Lagos

I always seem to start each new log by mentioning the weather forecast, but our life revolves around them now and it helps to explain the reasons for our decisions.  So, the forecast on Tuesday morning was nearly perfect, Northwesterly 3 or 4 as far as Cabo Sao Vincente and then westerly once we were round!  It was valid until 8am the next morning and with a slightly nervous feeling we actually got up and going to leave by 10am, an hour earlier than planned!  Whatever next!

I guess the nervous feeling was due to the fact this was the longest passage we had embarked upon and the last time we sailed (into Cascais) the wind had been pretty strong, our genoa was ripped and it hadn’t been particularly pleasant!  The anchor came up cleanly, it was sunny and calm but a small breeze allowed us to set the sails.  We kept the engine on for a while to give the batteries a charge and it also assisted us in the dodging of several fishing boats laying nets!  By lunchtime we were sailing along so smoothly that I volunteered to go below to make cheese toasties, an almost unheard of event during a passage! 

In the afternoon the wind picked up as the “Vente Solaire” (sea breeze) set in and although it didn’t reach higher than the top end of a force 4 we had two reefs in the main.  According to the chart we were sailing in water 1723 meters deep but our gauge did the usual trick of getting confused and was reading 2.3 meters!  I steered for a while, giving George a break, but it was tricky with no horizon or even a cloud to line up with.  We could see a sail in the distance for sometime, which appeared to be steering a similar course but as darkness fell we lost track of him.  It was the strangest thing that evening, I noticed for the first time how quickly the light goes as the sun falls below the horizon.  Luckily for us, the clear sky meant the near full moon provided us with a pathway of light and for the first few night hours both sea and wind calmed.  Both of the first two watches were uneventful but about 45 minutes into my second watch, at 0245, I woke Chris to help me decide what to do about some lights which were approaching.  I was glad that I did because a few minutes later, after we had changed course twice, a large tanker charged by! 

I continued until 0400, by which time I had spotted the lighthouse at Cabo Sao Vincente.  I had begun to feel a bit queasy, probably my own fault for not having a midnight snack, and I haven’t taken sea sickness tablets for some considerable time, so I was relieved to lie down below and Chris took over.  He called me back to put the third, and deepest, reef in the mainsail, as a precaution to rounding the corner as the wind had picked up to a force 5 and it was then that I spotted dolphins in the dark, swimming along side us!  I crawled off back to the saloon and missed the “rounding of the Cape” at 0630 but surfaced in time to see the sun rise and light up the magnificent rocks of Sagres, where Henry the Navigator set up his school of Navigation.

The swell of the Atlantic reduced significantly as we entered the Algarve and as the wind eased we got the full mainsail back up and unfurled the genoa completely.  At 0900 we were flying along at 6 knots with a large square-rigger overtaking us further out to our starboard.  Chris was pretty tired and he snoozed as the wind eased back off.  We were really proud that we had sailed so far and were determined to sail right up to Lagos even though the wind died completely!  So we just drifted and relaxed with a mug of tea for about an hour with Ponta de Piedade just half a mile away!  A few yachts started to appear around the corner, coming out of Lagos and we wondered whether Walter and Rita had already left for Madeira.  Chris got out the binoculars and by the strangest of coincidences one of the yachts was Noa!  They motored over to our drifting home and explained that they had stayed in Lagos for a week and were now setting sail for their first island stop on their way across the Atlantic.  We took photos of each other and waved goodbye!  It was nearly midday and the wind was still doing nothing so the engine went on for the final mile as we passed some amazing rocky outcrops and caves on the way into Lagos.  Palm trees lined the Rio Bensafrim and we berthed on the reception pontoon to check in.  We were allocated B9 and the footbridge was raised for us to enter the marina!  What an entrance.

Within a day or two we had recovered sufficiently to get the dinghy pumped up to go and explore the grottoes we had seen on our way in.   We wanted to find a deserted beach for the morning and I prepared a flask of cool fruit juice and packed biscuits, towels and swimwear.  The water was pretty calm with only the slightest swell.  There were tourist boats already motoring in and out of the rocks so it was fairly easy to tell where was safe to go.  We didn’t dare get the camera out in the watery, salty conditions but the caves were stunning, believe me!  We ventured round Piedade and spotted a suitable looking beach with only a few people.  We dodged the rocks virtually all the way in but at the last moment we got sideways on and a wave broke right over the dinghy!  It almost washed us right ashore, miraculously missing a rock.  Soaking wet we dragged the dinghy up the beach and, with high factor sunscreen liberally applied, we got into our swimming cosies and were all set for our morning’s holiday!  One of the tourist boatmen was calling to us but we couldn’t hear well enough.  He appeared to be warning us and within minutes more breakers were arriving on the beach and so we decided we’d better go before we got stuck!  We waded out with the dinghy and in a suitable gap jumped aboard, only to get soaked by another wave.  For some reason I found it all very funny and giggled all the way back to the marina.  We must have looked a sight!  Perhaps the wall-to-wall blue sky and sunshine we have had since arriving in the Algarve has gone to our heads! 

Now we are “round the corner” we have no real time constraints on our travels and so plan to enjoy the anchorages dotted along the coast as much as possible in the next few weeks.  The winter down here is suppossed to get as bad as an English summer though - guess we'll have to either put up with it or sail down the coast of Africa!