Moving ON

Everyone woke at different times and some wanted to swim but the water was not clean enough or did not look it. So after breakfast we upped the dinghy on to the Davits and paddleboard and had decided to head west toward Lagos and to spend some time in the beautiful Algave cliff areas.

We re-traced our route down the channel counting off the buoys and the leaving the Faro lagoon area. The tide whirled up at the entrance causing whirlpools and unexpected flat areas of water. The entrance was full of white horses and looked rough but Stormbird powered through regardless.

The wind had built up and was quite strong but annoyingly was coming from the wrong direction. However we were eventually able to sail on reefed main and staysail but at an angle crossing the direction we wished to go. Some naively thought that we should be able to sail completely flat. Not on this angle.

The wind grew and at some points was Force 7 – but on Stormbird you do not really notice and as we wanted to stay close to shore (due to the risk of meeting Orcas) we decided to motor as the angles were all wrong. We anchored for lunch near Vilamoura and then continued. Due to the wind strength we went and anchored in Portimão to have the protection of the breakwater. It had been a wind day with some getting their sea legs and feeling a quite queasy 

Mark had some prawns left and we had a delicious prawn and tomato pasta. The plan was to explore the town the next day. We had moved on.