Peace and quiet on the Guardiana river

Ayamonte

Saturday 18^th August. We are moored in the marina at Ayamonte, a quiet, unspoilt town on the Spanish side of the mouth of the Guardiana river, which forms the border between Portugal and Spain. It’s a pleasant change after the noisy, busy and expensive Algarve.  We visited the indoor market today where there were no less than five fishmongers, all specialising in different types of fish. We bought a gilt head sea bream and barbecued it – very tasty!

Tomorrow we plan to sail 20 miles upriver to the twin villages of Alcoutim (Portugal) and Sanlucar (Spain). To get there we have to pass under a suspension bridge which has 20.5m clearance, and we realised today that we don’t know our exact mast height, or more importantly, the height from the waterline to the top of the mast. A quick check on Google came up with 17.3m, so we should be alright.

The suspension bridge

Sunday 19^th August.  As we approached the suspension bridge we began to wonder how reliable our Googled information was as it didn't look as though we would fit under it. We throttled back and held our breath as the mast neared the steel girders. We got through with (from our viewpoint) millimetres to spare, and by the time we reached the other side we were both having palpitations!

There’s no chart for the river, and the only advice in the Pilot book is to leave at low water and keep to the outside of bends, where the channel is likely to be deeper. The depth was generally good, but occasionally it would suddenly plummet, and it was anyone’s guess which way to turn to find deeper water.

We also had to contend with floating rafts of bamboo branches that came racing down the river towards us. Apparently, these had been washed from the banks after a particularly high spring tide – not something you want to get tangled in your propeller.

Sandpiper on the pontoon at Alcoutim

When we finally arrived at the village there was a Fiesta in full swing, and we found both the pontoons and the adjacent anchorage were full. Then we spotted a free mooring buoy, so grabbed it, only to discover that there wasn’t enough depth for us to stay on it all night! Luckily, after an hour or so one boat left the Alcoutim village pontoon, so we quickly motored over and took the space.



Sanlucar village across the river

Monday 20^th August. It’s lovely here – peaceful and scenic. We had a walk round Alcoutim today then took the little ferry boat across to Sanlucar. No customs or passports required! Apparently it’s a popular place for live-aboards to over-winter, and I can see why.  The villages have a timeless feel,  clusters of whitewashed houses cling to the hillsides beside narrow cobbled streets and each village is topped with a stone castle. There are a few nods to 21^st century needs, like a cash dispenser and wi-fi in the Library, but traditional village life still dominates.

We were told it would be cooler up river but it’s very hot – over 40c – and there’s no wind, so this afternoon we walked down to the river beach for a welcome dip, then sat reading in the shade of the trees. Now we’re relaxing on the back of the boat and watching the egrets and herons feeding in the river.

View from Alcoutim castle

Tuesday 21^st August. We left at dawn to sail back down river this morning, a much less stressful journey than going up, which meant we had time to take in our surroundings. The river is surprisingly unspoilt, with hardly any development except for the occasional wind turbine, and we spotted white storks on the river bank.

Back in Ayamonte we decided to do a big shop at the supermarket, which is conveniently close to the marina. The wine, beer and water was heavy, so I suggested we took the trolley all the way back to the boat.  A good idea in principle, but we should have remembered that shopping trolleys have minds of their own. As we turned our backs to unload it, the trolley decided to take a dive off the pontoon into the water! Luckily, it caught on our mooring lines, so Cliff was able to salvage both the trolley and most of our shopping, but not before two bottles of good rioja escaped into the deep.

Steaming in the Algarve

Fort at Lagos

Tuesday 14^th August. Lagos is typical of what we expected of the Algarve  -  stunning rock formations, sandy beaches, historic old town and full to bursting with tourists.  We had only planned to spend one night there so left mid-morning for Albufeira.

We had a lovely sail down to Albufeira on a beam reach with no swell. Even when it’s warm, sailing out at sea here  is a chilly affair, and we’re normally wrapped up in jeans and sweatshirt. So doing some coastal sailing makes a pleasant change, and for the first time on this holiday I was sailing in a bikini. But now we’re in the marina it’s hot, very hot. We’re tucked inland away from the main town and sheltered from the wind by a hill and some unusually designed apartment  blocks  painted in Neapolitan colours.  

Albufeira marina

Wednesday 15^th August. Albufeira is similar to Lagos – wonderful rocks, good beaches but completely overwhelmed by tourism. Back at the marina, most of the restaurants serve British fare, the exception being Tasca, where we ate last night. We had a Portuguese fish casserole with cod, prawns, cockles, pimentoes and tomatoes – delicious!

Thursday 16^th August. Quick hop to Vilamoura, a beautifully designed marina that’s full of super-yachts.

In with the super-yachts at Vilamoura

Friday 17^th August.   I don’t know how the super-yachts put up with the noise. As we left the marina at 6am this morning the clubs were still throbbing!

