Portimao to Madeira

Portimao

It was really nice to be back in Portimao again for our third visit!

We arrived at the anchorage inside the breakwater late at night, and somewhat surprised to find it crowded as it was towards the end of the season. No matter, there was still plenty of room.

The passage from the river was a real mixed bag with some sailing, but latterly, motoring headlong into a really choppy swell at 2500 rpm to make any sort of reasonable headway. For the first time in a while we could hear the turbo on our engine spool up. A few miles out of Portimao we encountered many fishing boats darting about in lots of different directions, but our main concern was trying to spot a lobster pot in the dark. We popped on the autopilot and both stood up at the sprayhood peering into the inky blackness before us. This proved to be a good move as about half an hour later Steve spotted one on the starboard side, just a few feet in front of the bow. He lept down to the helm switched off the pilot and swung the wheel hard to port. We missed it by inches and had a really lucky escape. Thankfully this was the only incident.

During our time in Portimao we nipped ashore a few times, and had a wonderful Indian curry with Ian and Steph. It was whilst waiting for the water taxi to arrive after the meal, that Lynne spotted what appeared to be a strange phenomenon in the night sky. It was like a band of stars moving across a section of sky, and very surreal. It was only when the taxi pilot arrived that the explanation was forthcoming. It was hundreds of silvery helium balloons that had been let off at a nearby wedding!

We also took the rib for a trip along the coast one morning after breakfast, to explore our very own beach as it was only accessible by boat.

On to Madeira

With a final provisioning trip under our belts we set sail, or should I say we turned the engine on, and headed for the five lane shipping lane we needed to cross on our passage to Madeira.
It was unusually quiet and proved to be a straightforward sector, with only one merchant ship that looked like it might get a little close.
Just as we were about halfway into the last lane the wind picked up enough to sail, so thankfully the engine went off. It was just then when Lynne was trimming the genoa sheet that she gave a start as beside her looking up was a Minke whale, just a foot or two away from the hull.

With our interpretation of our weather routing we gradually lost Nautilus from first VHF radio contact, and then AIS, which is about 10 to 14 miles. We had a cracking day's sail under the big asymmetric chute, using it as a reaching sail 60 degrees off the wind. We needed to keep to a tight angle to stay more or less on course, and the chute would start to collapse even just a few degrees less than 60. The autopilot was not able to hold our course with this big sail so we took it in turns to hand steer. It was the first time we had used the 'Big Boy' sail, and very exhilarating it was too.

The rest of the passage was fairly uneventful. We did have lots of dolphins come and play though.

A special mention should go to the night watches. Normally one finds oneself almost falling asleep at the end of the three hour shift, and then unable to sleep when off watch! However, the night sky was mesmerising. The moon did not rise until just before the sun so it was dark, and yet the sky was alight with trillions of stars, and the Milky Way stretched from the horizon to behind the mast. It was a sight that ancient mariners must have seen, and convinced themselves that the Earth was flat. It really did look as though you would drop off at any moment. Very hard to put into words, I guess you had to be there.

On the last full day of our passage the wind died to nothing. So much so we just put away the sails and drifted on the ocean current, at about 1 knot in the general direction of Madeira. We even sat on the transom and put our toes in the water, but elected not to go for a swim just in case something bigger than us was lurking in the depths! It was about then that we noticed Nautilus had come back into AIS range, so we started the engine and radioed up on the VHF. We then made a reciprocal course and motored about a mile and a half from each other during the night.

It was an hour or so before sunrise, and just on the point of changing shifts, that we got a call from Nautilus to say they had hit something in the water and their engine had stopped. A few moments later they confirmed it was a giant discarded fishing net. We altered course and held station about half a mile away whilst we waited for daylight to emerge. Ian donned his dive tank, and thankfully managed to remove the net and took it on board. We were staggered at the sheer size of it when we saw it in Madeira!

Once underway again we made our way to Marina Quinto Do Lorde, which lies on the South Eastern part of the island.

The marina is part of a resort, and very nice it is too. It is a little bit away from anywhere so we sorted out a hire car and after a couple of days to recover, we set about exploring the island.

If you had to use a word to describe Madeira it would be 'diverse'. The island is very different from one side to the other. The east side is very barren, whilst the west has a very tropical 'rain forest' feel to it, and the scenery is quite spectacular. There are lots of very steep, narrow, winding roads and hundreds of tunnels through the hills. Going on the bus is a bit of a white knuckle ride as the bus gets quite close to the edge of sheer drops!

Quinta do Lorde Marina

Views on the walk to Punta Sao Laurenco

We also visited the capital, Funchal. Here we had a muse around the streets and treated ourselves to lunch. Being in an adventurous mood, we both decided to try the local speciality, the scary looking black scabbard fish (Espada). This monster lives at up to 1000 metres below the surface of the sea and heaven alone knows how they are caught. According to urban myth, you can cook a scabbard fish in a different way for every day of the year. We opted for a simple grilled one with a cream sauce, and a banana! Very tasty it was too.

Black scabbard fish

After lunch we took the cable car up to the Oriental Gardens. Despite the fact it was overcast that day it was still warm and humid, in keeping with the garden in fact.

Views around the Monte Palace Tropical Gardens

After our visit we decided to return to the city, but chose to go downhill in a wicker basket! These toboggans first originated in the early 19th century as Funchal's first means of "downhill" transportation. Made primarily out of wicker and two wooden runners, these toboggans are driven by two men (Carreiros) dressed in white, with straw hats and black rubber boots that are used as brakes. All this is possible by using ropes and greased up rags to grease the wooden runners. Great fun! Here is a short video of our ride. The toboggan you can see in front contains our friends Ian & Steph.

