Ilha da Calutra, nr Faro

Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Tue 2 Dec 2014 22:29
36:59.973N
007:50.325W

Anchored near Ilha da Calutra, nr Faro

After a very peaceful night (once Faro airport closed and the fishermen stopped zooming by!) and today dawned with another cracking blue sky and sunshine.

We sailed in here yesterday with another boat and Bol took lots of photos of them which we delivered on a USB stick today. They were delighted and invited us on board for a cup of tea. Lovely chat sitting in their raised saloon overlooking the estuary; they are retired and have been cruising the Med for a decade, their 50ft boat is super-organised and can be sailed single-handed with hydraulic winches, mainsail and roller furling jib. Whilst we were there the children rowed about in the dinghy, both fishing. Isabelle said she caught a squid but it got away, sadly Bol nor I saw it!

Ashore to the biggest and emptiest beach which was reached via a long boardwalk through sand dunes. Harry dug an enormous hole, Bol, Isabelle and I collected shells. Calutra is an interesting island with its own community somewhat cut off from the rest of Faro. The houses are built on sand, sand is everywhere, no soil at all, so all the plants and vegetables have to be grown in the sand too. The main industry is fishing and shell fish, there was a junior school with children having a football lesson, and two little supermarkets. The fishing harbour was packed with day boats and the beach piled high with nets, and of course the constant screeching overhead of gulls, circling hopefully for scraps.

Returing to TC so we swung by Abel Tasman, Jack and Gerda very kindly invited us on aboard for a drink and a tour of their fabulous boat which they fitted out themselves years ago to charter in Antarctica. They have also overwintered twice in Greenland ~ wonderful for the children to meet such interesting people and to listen to their stories of the Northern Lights and living in the ice with 3hours of daylight through the winter. Hopefully some of these inspiring stories will stick in their minds, it will be interesting to see what does stick after a year afloat ~ we think at the moment it is the go-carting in Oeiras but that might change when we get home!





JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image