Portimao to the River Guadiana

Leaving Portimao

And so the time came to leave Portimao. It is a great anchorage and lovely beaches nearby, but we had waxed lyrical to Phill about the delights of the Guadiana river, and he had taken the trouble and expense of booking a collection to take him to Faro airport from Alcoutim.

Our leaving time was dictated by the need to access the mouth of the river at high tide, to ensure we cleared the sand bar. Sadly for us all, the day we left the wind was absent, so we ended up motoring for a good ten hours in an uncomfortable swell. Passing Faro we noticed a strange brownish bloom in the water that appeared to stretch for miles. We never did discover what is was.

Brown sludge, and not from our holding tanks!

More sludge

 
It was early evening when we arrived at our anchorage just North of Ayamonte. We had been here two years ago and the holding was good. It is handy now we are re-tracing our journey to refer to our old log books.

We settled in for the evening and admired the sunset, whilst pointing out to Phill the suspension bridge that we would need to pass under the next day to continue up the river.

Sunset and the bridge

We had a relaxing start to the next day, as we had to wait until low tide in order to pass safely under the bridge. Scarlet Lady actually had a taller mast so we knew we should be fine, but did not want to take any chances all the same.

Leisurely breakfast in idyllic anchorage

Guadiana River

It was about midday when we lifted the anchor and headed over. The view from the deck looking up is daunting, but in the end we passed under with room to spare.

No way we will go under!

Time to close the eyes!

No going back now!

 
We flew both Spanish and Portuguese courtesy flags, as the river is a border between the two countries. It was a hot day but we did have a little wind, so for some of the passage we unfurled the genoa and gybed around the river banks. Phill did a good job on the helm and kept a watchful eye on the depths. The lowest we saw was 0.9m under the keel, but even close in to the river bank it could be as deep as 10 metres in places.

Made it under the bridge!

The river banks are dotted with ruins, but there are also some lovely properties nestled in the countryside with the most glorious views.

We want one!

Phill at the helm

Gliding up the river

It is so relaxing that it is little wonder some yotties come up here and never leave!

In what seemed next to no time we anchored about a mile North of the towns of Sanlucar (Spanish), and Alcoutim (Portuguese). These two towns have very different characters, as both have different time zones! Both towns look very pretty from the river, and the houses in Sanlucar are all painted white and the owners are obliged to repaint them every year to keep up appearances.

Sanlucar, very pretty and note the castle on the hill

Aztec at anchor in the river

For the remainder of Phill's vacation we did very little. We would spot shooting stars at night, and go ashore during the day to explore both towns. We even bumped into a yottie couple we met 2 years ago who have only moved about 500 yards! 

One evening we set up the pushpit barbecue, which the previous owners had left on board. Sadly it needs a non-stick tray to cook properly, so we will keep our eyes open for a suitable sized one. No worries as we finished the meal off in the oven.

New barbecue 

Probably just as Phill was settling in it was time for him to return to the UK, but he is flying out to Spain in late September and again at Christmas time, so we will see him again soon.

During the summer months a weekly music festival is hosted in Alcoutim. We went along for a night of Portuguese rock. It was brilliant and very well attended.

Very entertaining for the crowd, but we could not understand!

Talented guitarist

A brilliant night

We also discovered that the liveaboards also have a weekly open mike night on Thursdays at the local tavern, so we popped along to that. No photos as we forgot to take the camera.

We met a couple who played regularly at the music sessions in Almerimar that we recognised, and introduced ourselves to others. We even met another Steve and Lynne!

It is fair to say that we are settling into life up the river. We can get free water from the pontoon in Alcoutim, so our tanks are nearly always full. Both towns have little supermarkets, and there is a market in Alcoutim on Saturdays.

So why are we here and not sailing? Well, a few reasons. Firstly we fell in love with the place when we last visited, secondly we had hardly unpacked since picking Aztec up in Plymouth, and thirdly it is free to anchor so we are saving on marina costs. The latter is important to us for now as we have some big expenditure coming up on preventative maintenance, including new standing rigging and skin fittings which will cost many thousands.

We have written out a two page list of small jobs we can do now, and try to tackle one a day. Sometimes this means setting the alarm early as it gets too hot to work by midday.

One of the first tasks was to replace the furling line which was badly worn, and had jumped off the helicoil unit. We had been having trouble furling the main in and out, and figured this was the cause of our problems. Firstly to get at the unit we had to take the mainsail down, and release it from shackles inside the mast. Not an easy job as the inspection covers are tiny, and don't leave much room to get a pair of pliers in.

All is not well with this

Helicoil unit

In the end it took us nearly four hours to complete the works. However, the last two bolts that secure the helicoil unit to the mast would not tighten and lock into place. After emailing the manufacturer it appears that a backing plate that the bolts thread into must have fallen off during re-assembly, so we now have to go through the whole process again to fish it out from the bottom of the mast, doh! Despite the bolts lack of grip, we did test it and are pleased to report that all the stiction is gone and the sail came out by hand, whereas we had to winch it before.

Anyway, now we have unpacked we can find things again, and it has been a godsend to have the third cabin which is now officially our storage shed! The generator has also been of great use, as has the lifting strop for the rib. The engine weighs a lot, so we can't use the Davits when it is on the rib. We use the strop and pop it on the side. Really handy and secure, and wish we had thought of doing the same when we had Scarlet Lady.

Strop doing its job, so handy this way

Well that is about it for now, another update on river life just before we leave.

We will be heading to Chipiona, Rota, Barbate, Gibraltar, and possibly Ceuta before arriving at our winter berth in Almerimar in October. Lynne is looking at the bus timetable from Chipiona as we would both like to take a trip to Seville, something that we didn't get the chance to do last time round.

If any of our readers would like a short break, we will be here until the end of August and you are very welcome to join us.