Lagos: our springboard for the passage to the Azores, and a lovely place in itself
Yuva
Jim & Peri Holden
Tue 24 May 2016 08:48
posted by: Jim
Yesterday afternoon Aidan and Claire and Andy and I arrived in Lagos, coming in about half an hour before HW springs (HW was 3.3m at 16:14 local time), and we found 5.5m depths at the bar just outside the breakwaters, then a low spot of 5.1m a bit inside, just before the bend in the channel going to the marina — so with our 2.5m draft we were glad not to be trying it any time around low water.
Jules, who will join from Lagos to the Azores, was there on the marina reception pontoon to meet us, along with his wife Tenney. After refueling and checking in at the marina office we headed off to our berth, on J pontoon. After washing all the salt off the boat, and cleaning up with showers, we met some friends of Aidan at the Spinnaker bar and then headed across the pedestrian bridge to dinner at Adega de Marina, where we had eaten during our last visit, five years ago. It’s a great place, very simple in all respects and very Portuguese, and a visit to Lagos would not be complete without going there at least once. Many thanks to Jules and Tenney for guiding us there.
Lagos is our jumping-off place for the Azores, and based on the latest weather forecasts and particularly the latest grib files we have decided that tomorrow (Wednesday) will most likely be the best time to depart, so we will have a total stay here of two nights (last night and tonight). Likely we will leave mid-afternoon, to get beyond the Cape St Vincent shipping (TSS) before nightfall.
After departing we will have no specific time schedule for getting to Ponta Delgada. We are hoping to sail for most or all of the passage, and with the large shallow low that is current over the Azores and moving off ENE it will be upwind for most or all of the passage, so we may be quite slow, and we will likely make at least a couple of long tacks before being able to lay a course direct to our destination. The 800M shortest distance can be covered in 96 hours at our best cruising speed of around 8 knots, but our actual distance will be a good bit longer, and the likelihood is that we will take at least six days if we stick to our plan to let the sails carry us.
If the Iridium continues to work properly we may be able to post some simple updates to this text blog en route, including our position from time to time.
Today we will attend to some little jobs on the boat, will get new Camping Gaz cylinders, and will top up provisions with a visit to the local supermarket. But the job list is fairly short, so mainly we will be relaxing and doing passage planning and ongoing weather checks.
S/Y Yuva