LOG
From the Clyde to Gibraltar
October 15, 2009
Well here we are in Gibraltar at the start of the Blue Water Rally.
We had a really good time in Portimao and did lots of cycling round the town and down to Praia de Rocha at the mouth of the river. On Saturday we sailed down river and anchored at the mouth of the river. We took a dinghy trip up to a small waterside village called Ferragudo for lunch and had fresh sardines grilled on a charcoal brazier on the quayside - very nice!! On Sunday we sailed to Olhao, beside Faro and anchored in the river between the marshlands. It was amazing to see the difference at high tide (when we arrived), when it was a huge bay, and at low tide (in the morning) when the marshes were exposed and there were large number of locals harvesting sea food.
We sailed east on Monday, back into Spain and anchored in a river called Rio de las Piedras at El Rompido. The trip up river was a bit fraught as the bouyage did not seem to take account of the shifting sand banks - we were down to a reading of 1.8m and this was close to high tide. This anchorage was a bit disappointing as it was listed in the pilot as highly recommended, but we found the village pretty bland. We stayed for 3 nights doing some more of the maintenance jobs on the boat. On Thursday we left for Cadiz, once again very little wind so we were motorsailing again. We berthed in Puerto America marina, which had obviously had quite a bit of money spent on it in the 90's for the world sailing championships, but they were having difficulty in keeping everything working and in order. However it wasn't bad and we were there to see Cadiz which was an easy bike ride from the marina. We really liked Cadiz and cycled all round the old town. It is a real mixture but the narrow streets in the old town were very quaint. We left on Saturday and motorsailed to Tarifa in the straits of Gibraltar. We had a fairly rough trip once we turned into the straits as we had an easterly wind right on our nose and had a fairly rolly anchorage in Tarifa, however it meant we just had 16 miles left to get to Gibraltar.
Gibraltar is a really strange place, in some ways a bit like Northern Ireland with a bit of a siege atmosphere and it varies from reasonably quiet to choc-a-block with cruise ship people etc. When the sun is shining (like now) and the cloud has lifted from the top of the "rock" it can be quite nice. We have started our seminars about the trip, had the safety check done on the boat and of course had a couple of welcome parties. There are 18 BWR boats here and another 13 to join in the Caribbean, which should be just a nice number. The crews are all very friendly and seem very nice and we are all bonding very well. I can see us making quite a few real friendships. Susan is currently making a Morocco courtesy flag as we didn't have that one in our set and we are going to Morocco for the weekend. I am doing some more of the outstanding jobs and the list is getting considerably smaller. I plan to finish installing the watermaker tomorrow.(Pictures)
October 1, 2009
Phew October already! We motorsailed down to Sines on Sunday and anchored off the beach in the harbour. It was a lovely location although the beach wasn't all that busy and the entertainment was largely made by a number of people doing strange exercises on the beach. There was also some serious swimming where a few people swam the length of the beach and back more than once. We stayed in Sines for 3 nights and made some real progress on our maintenance jobs. Susan cleaned the hull which we hadn't manage to do before leaving the Clyde, while I got both the fixed and portable solar panels connected and working. I also fixed up the aquagenerator. Susan also took her first dip in the sea and swam ashore from the boat - several hundred yards! We were amazed when 2 Conway boats (the same as Pinball) came into the anchorage, one a British boat and one Swedish. We had met other Conway/Medway boats before, e.g in Brittany in 2003, but to meet with 2 of them was surprising.
