Last year’s sailing came to a relaxing end as we spent 3 weeks in Culatra with OCC boats Zahare (Tineke and Herbert) and also Wild Bird (Tim and Gayle). The beach at Culatra changes character dramatically with the weather – from gentle waves lapping the beach to full on rollers making our almost daily visits interesting contrasts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olhão on the mainland turns out to be a lovely town with a super farmers market – especially on Saturdays when it’s twice the size and tasty Portuguese snacks are available! It’s a long dinghy ride from the anchorage – but a “short cut” at anything other than low water, makes it a doable 20 minute ride… (probably 40mins with the new outboard!)

We finally left because our batteries were in such poor shape that I was having to run the generator multiple times per day to keep up. We made a short overnight stop in Portimão where Innamorata was anchored with Steve and Carol aboard – who we’d last seen in Antigua 4 years ago! It was great getting together with them again and we hope to see them later this year in the Med.

So here we are in Lagos, getting down to the various boat projects we inevitably face while laid up for a while. Portugal is challenging from a couple of perspectives… getting deliveries here is difficult – especially if it originates outside of Europe – in which case the items will be held up in customs for 2 to 3 months! Making things worse, often when ordering online from Portuguese websites, it turns out things are sourced from the UK… The other difficulty is that it’s extremely difficult to get responses from subcontractors. Everyone is very friendly, but get a task done by a given date is nigh on impossible. We’ve been waiting for 2 months for a stainless-steel fabricator to simply visit Toodle-oo! just to take a look at the project in hand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we’ve been here, we’ve enjoyed some group walks to different locations with the Lagos Strollers and we’ve also enjoyed playing darts at the local Irish pub!

We rented a car with Stefan and Anne on Mokendeist to take a trip to Silves – the oldest fort on the Algarve – and it’s quite impressive. Nice town too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas found us in the US, but with elevated concerns all around about Covid, and several close to us being exposed, it rather limited our ability to get out and about to socialize. It was nice to have Abigail and Greg come spend Christmas with us – though perhaps next time we’d better find them a warmer bedroom than Neal’s uninsulated basement!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always, our return trip included lugging a large suitcase full of boat stuff back with us! So now the works begins…

Hopefully all projects will be sorted sooner rather than later so we can start this year’s cruising in March or early April into the Mediterranean. The hope is to get to the Balearics before the silly season – June to August – as the charter boats are something of a liability! Who knows where we’ll end up later in the year – you’ll just have to follow this – and hope I keep it up to date a little better!