There was a tone of wind in the night so we woke early and a little tired to a lot more wind, pulled up our anchor and untied our stern line on Thursday 2^nd October at 8:51AM and headed off to Faro 37:00.08N 7:56.29W 

Faro is in behind a large inlet and is surrounded by a nature reserve which basically meant it smelt of mud and stuff like that. It also means that the anchorages are limited and to top it of not great holding. Oh there is also an abundance of fly’s, millions of the little bastards. I almost had to restrain Fiona because every time I looked around she would be whacking the thing’s with a tea towel which should have been ok apart from the fact that she normally missed and our little home was being cracked every where.

On the way into Faro the tide rushed us through the canal giving us an extra 3 or 4 knots which is almost Silkys top speed so it was quite a ride.  We cruised on up the river in search of somewhere nice to park for a couple of days and dropped our hook. The first night was a nightmare, the chain kept dragging just a little and to add to the upset it made one hell of a racket as it grinded away at what ever was on the bottom. I had our handheld computer next to me throughout the night to check just how far we had gone as I did not want to get up and move the boat in the pitch blackness on the moonless night we had, not to mention the other boat around us and we were only 30 or 40 meters from the rivers edge. In the morning when I did pull up the anchor I found it had some how collected a 10 mm bar of stainless steel through an eyelet which would not of been helping. Anyhow we moved a little further up the river in hope of some better holding for the second night.  I also rigged up a snubber line to take the vibration of the chain and help quieten it down.

Night two was a lot better although even with the snatch rope we could still here the chain but we were not dragging anymore, you see when you drag you can hear it because the chain makes so much noise.  It is hard to describe but it groans and grinds and make such a racket that you wonder how it can produce such annoyance. We did however wake up several times throughout the night to check we were ok.  It is not too much of a pain normally when we get up for the toilet we will pop our head out and just line up our mark’s. Fiona was up this night and when she returned to bed she said she could her people yelling.   Upon closer inspection we realized it was Den (from Graceful cruising companion) yelling at the yacht behind him or should I say the yacht that was now behind him. A Swedish boat, I think, it had dragged in the night.  The scary thing was that he had been in the one spot for about 3 day’s. Anyhow Den yelled at this guy to try and wake him to not avail.  It was actually a little funny listening to Den yell and then Sadie would come over the top of him with her Coo weee’s. I grabbed my search light and shone it in one the window’s which also revealed he was about 2 meters from the river edge.  I am amazed he did not feel himself dragging or hit the bottom.  It could have been a very bad end to his nights sleep. He awoke and moved off so Fi and I went back to bed secretly thinking that lucky it was not us, it also meant that I was not going crazy the night before.

Special comments by Fiona:. For me Faro is a nice enough city, but I didn’t enjoy our time anchored here.  The first night Ben and I both were awake from 2am worrying about the anchor dragging.  One of my greatest fear’s of this sailing business (apart from being overturned by a whale) is having our anchor drag and we end up out at sea or worse crashing into another boat, rocks or land.  So I never really have a good night’s sleep even in the best of anchorages, which is most of the time considering we are always at anchor.  Any-way, the second night was eventful as Ben described.  I have no idea how that guy could have slept through his anchor dragging and his boat almost on land, not to mention the yelling and flash lights on his boat’s of every-one trying to wake him.

And the flies, well they did my head in.  I’m sure they were breeding in our cabin.  My attempts at swatting them was to no avail but at least now Ben has agreed that we need to invest in a few cans of heavy duty fly spray!

Day 72

Destination – Faro

Traveling Direction – East

Wind Direction – North West

Swell – Slight 1.0 mtrs

Average Speed – 4.1 Knots

Top Speed – 7.7 Knots Through the water

Total distance – 27.8 Nautical Miles

Travel Time – 6.71 Hours

Temperature – 30 degrees

Crew     - Fiona (Hating the families of flies that made a home in our cabin)

Missing Work – Not Yet

Expenses – Provisions €26.7

Next Destination – Olhao