On Wednesday we motorsailed down to the Southwest corner of Portugal (Cabo Sao Vincent) and round the corner into the Algarve, to a place called Baleeira. It was a good passage stop and we anchored in the harbour. On Thursday (Today) we motorsailed to Portimao and decided to head up river into the town. We berthed on pontoons situated right in the middle of town and found that the daily charge was only 11.65 Euros, including water and electricity, this is about a quarter of the going rate for the Algarve. We are right across from some Cafes with free internet and look right into the centre of town. we will stay for at least 2 nights and stock up with food/wine etc. We have found a wine available in the Pingo Doce supermarkets for 1.99 Euros a bottle or less than 1.80 if you buy 6. It was recommended to me by a local in Lisbon who was buying at least a case and it is really very good. We bought 11 bottles this afternoon, which was all they had in the shop. It is currently 11.0pm and I am typing this in the boat cockpit, i.e. the weather is very agreeable and we are now down to 10 bottles of Castello De Estremoz. (Pictures)
September 26, 2009
We stayed in Bayona for 2 nights and met up with another boat doing the Blue Water Rally ( Fai Tira) and had a few too many drinks with Pete and John to celebrate. They were in a 22 ton steel Bruce Roberts 45' which I had looked at on the internet the previous year when we were looking for a suitable boat. We set off from Bayona on Friday 18th and headed down to to Viana do Costelo, out first stop in Portugal.
We were followed down by Fai Tira so had a few more beers. Viana do Costelo is a very nice town with a really nice old centre. The small marina is a bit quirky and a bridge needs to be opened to get into the inner bay. We managed to berth on the pontoon outside the bay and this was probably quieter and better for a short stay of 2 nights. We made our first use of our bikes in Viana do Costelo to go to a hypermarket and really enjoyed the exercise as well as the experience. In the morning we found the there were 3 boats with fishermen in the middle of the river just across from us. They had very long poles with wire baskets on the end, which they seemed to push into the mud and then lift on board with what looked like cockles. It looked like really hard work.
On Sunday(20th) we sailed down to Leixoes just north of Porto and had really good winds for a change. We followed a French 44' aluminium boat all the way down and were impressed that we managed to keep up with them. The marina at Leixeos is reputed to be a bit dirty because of the tankers using the harbour, but in fact it wasn't bad and it is very easy to get into Porto by either bus or metro. We took the metro into town and had a really good day exploring Porto and revisiting some of the places I had gone to in 2003, when I visited on Pinball with Mike, Kevin and Iain. We even had dinner in the same restuarant. We managed to do 1 tour of the port cellars (Calem) and manage to do a tasting at another 2 (Croft, Nova) (7 glasses in total, but we only had half a bottle of wine with dinner).
We sailed to Aveiro on Tuesday and had another day of good winds. The entrance to Aveiro has very strong currents and a sand bar, but the winds were ok for going in, although we were still bounced about quite a lot and were doing over 9 knots at parts. We anchored in the bay after considerable difficulty finding a spot with adequate depth away from other boats. In the evening and next morning we were bounced about as power boats went quickly past us very close. When we left the next day we found out that the boats were generally water taxis taking fishermen to the river bank. There were people fishing on both banks about every 20 yards right down the river, there must have been at least a couple of hundred people, but we didn't find out if this was normal or if there was a competition.
Our next stop was Figuera da Foz where we stopped in the marina for one night. We had a really nice cycle along the waterfront past miles of beaches and quite a few posh hotels. We over did the shopping on the way back and I had to carry a 'nose bag' on the bike as well as my rucksac - we need to organise better carrying facilities!!
On Thursday we sailed down to Ilha Berlenga and anchored for the night. I had been there with Mike and Kevin in 2003, but I had forgot how rocky the sea bed was and had considerable difficulty getting the anchor to hold. After an uncomfortable night we set off early to go to Lisbon. We had very light winds and had to motor most of the way, even the afternoon onshore breeze didn't come to much. We berthed again in the Alcantara marina in Lisbon and have stayed 2 nights. We have cycled along miles of waterfront on very well organised cycle paths and also cycled into the centre of town. Susan has been more impressed with Lisbon this time as we have seen more of the better side of Lisbon. We will leave tomorrow morning (Sunday 27th) for Sines about 50 miles down the coast. It is all new for the next couple of weeks as we haven't done south of Lisbon before. (Pictures)
September 16, 2009
We set off on Monday (7th) to cross Biscay heading for the Ria de Betanzos, which is adjacent to La Coruna, but much less industrial. The crossing took us 48 hours and we had an amazingly calm trip, unfortunately this meant we had to motor most of the way. We so far seem to be hiding from gales or have virtually no wind. We had lots of dolphins playing with the boat on Tuesday and Susan took lots of pictures, one or two with dolphins in them. We also tried some fishing but so far with a total lack of success. We arrived in Ria de Betanzos about lunch time on Wednesday and berthed in Marina Sada. This is a recently upgraded marina with large modern pontoons and lots of space between them. It was pretty reasonable for a Spanish marina, just 34 Euros per night, inclusive of showers, electricity, wi-fi etc. We chilled out for 2 nights and checked out the local cuisine then sailed up the Ria to Ares, a picturesque bay and anchored on Friday night.
