Marina de Lagos

We had a ball with the grandchildren and Mum and Dad. We spent an enchanting night in a tiny anchorage, adjacent to Alvor. Surrounded by sandbanks, and near to a nature reserve, but only five minutes by dingy from the village. Alvor is a splendid place, and packed with restaurants and bars.

On the second day there we rigged up the Genoa pole out system with a bosons chair on the end and had a great time, dunking Grandma and the kids in the sea...

Then it was back to Marina de Lagos, and more onshore entertainment for the kids. Our final trip with them was to Portimoa. We stopped off along the way, and anchored off a headland with dramatic and scenic cliffs. Our chosen spot was in about 5 metres of water. It was baking hot so we dropped down the bathing ladders, floated off a safety line and buoy and then Jennie, Sarah and the kids all jumped off the boat (in to chilly water), and had a good splish splash around the boat. Ellie and Jessica swam for the first time in the open sea, and Jennie finally realised her dream of swimming off our own boat. Then both she and Sarah circumnavigated Zipadedoda…………… It was all very inspirational.

Nick finally got into the water (and being a real star), agreed to dive under the boat and check out the status of the sacrificial anode on the Maxprop. Shock horror it was gone. Dissolved in less than 5 months. Clearly we have a problem with electrolysis on the boat. (see later)

We had intended to moor up in Portimoa, on the East side of the estuary, but it was very windy out of the West and would have been too uncomfortable to anchor there for the night. So we motored back to Lagos and had and exciting time “parking” the boat in strong cross winds. The marina staff were brilliant.  

Our last day with Ellie and Jessica was spent on the beach. Sand castles, paddling and frolicking by the sea.  A good time was had by all!!

The grandchildren departed back to Sussex on Friday night. Peace and tranquillity descended once again to Zipadedoda, but we do miss them……………………….

Our plan was to have the engine, generator and gearbox serviced last Saturday and then depart for the Azores and Porta Delgarda, on Sunday. Alas this was not to be. The original engineer got diverted to another job, and the replacement arrived at 1500. That left 4 hours to do all the work. Impossible at the best of times, but Roolf, our German engineer is very thorough and definitely knows his stuff. It turns out that the engineers doing the last two services did not change the filters in the Separ water separators for the diesel feeds to both the engine and the generator. Even more surprising the coolant water on the engine does not look like it has ever been changed by any service engineers!

We spent Sunday having an idyllic day on the beach near to Lagos, had a splendid lunch at Linda’s beach restaurant and generally had a fantastic relaxing time.

Monday the engineer arrived back and work progressed methodically. The horror was the generator. It seems that one of the fins off the sea water impellor of the coolant system had broken off and it is now lodged inside the generator engine, blocking the cooling system. Roolf is due to come back at 1500 today and “hopefully”, we will be able to unblock the system and getting everything running once more.

With the help of a local engineering services company, I managed to track down a spare Zinc anode for the Maxprop. Having secured this part on Monday morning, the fun bit was then hiring a scuba kit with a view to diving over the side in the marina and replacing the anode. Hiring the kit was easy (once I was able to prove I am a Padi rescue diver). I was then advised that I had to get authorisation to scuba dive in the marina. That was tough. But it was the easy part really. Diving in the marina was dreadful. The water was disgusting and vis was terrible. (I am used to diving in Asia). Managed to sort it in the end, but I feel like my body was completely polluted. So the only thing for it was to go for a few beers to flush me out!!

The next thing to report is that according to the guide books for Portugal, there is only one day of rain in the summer. Well today was it. Evidence attached. The sun is now back out once more and it is hot and humid.

This delay is seriously eating into our planned time in the Azores. If we are unable to get the generator going in the next 24 hours then we may have to abort that part of the trip and then have the (undesirable) slog of heading back into Northerly winds for many hundreds of miles. Or have a complete re-think about out longer term plans………………..

So fingers crossed we will be sorted out with the generator tonight and on our way in the next 24 hours…………………….