the fact that there were many little grey buoys unlike any I’d seen before and I felt we were bound to run over one leading to all sorts of problems.  But in Ben’s true captain style this was not a deterrent and reassured me that we’ll be fine and of course we were!  They say ignorance is bliss and I’m starting to believe we follow this motto.  I feel if I was more experienced and knew more then I probably wouldn’t do half the things we’ve done, but then again we wouldn’t have had such an eventful time and I wouldn’t change that for a second!

I do feel that each little town we venture into all seem the same now.  Maybe because we loved the North of Spain so much that Portugal just doesn’t compare for us.

Day 70

Destination – Albuferia

Traveling Direction – East

Wind Direction – South East

Swell – Slight 1.0 mtrs

Average Speed – 4.3 Knots

Top Speed – 5.5 Knots Through the water

Total distance – 14.6 Nautical Miles

Travel Time – 3.42 Hours

Temperature – 29 degrees

Crew     - Fiona (Thinking that each town all seem the same)

Missing Work – Not Yet

Expenses – Provisions €9.8, Fuel €50, Sim Card €15, Drinks €7.4, Coffee’s * 3 €1.8, Bread €1

Next Destination – Faro