Preparing for the Cape

Sines marina from the castle

Friday 10^th August. Another windless day, so we motorsailed to Sines. The town is the birthplace of Vasco da Gama, but is now better known as a major commercial port for petro chemical container ships! The approach is very industrial, but the town tucked behind the port is a pleasant surprise, with a castle, old, winding streets and a spotless beach.

Sines town

Sunday 12th August. Sines is the last port on the Atlantic coast before you sail around Cabo de Sao Vicente, the headland on the ‘corner’ before you turn into the Algarve. Cape Vicente has a wicked reputation for high winds and rough seas, especially in the afternoon, when the strong ‘Nortada’ wind sets in.  An Irish lady we met in Portosin delighted in telling me about her nightmare journey around the cape, when the easterly wind was so strong they were almost sailing backwards. Her warning was reinforced by a Portuguese sailor who does boat deliveries to the Algarve, who said he always leaves Sines at midnight to ensure he rounds the cape before the winds get up.

So when to leave? We aren’t keen on sailing in the dark off the coast here as there are so many pots, and getting a rope round the propeller is the last thing we want. We’ve worked out it should be a 14  hour sail from Sines to the Lagos, the next safe port,  so it could just be done in daylight, but we would then be rounding the cape when the winds are at their strongest. After some debate we have decided to  have an early night and leave at 3 o’clock tomorrow morning.

Monday 13^th August. We had hoped for an early night, but had forgotten there was a folk music festival on the beach, right next to the marina, and in true Portuguese style, the entertainment started at 10pm and went on into the early hours. So we were wide awake when the alarm went off at 2 this morning!

We crossed our fingers as we crept out of the harbour through the shallower water, peering into the gloom to try and spot any pots. Once clear of the harbour we headed 5 miles out to sea where pots are less common. Luckily it was an uneventful sail, we saw very little except two large pods of dolphins and rounded the dreaded Cape safely in gentle winds.  We arrived at  Lagos at 5pm, ready for an early night.

Relaxing in Oeiras

Beach next to Oeiras marina

Tuesday 7^th August. We arrived at Oeiras, on the mouth of the Rio Tejo, near to Lisbon, today. We sailed down from Nazare, staying overnight in the fishing port of Peniche. We had been warned that winds can accelerate off Cabo da Roca, which is a few miles before the Tejo estuary, so we reefed the sails in anticipation, but the wind remained steady. Of course, as soon as we shook out the reef, the wind increased – from 15 knots to 32 knots in minutes! We managed to reef again in time, then enjoyed an exhilarating downwind sail at 8 knots on a handkerchief of genoa.

Wednesday 8^th August. We have visited Lisbon before so decided not go into the city, but instead chose a marina close to a beach so that we could have a bit of R and R. We are very impressed with the marina, which  is part of a leisure complex with its own swimming pool. It has an excellent selection of restaurants and cafes and the staff can’t do enough to help. The only potential drawback is that the nearest supermarket is a 15-20 minute walk away, but the staff offered to drive us there and waited while we did a shop.

Pool at the marina

We have just had a call from our friends Richard and Rowena in Galene.  They are on their way to Lisbon tomorrow and when they heard we were in Oeiras they decided to come in here for a night.

Richard and Rowena sail into Oeiras

Thursday 9^th August. Very, very hot day with no wind. Spent the afternoon at the pool. Bliss! We then prepared a BBQ welcome supper for Richard and Rowena, who sailed into the marina at 7pm. Great to see them again and catch up on their news. Unfortunately it’s a brief reunion as we’re off to Sines tomorrow.

Nazare

Nets for sale in Nazare

Thursday, 2nd August. Had a great sail down to Nazare – 2m swell again, but good winds which made for a quick if rolly passage.  Nazare town is very pretty, tucked in one corner of wide sandy bay surrounded by pine clad hills and with a dramatic rocky headland at one end. The marina, however, is less charming. Situated a mile or so out of town it consists of three pontoons within the fishing harbour, surrounded by industrial sheds! But it’s very friendly and is managed by a helpful British couple, Captain Michael Hadley and his wife Sally, who live on a boat within the marina. They’ve been here for 13 years and are an excellent source for local information, from how to visit the historic sites nearby to the best course to set for Lisbon.

Nazare town with the entrance to the harbour at the far end of the beach

Friday, 3^rd August. Cycled into Nazare. It’s a colourful mix of the original old fishing village, where the women still dry the fish fillets out on racks on beach, and a busy tourist resort with the usual cafes and gift shops. We took the funicular railway up to Sitio, a lovely old village on the top of the cliff with great views back down across Nazare.

