The Voyages of Disco Volante: Portugal Pt2 - Lisbon - Algarve - Guadiana River

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So Mike & I’s solo adventure began. With a little trepidation (by me) we set off to start our southern Portugal adventure. We soon realised the winds are a lot lighter in the South, which would mean a lot more expensive motoring.. Luckily we weren’t in too much of a rush, so we could afford to go below our ideal 5-6knt pace if the winds were light. As always, it’s more expensive to get places in a hurry! We were looking forward to some hotter weather and warmer seas as up until now most Spanish & Portuguese people we had met said how unseasonably cool it was, especially the sea temperature.



27^th July– Lisbon to Sines (57nm / 11hrs)

So after waving Rich & Rach off to their 5 star hotel, Mike & I cast off from Lisbon and enjoyed the lovely views along the river/estuary out to see. Avoided the nasty sand banks as you turn left out of the mouth of the river and headed towards Sines, our stop over that evening. We ended up motoring or motor-sailing most of the way. The sea was unbelievably glassy most of the way. We arrived in Sines at 9:30pm, a lovely little anchorage on the beach, tucked between the marina and fishing boats. Great view of the semi-circular bay, then wouldn’t you know it a mini festival started out – a guy crooning love songs from a make-shift stage. Alas we were too tired to go and investigate further, though we nearly succumbed to the smell of BBQing Sardines!!!!

28^th July – Sines to Sagres (60nm / 10hrs)

We woke up around 8am as planned, only one small problem, it was a white out. Well a sea mist kinda white out! We couldn’t see a thing out the windows in any direction. It was quite nerve racking as we knew it was a busy fishing port and the fishing boats weren’t very far away and probably weren’t expecting a yacht to be moored. We then began hearing fog horns from the big ships out in the main bay – if you haven’t heard it before it’s a very eerie sound! We went back to bed for a few hours hoping the sun would burn the mist off. At 1030 we had another look out and decided with the mist thinning, and with our AIS (Tells you where big ships are a bit like radar) working and using our iPad navigation could motor carefully out of the harbour and hope that the remaining mist would be burned off by the sun. Using our fog Horn too we nosed out of the harbour, avoiding the big ships we knew where out there, but couldn’t see at all! It’s a spooky experience sailing in fog and as sea mist isn’t very easy to predict, you always run a risk of it coming over you at any time day or night. So all in all it was a useful experience, but we were both pretty happy when it started to clear around 2pm.

We spent the afternoon in the company of a lovely yellow yacht, after the fog it was nice to see another boat. We also had a visit from a large pod of dolphins, which enjoyed a great game jostling at the bow to get in front of each other. Next we had to round Cabo St Vincent, on the southwest corner of Portugal, to get us into the Algarve. There is a huge lighthouse there and lots of people go there to watch the sunset, we read later – we just thought they had come along to wave at us! We celebrated rounding the cape, by polishing off our ‘emergency’ carton of red wine, which we had hidden from ourselves – not bad for less than a EURO. Another beach mooring, this time in a bay surrounded by towering cliffs. Pretty calm night though, so we slept well at anchor.

29^th July – Sagres to Lagos (15nm / 3hrs)

A short sail today after two full-on day sails. I had been to Lagos as a child and was really looking forward to seeing the amazing rocks they have there, sticking out of the water and forming natural caves and bridges from the rocky cliffs. We moored up on the beach, close to the marina entrance, unfortunately Lagos was nearly 50EUR a night, so we couldn’t afford to go in, but we did drive the tender into the main marina complex, where we were kindly allowed to tie up behind the fuel pontoon and go into to town for lunch and some much needed provisions. (Bread/milk/wine/beer). Had a great lunch on the waterfront, before heading back to the boat to take a tour of the caves. It was 15EUR for the boat tour, so we thought we would do our own dingy version, albeit with a puny 2hp engine!!!! We did get some strange looks in our dinghy from all the tourists!!! We decided to motor into a nice little beach to catch the last bit of sun. Clearly neither of us were wearing glasses as we accidently pulled into the nudist beach. We tried to style it out by staying to drink our beers and have a swim, but we did get some strange looks! Then it was back to the boat for sundowners on deck along with some cheese and pate..

