37:57.05N 008:51.95W  Monday 18th August 2008.We arrived in Sines after a twenty hour passage at 03:00 this morning Tues 19th  with an average speed of 6.5 Knots. Leaving Nazare at 07:00 we had to say our farewells to our companions since Falmouth, the Richards family, John ,Jacki, Laura and Andrew on Ula.The passage down allowed us to sail for most of the day making the most of the north to north west wind of 12 to 20 knots. We poled out the genoa and set the main goose winged on a preventer, Similar conditions when Bob broke his wrist,Iam getting paranoid, warnings all round, keep your head down and your hands in your pockets! Had a man overboard drill this week to make sure they could do it in an emergency. We wear our life jackets and harness at night, but in these sub tropical conditions they are a bit warm during the day. So the rules are relaxed a little. We have been needing the Bimini (Sun shade) as we run further south, it keeps the cockpit and cabins cool. On arrival at Sines we had to report to immigration and obtain port authorities clearance even at 3:00 am I had two policemen and a security guard from the marina pouring over the ships papers and passports .One police officer asked what does LIBERTAD mean? I told he I thought it was Portuguese for Liberty; he agreed but seemed bemused as to why anyone would call a boat Libertad. Despite being part of the E.U. the Portuguese burocracy haven’t quite grasped the concept of free travel for E.U. citizens, I wonder if Vasco de Gama had these problems (it was his birth place) We have to clear immigration at every port of call whatever the time of day. It’s all part of the fun. We had a sleep in this morning after our late arrival, moving the boat off the fuel pontoon to a more suitable berth after breakfast. We all walked in to town and sat on the terrace overlooking the harbour and had a lunch of sardines, salad and chips washed down with some vino tinto. We also celebrated Tim passing the 1000 mile barrier on Libertad since leaving Falmouth, that's without being seasick once. Our total to date since leaving Eastbourne is....................... Miles, no lets see if you bloggers can guess! £5:00 a go all proceeds to Macmillan Cancer support,e-mail the exact mileage  to me from Eastbourne to Sines and  I will publish the winner and the exact mileage in a future blog, go on, go on, have go. Sorry we for the father Ted isms, we are moored next to an Irish boat from Arklow. It's been hot and sunny all day but blowing 6/7 most of the time, the forecast for tomorrow is N/NW 4/5 that’s more like it, we can get some more sailing in.

I will blog again from Lagos or after we sail for Madeira. 

Best wishes to you all Paul.