Tagus boatyard is getting full of boats stored for Winter, and emptied of people on their boats. We had our final happy hour with Ola and Torren tonight. They leave for Sweden early in the morning. We will miss them a lot!  But there was something wrong with our happy hour, it was almost too cold to drink beer! (key word here is “almost”) When we first met  Ola and Torren it was hot and the air was full of mosquitoes. Then it was, well perfect, for our barbeque,  and now it’s down right cold!

What is really odd is walking around town, among palm trees and thinking about where I stored the fleece socks!  And then going into a store, with palm trees out front, and seeing  big displays of wooly hats, scarves  and down jackets!  Seems like just last week I was dressed in my standard  bikini top and denim shorts uniform! 

Actually, we just had a huge weather system pass through with the first rain this place has seen pretty much all summer.   And another one coming!  Looking at passageweather.com shows some of the wind in the red orange range, with the little grib files having 4-5 little “feathers”, meaning winds of 40 – 60 knots!

We should be leaving Tagus in the next couple of days. Then we work our way down the coast.  From here to Sines (pronounced sinch) there are places to stop every night.   The sail from Sine around Capo St Vincent to the first protected harbor, Lagos will be an overnight trip.  And frankly I’d prefer doing it in less than 35 knots, and having the wind be Northerly or Northeasterly, as opposed to 45 –55 knot  Southwest winds that are happening AGAIN in a few days.

So we’ll hop towards Sines in 20 mile or so  increments,  possibly early in the mornings before it gets really windy. I don’t mind the big wind  way offshore. It’s entering tight harbors, river entrances and marinas that concern me.   Plus wind over 45 is downright not fun.   Some say there are some of the prettiest anchorages in all of Portugal between here and Cabo St Vincent. I wouldn’t want to just go out and around the cape and miss them!  So I look forward to hopping down the coast, and then sailing around the Cape to the Algarve,   Where there are palm trees and hopefully no more need for fleece socks! But I intend to keep the socks handy  just in case!!!!