Batahla

Cloisters at Batahla

Saturday, 4th August. We took the bus to the monastery of Batahla today. It’s a spectacular building, built between 1388 and 1533, and designed by leading architects of the time. When we walked into the main church there was a service starting, with the choir singing Ave Maria, accompanied by flautist and organist. As we sat on one side to listen (the choir was excellent) a bride walked down the main aisle and we realised it was a wedding. We stayed for the whole service, all the music was sung by the choir alone, so it was more like a choral concert and a real treat in such a majestic setting. The rest of the monastery was equally stunning, the most impressive example of medieval architecture that we have seen.

Povoa de Varzim and Fegueira da Foz

Porto - traditional boats used for transporting port wine barrels

Monday 30^th July. We had a pleasant, gentle sail down from Viana do Castelo to Povoa de Varzim yesterday. Povoa is a seaside resort with several good beaches, but the main reason for stopping there was to visit Porto, which we did today.

 Porto rooftops from the Torre dos Clerigos

Povoa is the last stop on one of the Porto’s new Metro lines, and the journey into the city took less than an hour. We had a brilliant day visiting the Cathedral and the old town, eating a fish lunch on the banks of the Douro and then taking a river trip to admire the six bridges including the Ponte de Dona Maria Pia, another bridge designed by Alexandre Eiffel. The river is attractively landscaped on the south side and still has many of the original barcos rabelos moored on it - flat bottomed, square rigged wooden boats that used to transport the port wine casks.  We finished our day with a port tasting tour in the Sandeman cellars, it was fascinating to learn more about the links between Britain and Portugal.

Porto old town

Looks familiar....

Tuesday 31^st July. Up at 4.30 ready to sail to Figueira da Foz. Back in bed by 5am – fog again.  Spent the day catching up on boat jobs and took a walk along the beach. Sun umbrellas have been replaced with wind shelters, very practical given the high winds here!

Povoa de Varzim beach with wind-proof shelters

Wednesday 1^st August. We finally made it to Fegueira da Foz. We’ve discovered a new sport, pot-marker slalom. The course is set by Portuguese fishermen who pepper the harbour approaches with pot markers so that the unsuspecting yachtsman has to sail a slalom course to get around them (the penalty for failure is pot lines wrapped around your prop). We wove our way through a particularly tricky set of pots to get to the harbour entrance today. The marina is expensive – twice as much as we paid at Povoa, so we’ll move on again tomorrow.

Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Sandpiper at Viana do Castelo with Eiffel's bridge in the background

Saturday 28^th July. We had a fast and ‘exciting’(Cliff’s description) downwind  sail down from Bayona with strong winds and 2 metre swell. As we turned into the river entrance the wind suddenly increased to 25 knots and the water was filled with kite surfers accelerating across the full width of the river in front of us. Cliff calmly held his course as the surfers did dramatic, airborne turns only yards from the boat. Impressive but very, very scary!

Our mooring is just outside the marina on the river Lethe, close to the two tier bridge designed by Alexandre Gustaf Eiffel, who also designed the Eiffel tower in Paris.

We were planning to stay for a couple of days in Viana do Castelo as it has an interesting history and some remarkable buildings. But when we booked in at the marina we were told that they have a club rally arriving the tomorrow, so we can only stay for one night.

Fiesta time, note the cowbells on the costume on the left!

As we headed into town to have a quick look around we were met by an amazing sight – a procession of bands and groups dressed in folk costumes, all wearing different types of animal masks, with giant jangling bells hung from their hips or beating on drums that looked as though they were made from animal stomachs. We followed the procession to the main square, where it stopped for a moment, then the bands started up again and everyone danced – children, parents, grandparents, all whirling round to the beat of the drums and ringing of the bells. What a wonderful introduction to Viana do Castelo! We hope to see more of this stately town on our return journey.

Fogged in

The Jolie Brise in the fog

Friday 27^th July. We are still in Bayona. We’ve had thick fog every morning, clearing to warm sunshine by the afternoon, but with fog persisting out at sea. We tried leaving after lunch on Wednesday as it looked as though it was clearing, but by the time we had gone two or three miles the fog was back!

Yesterday a beautiful, gaff rigged cutter called the Jolie Brise sailed into the marina. We discovered she is owned by Dauntsey’s, a private co-ed school in Wiltshire and sailed by staff and pupils. She was built in in 1913 and was the last boat to carry the Royal Mail under sail. She won the Fastnet Race three times between 1925 and 1930 and more recently has been overall winner in the Tall Ships Race. She is now on her way from Lisbon to La Coruna to take part in the Tall Ships Race to Dublin. I hope those schoolchildren realise how lucky they are!

We’ve just got back from an excellent seafood dinner at Casa Rita, a seafood restaurant where there’s no menu, just a choice of the fresh fish and seafood of the day. Our waiter recommended we try the Galician delicacy of Goose neck barnacles for starters, we did, and once we got over the  strange look of them, they were very tasty.

The fog is due to clear in the morning, so we’re hoping leave for Portugal tomorrow.