PORTS IN PORTUGAL March 17..........2011

It was quite a nice sail from Vilamoura to Canal De Olhao. After only a short stretch of motoring, we had enough wind, to unfurl the big genoa and haul up the mail sailing "gemütlich" to the river's entrance looking for a suitable anchorage that's sheltered from the ocean. 

 Strikingly, the landscape here is very different; the cliffs of the Algarve have disappeared and have been replaced by a  flat countryside; the hinterland shows green forested hills. We anchored easily beside "Vivamare".   In the distance two catamarans were also anchored– but too close to the shore??!! After several hours the situation became clear, the cats were laying dry, nestling between sand dunes.  It's called ebb tide.   Not to worry we have a lifting or swing keel which means we can lift up our keel hydraulicly if the water gets too shallow.

After the monster tourist developments in Vilamoura, the quiet river atmosphere was a welcome sight, comtemplative and calm. At low tide some people were searching for mussels on the sandbank. Unfortunately we stayed here only one night, heading out with the flood the next morning back into the Atlantic ocean.

That morning the wind was not in our favour , so sailing was out of the question.   By mid day we had changed into T-shirts enjoying the warmth of the sun.  The lack of wind created a mirror-like water surface making it easy to spot dolphins in the distance.

  We reached the marina of Vila Real de Santo Antonio in the River Guadiana, the borderline between Portugal and Spain just  before low tide but with a very strong current.  Arriving in a new harbour is always stressful for many reasons.  Here we were greeted not only by the welcoming committee of seagulls and comorans lining the dock, but also two chaps ready to take our lines. Of course this makes docking considerably easier me; I don't like jumping off a moving vessel.

Vila Real de Santo Antonio is a pretty little town that had been totally destroyed by a Tsunami wave during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.  The new town has been built little a chess board, i.e., all  streets run either north-south or east-west.  The marketplace is completely surrounded by heavily scented orange trees and the Saturday morning market offers a variety of local Spanish and Portuguese food  specialities as well as and handicrafts.

The town of Ayamonte, Spain lies directly across the Rio Guadiana opposite Santo Antonio.   Without a doubt we would love to sail a little further up river, however, a rather large suspension bridge that connects Portugal and Spain, measures only 18m. in height. Our mast including antenna is 20m, therefore the up river outing is out of the question.   

Arriving on a Friday afternoon meant we had to wait until Monday morning to find the official authorized office that could stamp our passports with an exit stamp.  It turns out that a non-Eu person is only allowed to be in the EU for up to 90 days without a visa.  Oops missed that deadline.  All our running around from one police agency to another turned out to be unproductive.  We'll wait to see what customs & immigration say at the airport.

Since arriving in VRdeSA we've had nothing but glorious weather, not a cloud to be seen in the deep blue sky.  Yesterday, the menfolk went on a little shopping tour.  Browsing the many shops, they discovered a fishing/boating supply store as well as a hardware store, so further investigation was required;  BLOKE HEAVEN.  Meanwhile, Gaby and I granted ourselves a little "siesta" with a relaxing glass of wine.

Having agreed on a 6:30 early morning start, it meant getting up at 5am, but the ebb tide was against us moving at a pace of 4-5 knts.  This means we are must not only wait for high tide but also for slack water, (water flow changing direction).  This is about a 20 min. window 4 times in a 24 hr period; however, that 20 min.  window shifts daily by 45 min.  (I give up, I think we're stranded here).  Our other handicap while leaving here is not only the parallel running current but also the narrow opening to the river which takes us out to the Atlantic. "HELP"

Since the mouth of the river at ebb tide is only 1,0-1,8 m deep we moved our departure time to early afternoon (approx. 3 hrs. before high tide).

Our next port of call is Mazagon, Spain, but the wind is still blowing from the east, (direction we are heading), so we must once again buckle down and be a against the wind.  Consequently, we have booked and paid for an additional 2 days dockage because wandering the streets of Gibraltar isn't in the cards this week, so it doesn't much matter where we wait.