Here we are again in Portugal!

Cadiz to Ria Formosa & a few more days

Yes it might seem odd and no we don’t plan to return to many places but we had good reason, we were off to pick up Abbie from Faro airport.  It was not ideal but we had booked Abbie’s flight to Faro and then Alan planned his Med cruise and it would have been such a shame to have not seen them when they were so close.  So we did everything we could to make both plans work.  It was a big sail back to Portugal almost 100 miles and we were lucky to get a pleasing forecast for 2 days after meeting Alan so we would be back in plenty of time.  As we had already had a night at anchor in Cadiz Bay close to the docks we decided that would be a good option but as is typical just when we desperately needed the sleep the night before a long passage the wind and tide had different ideas and we were up having tea at 4am!  So a good start to the day!

Sunrise over the Atlantic, leaving Cadiz

We were lucky that we had wind for the first couple of hours but mid morning the wind dropped and engine was on! The only good point was that we both decided we would have a sleep (at different times) so at least we caught up a bit as it was a long day.  By early afternoon the wind was back and we were speeding along dodging the fishing boats.  Were spent the entire day hoping we would see Dolphins or possibly Whales as we were on the Ballena (Whale in Spanish) coast but nope nothing!  Day went on and sun went down, I watched a stunning sunset whilst Mark had a nap and then we both were amazed by the huge number of stars – “amazing” as Brian Cox would say.

Sunset approaching Faro

Luckily we had been to the Ria before as channel marking once inside the entrance were limited, we crept into the anchorage and 16 hours after leaving Spain we were back in Portugal and asleep within minutes!

The next couple of days spent in the Ria were relaxing although managed to also get some chores done on the boat, it is not all fun, fun, fun! We also managed an early morning run which is always nice but just way too hot even by 9am.

We headed back up to Faro a couple of days before Abbie’s arrival again to catch up on a couple of bits, we have found a bar good wifi so gave us an opportunity to book Abbie's return flight (she is not even here yet!), order couple of birthday presents and generally catch up online with no cost apart from a couple of drinks.   The Ria is a good cheap option in Portugal where marina costs are so high, also there is a safe place in town to leave the dingy although it is a bit of a trek from the anchorage to the marina (not suitable for sail/large boats).  The only other issue is that it is directly under the flight path and feels like plane landed on the boat at 7am on our first morning there! No a nice wake up. Also here at Springs and tide really very strong luckily we have faith in our anchor.

The day Abbie arrived was a bit concerning we dindged into Faro for a couple of hours, dodging the rain showers we arrived back to Magnum and the wind whistled into action! Suddenly the boats were getting blown all over the place by the wind whilst the tide pulled them in the other direction, no consistency between your boat and your neighbor so after a couple of very close encounters with out neighbors we had to up anchor and move Magnum down stream.  We now had lots of room but wind of over 30 knots blowing us around and Abbies flight time rapidly approaching!

We safely managed to pick up Abbie after having to dingy into Faro in our wet weather gear get both wet due to the wind and it started to rain! Thankfully by the time we had picked Abbie up at airport and dingyed back the wind had calmed and the rain had stopped.

We spent one more day in Faro showed Abbie round the old town and then caught the bus out to local shopping centre (only about 30mins walk but trying to break Abbie in gently).  We stocked up on as many essentials as possible and Abbie learned experienced the difficulty of shopping with no car.

We headed down to the other end of the Ria Ilha Da Culatra for the evening, only about 8 miles but it felt like a long day once we anchored their in the dark but as it was our third time anchoring at least we were familiar with the surrounding and also knew of the dangers after our first night there when our neighbour unexpectedly dried out.

We spent 2 days pretty much relaxing, we popped over to the island and headed to the beach but just too hot to stay for too long.  The island only really consist of really small fishing port, a few café/bars, a couple of shops to get your basic provisions and a long sandy beach (no cars!), ideal for some relaxing although Mark and I managed to get ourselves up early one morning and have a run, any time before 9am and it just about bearable in the heat!

100's of little fishing boats on Ilha Da Culatra