Day 65 - Alvor
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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 25th 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 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 |