October 16-18, From Oeiros to Arrafina

Oct. 18th , position 37°46.674N/008°52.501W

We left Oeiros oct. 16th, heading for the most beautiful bay of Portugal some 30 nm South.

When I plotted the waypoints however it turned out to be at least 55 nm …. meaning we would arrive a bit late to have a barbeque... :-( Something ha to be wrong! I could not have made a mistake like that.... and I didn't … I had put in the waypoints for the wrong bay :-o  The bay we were going to was Portinho de Arrabida and not Praia Vasco da Gama, that would be our next destination...

The trip to Arrabida was nice but unfortunately there was too little wind to sail, we motored the whole trip.. Getting in was a bit tricky as we had to avoid the Baxio do Alpertuche, a drying sandbank, that could have

moved or grown over time... Because we did try and sail for a bit, in spite of the light wind, we did arrive in the dark so the directions from the pilot were a bit hard to follow. Distances are harder to estimate in the dark, but Rutger managed very well to set out the course on the plotter and with a close eye on the depth meter, we got to the exact right spot to anchor :-)

Next  morning at sunrise it was indeed a very beautiful anchorage ! Just when Monique wanted to go for a swim, the maritime police came by, telling us that we were anchoring in a national park which was not

allowed. They were very polite and I chose not to explain that the pilot book said otherwise. Since it already was 11 am local time, we left the bay after Monique had a little swim around the boat.

This time we were on our way to Praia Vasco da Gama just near the town called  Sines :-) We trashed the fish on our way out and tried to catch a fresh one. We had no luck with the fishing, nor with the wind … and had to motor the whole way.

Since there was no wind at all, I was hoisted up the mast to check the jammed top swivel of the genoa furling. It turned out to be broken … I cut the line from the genoa to the swivel so we can use the genoa but we have to hoist it like in the old times... Maybe in Lagos I can replace the broken part, otherwise I'll have it fixed in Las Plamas. In the mean time we can always use the staysail if we have to reef.

At Praia Vasco da Gamawe anchored and had a real nice evening and a nice barbeque :-)

This morning we left around 9 am local time, heading for an anchorage at Arrifana. Again with not enough wind to sail but, just as I was typing, the engine was turned down because Rutger caught another Bonito :-) So tonight we'll have a barbeque with a fresh fish !!