37:12.5N 007:24.4W

29^th – 30^th July

Sailed to Ayemonte on Tuesday (well actually we motored the whole way as there was no wind what so ever!). A fairly uneventful trip saw very few yachts and a few fishing boats. Disappointingly no Dolphins or other sea animals. We did see the large red Rib that goes to look for Dolphins but that was no substitute!

The town of Ayemonte is interesting and the marina has reasonable facilities although no laundry or free wifi! We explored and discovered a good supermarket close by and across the river plenty of touristy type shops and loads of cafes and bars etc. Had a fabulous meal in what seemed to be one of the few genuine Spanish bars as opposed to pizza bars etc. We rather over ordered on the tapas front so when our main meals arrived we were all beaten! Gail and I had a scrumptious Paella probably the best I have ever had! There was enough in the bowl to feed all of us.

We took the ferry across the river Guadiana to visit the port on the Portugal side – Vila Real Santo Antonio; this too is quite touristy but not full of brits – mostly Spanish visitors! The Marina seemed well run and we decided we would return with the boat later in the week to enable Nigel and family to get a taxi back to Faro for their return home. The prices in Ayemonte were much more reasonable than in the western Algarve just 31 euros per night. While there we met several British owned boats who were able to give us more information about our proposed cruise up the River Guadiana. In fact one chap kindly gave us his pilot book for the river which proved to be very useful as our electronic chart should nothing north of the huge suspension bridge.

We did have doubts about whether we could get under the bridge at all but were re-assured by another guy who has a yacht with a taller mast than ours that we would be fine at low water springs.

Plan to leave on Thursday to head up stream.

Jacky and Bob