Lazy Algarve

In Lagos
21 August

A veg-out day, sleeping late, shopping at the Pingo Doce and visiting the old town. Lagos is a culture shock – a different world to Sines. Everything is geared to appeal to the English holidaymaker with charter boats, MacDonalds outlets, tourist tat and fry-ups. Two nights in the marina cost over 100 euros! We found another Saltram 40 moored here called Saga af Haga. She’s in much better condition than Makarma, with an extra tall mast we don’t fancy. Its owner, a Finnish professor, is apparently preparing the boat for an Atlantic crossing. He wasn’t onboard so we leave a note to say hello.

Lagos to Alvor
22 August 3 miles

We motor the short distance to the anchorage in Alvor. We enter the narrow entrance to the lagoon on the first of the flood and pick our way up the unmarked channel avoiding the sand bars. We drop the anchor in the tiny harbour next door to the Dutch steel ketch ‘Rajac’ we last saw in Sines. Later we take the dinghy to the beach and enjoy our first swim of the trip. Rolf and Femke in Rajac invite us over that evening for a drink. We also meet Lucia and Peter who live at Longdown and keep their boat ‘Fair Grace’ at Saltash. It is Lucia’s first real cruise and although she makes no secret of feeling sick with nerves, she doesn’t want to be the one to ruin Peter’s long-held dream to sail around the world. I wonder if they’ll make it. There are no such doubts about Rolf and Femke who’ve taken three years off work to go RTW. They are scarily competent with an enviably equipped and maintained boat.

Alvor village

In Alvor
23-24 August

And so for a few days we settle into the little community of liveaboard cruising folk. Yachts come and go, and we make fleeting friends. We swap books, software and tips on fixing things. The Dutch yacht we dragged onto in Sines arrives.

The lagoon at Alvor

We jokingly invite them to anchor astern of us and they sportingly shrug off the incident, saying it was just one of those things. Leighton passes the time by mapping the charging circuits and making sense of the Adverc. We’ve realised the solar panels haven’t been charging because its regulator has failed. This may account for some of our battery 1 problems. We top up the batteries, clean the hull and fix the deck light. There's an endless list of jobs to do. Every afternoon a stiff sea breeze gets up bringing with it the parasailors who zoom up and down the shallow water of the lagoon. Unsure about how much wind the anchor can take, I find it difficult to relax until the wind eases at sundown.

Alvor to Vilamoura
25 August 19 miles

We wait until the first of the flood to leave the anchorage in case we ground on the way out of the lagoon. It happens just once but with a bit of extra revs we plough the keel through the sandy bottom. Our course puts us on a broad reach in a calm sea and under a cloudless sky with Portimao and its hideous tourist developments to our left. We put one reef in the main to reduce the heel. Harry appears to be working well today. By midday the wind has backed westerly and we’re goosewinging past Albufeira, another tourist eyesore. Our destination, Vilamoura, is no more attractive, it’s just a convenient overnight stop. We moor up at the reception dock to sort out the usual paperwork. The marina has a reputation for over-zealous bureaucracy – we shall see!

Vilamoura to Olhao
26 August 12 miles

Vilamoura is very hot, very expensive and very artificial. Think Port Solent and multiply by four and you’re getting close to what it’s like. After an early shop at the supermarket we try to leave. We have to hand in our access card and sign off the paperwork but there’s no room to go alongside. Leighton manoeuvres so I can leap ashore and deal with it, then circles to wait for me. He noses the bow into the pontoon and I jump back onboard over the anchors. For an hour we make over 7 knots on a beam reach, but the wind gets lighter and lighter as we coast along the beach at Quinta da Lago before dying out completely. We enter the ria Formosa between the sea walls at Cabo de S.Maria. It is half flood and there’s 4 knots of tide under us.

With our SOG at 9.5, it takes quick thinking to find and follow the channel. Our heartrate has slowed by the time we turn into the narrow channel that winds across the lagoon to Olhao, and we stick like glue to the marker buoys to avoid running aground. The marina at Olhao isn’t on our charts or in the pilot and a first for us, it’s full! They turn us away, suggesting we should go to Vilamoura. Fed up, and unwilling to go back down the channel and anchor, we tie up alongside a dirty pontoon by the ferry terminal behind a Dutch yacht. An official has told them they’re not allowed to stay, and they don’t think there’s enough water for them at low water – they draw 2.2 metres. So they’re going. We decide to stay and risk it, calculating there should be just enough water at low water at 23.00. So we lie out on deck under the stars listening to the Saturday night crowd ashore, and rock the boat from time to time to check we’re still afloat. Unfortunately the karaoke bar nearby goes on and on, a sound like strangled cats keeping us awake into the small hours.

Olhao to Culatra
27 August 1 mile

We leave on the first of the ebb and make our way down channel to the anchorage at Culatra Island. It is baking hot and we have no energy to do anything. Towards evening we move to a spot with more swinging space. Now anchoring can sometimes bring out the worst in both of us. Not always, but this evening both of us are grumpy with cabin fever so it’s bad news. We can't agree on the spot to anchor, then can't agree that she's hooked. We both think we’re right, and we’re both obstinate - that’s the trouble. All is forgotten over a glass of wine.....until the next time!

Culatra to Ayamonte
28 August 32 miles

We go for a walk ashore along a raised boardwalk over dunes out to the sea. We buy some fresh bread from the small stock in the only shop on the island. As the ebb runs strongly out through the narrow entrance at Cabo de S.Maria, we wait until an hour before low water to leave. This means there’s precious little water in the channel, but at least the tide isn’t running at an alarming rate. There’s no wind at all as we motor northeast towards Tavira where we intend to anchor overnight. To our dismay, the fridge isn’t working today. Since it's pushing 30 degrees, we're facing a serious shortage of cold beer. Over lunch we have a rethink. We’re way too early to go into Tavira after half tide as the pilot advises. And the wind’s beginning to pick up from the south. Is it worth going on to Ayamonte today? Once we voice the idea, it's impossible to resist the thought of reaching journey’s end today.

	We alter course for the entrance to the Guadiana river, and the GPS shows our ETA is three hours before high water – perfect. We enjoy a glorious last sail in sparkling calm sea, firstly a beam reach, then we pole out the genoa yet again when the wind goes astern.
According to our calculations we're going over the bar at the entrance of the river on the last of the flood, but there’s alarmingly little depth under the keel. There's an anxious few minutes until the depth increases again. Soon we make out the great suspension bridge towering over the river ahead of us, and VilaReal to the left on the Portuguese side and Ayamonte to the right on the Spanish side. It’s a great moment when we hoist the Spanish courtesy flag again and motor into the Makarma’s winter home at Ayamonte. We've covered 1200 miles in seven weeks and reached our destination in one piece. Journey’s end at last!!

1. A Slow Start	2. Belting Across Biscay	3. In Search of a Quiet Night	4. Overalls
5. Having a Swell Time	6. It's a Small World	7. Turning the Corner	8. Lazy Algarve
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