On Saturday we set off for Ria de Camarinas passing the Torre de Hercules light house which is the last operational Roman lighthouse. We once again had very little wind and we became engulfed in a large bank of mist as we approached Camarinas, at times like this a GPS and chart plotter are invaluable. The anchorage at Camarinas was very picturesque and the fog lifted as soon as we got into the bay. We sailed down past Cape Finisterre to Ria Muros on Sunday and anchored in the bay beside Muros harbour. It is not very sheltered but it is convenient for going ashore. We arrived in the early afternoon and were then joined by 2 German boats and 2 Swiss boats, very cosmoplitan! We chilled out in Muros on Monday and then headed South to the Ria de Pontevedra. We anchored off a beach between 2 marinas with a very nice view of an upmarket beach. We then headed down to Bayona and anchored close to the town. Bayona is very nice and we may stay for a couple of nights. We are pretty relaxed now having done sufficient distance to get us back on track for getting to Gibraltar by 11th October, so will mainly be doing day hops down the coast. (Pictures)
September 6, 2009
Well who would believe it - we are back in Loctudy, where Pinball was taken for repair after the whale incident. We left St Mary's in the Scillies on Friday after the most amazing few nights on a mooring with waves up to 2 meters bouncing the boat about, it is a good job they have very robust moorings. St Mary and the Scillies could be very nice in good weather, but it's attraction is fairly limited in the rain and high winds. We were glad to get going again after yet another delay, even though the weather window was just enough to get us to Brittany. We had a very good sail during Friday, with a force 5-7 beam reach, although the wind dropped over night and we had to motor the last 70 miles. We are leaving Loctudy tomorrow (Monday) at dawn to cross Biscay hopefully to near La Coruna. (Pictures)
August 30, 2009
After leaving Dublin we made good progress down to Kilmore Quay in South East Ireland. We then had a whole series of gales come across from the Atlantic which stopped us getting to Cork, which was supposed to be our departure point for sunnier climes in the South. We were in fact stuck there for 8 days due we are told to the effects of hurricane Bill off the US coast. Kilmore Quay is a very nice quaint port and after Doug left us, Don McLeod joined us for a few days (of course it was supposed to be sailing rather than just relaxing). We finally got a weather window which allowed us to sail on Saturday (29th) to St Mary's in the Scilly Islands, arriving this morning (Sunday 30th). We had good, if boisterous sailing on Saturday, but it got pretty tough overnight when the winds increased and went onto our nose - no one said it would be easy!! We will take some pictures once the mist clears. We are now waiting for another weather window to make more progress, probably to Brittany (Loctudy!!). One or two more pictures are attached (Pictures).
August 19, 2009
We are under way!!!! After many Au Revoir sessions we set off on Sunday 16th August on schedule - maybe not quite on budget and still with a reasonable list of jobs to be completed, but one out three isn't bad. We are currently in Howth near Dublin, sheltering from strong southerlies. We plan to set off for Arklow tomorrow morning. One or two leaving pictures are attached (Pictures).
August 8, 2009
We are just about ready!!! Enchantress is pretty much ready and we will spend next week storing the vast amount of stuff we seem to need. I have updated the Enchantress/Refit page with some more pictures of the equipment fitted etc
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October 15th, 2009