Month: August 2013

We are underneath! The nose wheel lights come on just over the mast on finals. Only Berlinair.com has been smart enough to paint their web address under the fuselage. We wanted to take the tender to the end of the runway but it’s now about 5 miles away following intervention by the pilot. 5 miles south of Faro airport is an island with just 3,000 residents. We are anchored in the canal outside the port. A fishing village that also taxis in tourists from Faro for the beaches. No roads so a few tractors do the shifting over sand. It

Cruising east of Portimao we entered the Canal de Faro within the marshes south of Faro airport. The approach has a huge tuna net which although marked within a 1 mile square drifts beyond the marks by quarter of a mile. Rounding the net the shallows rapidly and the entrance has tides which run at 4 to 7 knots. The channels are shallow (drawing more than 2.5m we are forbidden from moving at night). Dropping anchor as per the chart and pilot we anchored in peaceful isolation. Looking at AIS and the charts we could see yachts anchored to the

Leaving Cascais heading south with a N 15 knot forecast we set full sail in 9 knots wind and were making way nicely. Wind climbed to 15 then 23kn so we took a reef in the main but got a bit of an untidy roll in the boom. The main was then stuck as the wind climbed and we started hitting 8kn not knowing what was coming next. We took the easy option of tucking under a headland in smooth water and 5kn wind to sort things out before heading south again under gib only. It was slow going but

Down the 100 miles of coast sailed from Cascais to Cabo Vincente we had Monkey and Donkey, as they referred to themselves, doing a mad double act on VHF channel 16 almost non-stop. All in English these guys yabber away at each other, play music and American cartoons or similar. The transmissions started around 10pm almost non-stop until maybe 6am but soon resumed again. Of course freight traffic from the shipping lanes told them to ‘go to a clinic’ and the odd yacht suggested ‘a different channel as they were a hazard to navigation’. The latter was well put and

Unfortunately the excellent Cascais festival winds up today and although we have moved on it is broadcast every night on Portugal RFM radio. WEe have particularly enjoyed Craig David, Dengaz, The Black Mamba and Monica Ferraz. Missed last night’s performance due to a beach party.

The pilot states that the bay is foul. A hired speedboat dropped anchor alongside us today and as over 20 knots of wind hit they wanted to leave. Cascais had other ideas and no way could they reclaim their anchor. We had a go at dropping a tripping line down their rode but we are not carrying any large shackles that would sink down the 6mm line which was at about 30 degrees. So we called the rental boat company and the guy tried every trick he could to free the line but eventually gave up and cut the line.