Captain Chaos here (Gordon)
We left Lagos on the 10th of June and headed off along the coast to Portimao where we anchored for the night just behind the breakwater. Unfortunately it did very little to lessen the effect of the long Atlantic fetch and we spent a very rolly night. However the new Rocna anchor was very good.
From Portimao we had a nice sail in a force 3-4 along to Villamoura. The engine was overheating so it was a sail entrance between the breakwaters at Villamoura and used the engine sparingly to get from the arrivals berth round to our pontoon for the night. I took the cooling system apart and checked all likely culprits. It seemed that I had a sticky thermostat. I’ve always suspected I had one of those lol. Anyhow managed to source a replacement and we were mobile again.
Villamoura is a bit purpose built and you feel a wee bit closed in but still nice for a change – very pricy though.
The next day we again had little wind and motor sailed to Culatra. At least it tested the new thermostat.
Culatra is an anchorage east of the entrance to the Faro channel at Cabo de Santa Maria. There are sand banks to avoid on the entry and it gets quite lumpy with over falls and eddies with 7 knots of tide on spring ebb. It is working fishing village but has a very nice beach and lots of people come across from Faro & Olhao by water taxis for the day. As we were anchoring we got a call on the VHF from Liz & Dave, who were also in Lagos for the winter and we arranged to meet up later for them to show us around.
The trusty dinghy came out with the not so trusty two-stroke, which I had completely stripped and serviced in Salema. It did start 1st time and got us ashore and back before giving up the ghost on the next trip. Liz & Dave towed us back. Suspecting the worst I checked the fuel first though – there wasn’t any! – It was leaking -but an easy fix.
There is an old lagoon that you used to be able to enter however the maritime police have now cordoned it off. There are a number of liveaboards “locked in” some who have been there for 15 years, they are allowed out but no-one is getting back in. Clearing it by stealth.
The beach is a walk through the village and then onto a raised decking walkway to the other side of the island. At spring tides the gulley’s fill in up and it is very picturesque. To conserve water our daily shower was from a tap located on this walkway and a plastic bottle tipped over our heads. Luxury or not ?
One day we all took the ferry to Olhao only to find it was shut for a holiday! (Anyone remember last year’s blog when we did the same thing at Brest?) However the breakfast was good and was nice to at least have seen the place.
Most days ended with a sun downer and then back for tea on the boat followed by entertainment on someone’s boat for the evening. I won’t say too much about the afternoon Louise & Liz polished off 3 Jugs of Sangria between them.
On our penultimate day we all went a walk along to Farol at the Cabo de Santa Maria end of the island and got the ferry back. Farol was more Milngavie to Culatra’s Partick. Very pretty and looked like mostly holiday homes of people from Faro.
That night we had a farewell dinner ashore with most of the people from “C” Pontoon in Lagos. Liz & Dave had kindly invited us to their wedding anniversary meal in the coming week, but we were so low on water we had to sadly miss it , boo!