30^th July– Lagos to Albufeira (20nm / 5.5hrs)

Another nice short sail to Albufeira, where we could afford the marina for a night. We needed to do a big shop & also clean some clothes. We arrived about 4pm and took stroll to the beach. It was feeling much hotter since we had been in the Algarve, so we needed a swim! Albufeira is a pretty standard tourist town, the beach is a nice crescent shape, with yellow sand, but very crowded. The old town lanes are its redeeming feature and there are some nice bars and restaurants at good prices. We stumbled into a fab little Brazilian bar serving fab caiparinhas. After dinner on board we headed out for some drinks – bumped into a couple who were also from Bristol and had a few too many shots, we paid for it the next day – what a hangover!!!!!!!!!

31^st – Albufeira to Faro (21.5nm / 4hrs)

It would appear Lidl + heat + hangovers DO NOT mix well. I remember why I don’t do large shop the morning after – eek! Neither of us remember getting home, so goodness knows how we made it all the way from town, through the security gates and back onto the boat on one piece! Hideous shopping trip later the Disco Volante’s stores were topped up and we were ready to set sail, rather later than intended. This meant we would not now make it to the Guadiana River today, but we could stop do a pit stop at Faro, then sail on the next day. There wasn’t much wind though so we had to motor most of the way. We had a fairly rolling anchorage just outside the entrance to the lagoon, but still managed to sleep OK. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to go into the lagoon itself, which is supposed to be stunning, despite its location near Faro airport – definitely one to visit on the way back.

1st August – Faro to Rio Guadiana (29.6nm / 5.5hrs – then 20nm upriver)

Finally we were going to make it to the Guadiana River – A chance encounter on the way out of Portishead lock at the very very beginning of our trip told us about this place and I had been researching it ever since. It’s a river that is the natural boarder between Portugal and Spain, so not only was it uniquely located, but also meant our Portuguese travels were about to end L

We had a lovely brisk sail from Faro to the mouth of the river – 8-12knts, but on a nice broad reach – every sailors happy wind direction! It’s a very narrow channel coming into the river as there are quite a lot of sand banks, so we had to be careful to keep inside the many buoys. Once into the mouth of the river, you could see the two rival marinas, one in Portugal and one in Spain. We popped into the Spanish side (Ayamonte) as we knew they had a good chandlery in the town – which they did, fab place with really nice owner. So after a grand total of 1hr in Spain we headed off back to Portugal, well really no-man’s land until we set foot on the ground. We even had to fly two courtesy flags just in case. So now we had a 20nm motor up the river to Alcoutim (Portugal)/Sanlucar (Spain). Here the river was quieter & shallower. One minor obstacle first though – we had to go under the suspension bridge, which only had clearance of 18m at high tide, giving us just a few metres clearance. I have heard this bridge described by other yachtsmen as ‘laxative bridge’, so I knew it would look very close to scraping our mast. (Check out the pics).

Once under the bridge and into the main river we both immediately realised the appeal of the Guadiana. Very little buildings line the river, the odd Finca and farming land. Loads of beautiful reed beds, with ibis & storks prowling along the mud banks. Every now and again we would see a yacht anchored up with its own little bend in the river all to itself. Eventually we came to the pretty twin towns of Aloutim & Sanlucar. Different architecture, but both bright white and clinging on to the riverbank. As we were anchoring (We decided not to go into the 7.50EUR pontoon) our neighbour shouted over that there was a live band playing in the pub on the Portuguese side tonight. It turned out later they were the band. A very typical example of the kind of people that come to the Guadiana River and struggle to leave – It’s known locally as the Guadiana Glue!

So off we went out via Dinghy to Alcoutim to the pub (Known as the Riverside Tavern). We soon got chatting to both locals and some of the Brits that call this place home. Brummies, Bristolians, Mancs… As fun evening had – 15EURS spent on beer and loads of good tips on things to do on the Guadiana – including a tip off about a free British Book swap, and, oh, the beer was cheaper on the Spanish side!!!

Next day we did a walking tour of both sides of the river. The Spanish side really did feel very Spanish – all white wash, olive trees etc.. As the time zones were different (Portugal is UK time / Spain is an hour ahead). You had to make sure you didn’t unwittingly hit siesta on both sides of the river! The Portuguese side was more colourful, they also had a small artificial river beach (Praia Fluvial), which was lovely for an afternoon swim. The band from the previous night were playing there too. We had a fab day exploring and will definitely be back – but for longer next time.



So as you can see, we’ve been keeping busy. Next time we will let you know all about our beautiful Bolonia, our sail into Gibraltar, our marina next to a runway & very large ships! Not to mention the visit by Alison Mulrooney & all the goss on our glamorous couple of nights out.

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Photos

Emergency wine supplies! (0.70cents)
Tasted alright!

Passing Cabeiro nestled in the rocks
Gutted we couldn't stop to see the place I visited as a kid - maybe on the way back