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!!!

Madeira & Porto Santo

Despite a favourable weather forecast we had to endure some exceedingly strong winds and stormy seas during our 3 day sail from Tenerife to Madeira. Fortunately we have a very seaworthy boat (Colvic Victor) and she looked after us, as we battened down the hatches and hid below decks for 24 hours!

Approaching the small Quinta do Lorde marina on the eastern end of the island, we were so glad to arrive we nearly forgot to switch the Canary Island courtesy flag for a Portuguese flag. We decided to stay a few nights, so we could get our calor gas bottles refilled and enjoy the scenery surrounding the marina.

We enjoyed several walks along the cliff top paths after being confined to the boat for a few days. The marina was only surrounded by a small tourist development, so within a few minutes walk we were on a footpath with fantastic views towards the Desertas Islands. It certainly made a pleasant change from the city centre marinas we had been staying in on Gran Canaria and Tenerife.

With our gas bottles refilled we decided to go and anchor in a secluded bay just east of the marina. This was our first anchoring for several weeks, we just about managed what to do!

We decided to head Northeast to the small island of Porto Santo whilst waiting for a favourable weather forecast to head to the Algarve. Porto Santo is small island, about 11km long, we would easily be able to explore most of it on foot or by bike.

We were able to anchor inside the harbour walls and use the marina facilities, so we launched our dinghy and rowed ashore. We stayed for about a week, cycling round most of the island with Lilly in a bike trailer or tiring her out on the very long sandy beach. She loved running in and out of the waves along the shore, but not the hosepipe shower afterwards to remove the sand and salt from her fur!

Hannah's cousin's and her Great Aunt and Uncle would be on holiday in Lagos on the Algarve in the first week of May. We were keen to get there in time if there was a favourable weather forecast. The wave forecast was good, even if the wind was going to be against us for part of the 6 day sail, so we decided it was time to leave Porto Santo. This would be our longest time at sea on our trip so far.