Eastern Algarve

We spent several weeks in late May and June exploring the Eastern Algarve whilst deciding where to sail to next. With warm sunny weather we spent many nights at anchor enjoying life on the water and celebrated our birthdays.

Ilha Culatra
We anchored near the large sandy island of Ilha Culatra, which we previously visited in December 2013. Lilly enjoyed running the entire length of the sandy beach with us chasing after her! We survived a stormy night at anchor with strong winds and choppy seas. Unfortunately our outboard motor decided to stop working properly, fortunately we are good at rowing the dinghy!

Faro
Whilst anchored close to Faro, we visited the city centre, famous for storks nesting on ancient buildings. Lilly found two of her cousins during our wanderings around the historic buildings in the old town. On our second visit here we said goodbye to Paul and Ella as they headed back to Faro airport to return to the UK.

Tavira
A peaceful anchorage on the river estuary was our home for about a week as we explored the local area. The town of Tavira was very picturesque, likened to Venice by some people! friendlyrowed up the river estuary for a walk on Ilha Tavira and the long sandy beach. The local sailing club were very friendly, allowing us to use their pontoon for the dinghy. Their cafe overlooking the river was a great place to sit in the sun and watch the world go by!

Vila Real de Santo Antonio
We stayed at the Marina at entrance to Ria Guadiana for a couple of nights before meeting up with friends and heading inland to explore the river.

River Guadiana
With our friends Paul, Tracey and Ella, we explored the tidal river as far as the Portuguese village of Alcoutim and the Spanish village of Sanlucar. The castle at Alcoutim was well worth a visit with great views across the river. The sand bars along sections of the river can make navigating on a falling tide a little tricky!

Western Algarve

We survived our longest time at sea to date! The trip from Porto Santo to Portugal took us 6 days, we were very relieved to see the Portuguese coast. As we approached the coast we needed to crossing 5 busy shipping lanes, ironic after seeing nothing for 4 days!

We arrived just in time to meet up with Hannah's cousins and her Great Aunt and Uncle. It was wonderful to see them and they treated us to a fantastic barbeque dinner at their apartment in Lagos. Thank You.

After spending 3 days chilling out in Lagos with Hannah's family, we were just thinking of leaving when Mike and Helen on another Colvic arrived!
We were glad we stayed as they invitees us to dinner on their boat and introduced us to their friends who live in Lagos.

We finally left Lagos heading for Alvor, it was only two and a half miles, but taking it slowly, we stopped for a night on the way! Anchoring off the beach just outside Lagos before continuing our journey to Alvor.

We headed off again for Alvor and were challenged by the tricky entrance which is a changing underwater maze of moving sandbars. We headed off as directed by locals only to find our progress challenged by a sandbar in our path! No problem, we just got the kettle on and waited twenty minutes for the tide to rise before continuing up negotiating with the river en route. Alvor is a pretty little town, perfect for relaxing, which is just what we did! We explored the town, ran along the boardwalks, took Lilly for walks along the sandbars at low water (seeing many sea cucumbers marooned at low tide), flew kites, and ended up staying for nearly a week. The joys of nothing planned!!!