We were keen to see as much of the island as possible so we took a trip to the highest point (by car anyway), Pico de Areeiro, which was 1818 metres high.

There are lots of Levadas (aquaducts) around the island and Lynne was keen to do a walk along one, so we headed west to Rabacal. Here we did two walks - Risco and 25 Fontes (springs). You really did feel like you were in a tropical rain forest, and in a scene from Gorillas in the Mist. 

A local visitor who joined us for lunch

The last stop for us was the Whale Museum at Canical. The museum looks back at the whaling activities that formed a central part of many fishermen's lives for many decades. Whaling has been prohibited in Madeiran waters since 1982. Instead, those sailors who once harpooned whales for a living are now working hard to help preserve these gentle giants of the ocean. In an effort to promote this ecological issue many fishermen surrendered their hunting instruments to the museum. 

Many of the exhibits and videos on display show how barbaric the activity of whaling is, but it is great to see that the island is now looking after the transient whale population.

After a thoroughly enjoyable week in Madeira, it was time to move on. Our next destination is Lanzarote...

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.

Portimao

Portimao

Must admit that it is really great to be back at anchor again, and having now spent well over a week here in Portimao we are really finding our way around. Tonight we popped out for a wine tasting experience organised by the local tourist board, along with some half decent live music. A really nice evening all in all.

A fruity Rose and some lovely local ham

Popular with locals and tourists alike

Overlooking the anchorage

A few days later Phill arrived for a weeks stay, which was timed to coincide with Steve's 50th birthday. Phill is no stranger to spending time with us on the boat, but usually only when we are in a marina. This would be the first time spending his vacation at anchor.

As it happens, apart from the swell of passing fishing and tourist boats, the anchorage is very good. In fact Phill had the only queasy moment when he was on land!

Anchored in Portimao

Nice weather

LED lights sewn in the bimini are very impressive

Another view of the anchorage and glimpse of the lovely beach

Private house!

 
The morning of Steve's birthday we were greeted by the maritime police who wanted to check our ships papers, insurance and light fees. Oops, everything was in order but we had not paid the princely sum of two euros for the light fees. No problem, we could pay them at the office about 1 km up the river later that morning.

Our first priority was to nip into the nearby marina and top up the fuel cans, and we needed to take on about 350 litres of water. Interestingly the fuel/waiting pontoon had been badly damaged in a winter storm, so space was limited. We called up on the VHF and were told to wait for a short while as another yacht was refuelling. No problem, so we upped anchor and trolled around the entrance. Just as the yacht left and we started to make our way over, a large motor boat beat us to it. After waiting for what seemed like an age with no sign of movement, we called up again and the marina said if we could go up tight against the motor boat we should be OK. As it turned out the motor boat had some mechanical difficulty, and also the fuel hose would not reach us. Not an issue as it was only the cans that needed filling. In conversation with the staff they had filled up a large boat a few weeks ago which took over 22,000 litres, also another motor boat had called in to top us his fuel tanks as it used 1000 litres per hour!

Once the refuelling was done, we had to visit another pontoon to fill up the water tanks and gave Aztec a cheeky wash. We then re-anchored, and Phill and Steve set off in the rib to pay the light fees. Whilst heading up river it was time to open the throttle up. The front rose up in the air and then started to move down as the speed accelerated. Very soon we were on the plane and skimming the water at high speed. Phill had not believed us when we told him how fast it was, but like us he could not stop smiling!

Light fees paid we popped into the nearby Portuguese equivalent of a Burger King and treated ourselves to an Egg Dumpty burger, which we can highly recommend. On the way back Lynne phoned to say the marina had called, and could we pop in on the way back as they had undercharged for fuel. It was whilst in the office that the idea came about to see if the local water taxi could pick us up from Azzy for our evening birthday celebration meal. We phoned them up when we got back to the boat, and sure enough they agreed to pick us up and drop us back. This turned out to be a really good idea, but more on that in a moment.

By doing some research on Trip Advisor, we had singled out a restaurant in nearby Ferragudo called Fim do Mundo. It was only small but they managed to fit us in, and a good job that we had booked ahead. We had already seen pictures and read about the mixed grill platter, so when the time came we just had to order it. My goodness, it says it serves two but we could not finish it all between the three of us!! What a meal, certainly one of the best we have had for a very long time, and good value at 36 euros. The atmosphere was convivial, and it was a thoroughly nice way to spend an evening. 

Meat feast, oh and a couple of huge Tiger prawns

Beautiful setting

Interesting decor

Whilst we waited for the water taxi by the quayside for our journey home, we met a fellow yottie who was in something of a dilemma. Now we mentioned the water taxi was a good idea as we had already looked at the tide times. Our new friend was staring down some 16 feet to his inflatable boat, which was floating in about an inch of water! As our taxi arrived he resigned himself to drinking more beers, and to wait about 4 hours for the water to come up.

Thanks to all who sent messages, cards and phoned to bestow best wishes, and to Lynne for taking the time to put up some decorations and bake birthday cupcakes.

Birthday decorations, have saved these for yours Phill!

Yummy cup cakes

In the next update we move from Portimao, and anchor just outside Ayamonte to catch the low tide the next day to travel about 25 miles up the Guadiana river, one of our favourite places.