Enjoying the Algarve

Sailing down the Atlantic coast

sailing dinghies and anchored ships off Cascais

Stone pavement art at Sines

leaving Sines at dawn

We skipped down the rest of the west coast of Portugal fairly quickly. From Peniche, we did short day hops to Cascais, Sesimbra and Sines, only going ashore at Sines itself. Then we had a long day to do the last stretch of coastline, finishing with a memorable trip around Cabo San Vicente accompanied by a pod of dolphins. They stayed with us for around 40 minutes, playing under our bows and  turning on their sides to look up at us. One even swam completely upside down so we could see its white underneath. A lovely way to arrive in the Algarve!

Cabo San Vicente

Dolphins playing under our bows

Our first anchorage was off Belixe beach, which was rather rolly to say the least. It was made bearable only by Dave’s rocker-stopper, and even then we were surprised by the ridiculous motion of the boat as we went ashore in the dinghy. It was worth it though, to anchor in beautiful solitude off a stunning beach!

Next stop was Alvor, a tidal lagoon with a narrow, winding channel to the town. On our last attempt (2 years ago) we immediately went aground on entering – the buoys are in the wrong place – and then spent an hour kedging ourselves off. We were a bit more cautious this time around and anchored just inside the entrance. We recce-ed the channel in the dinghy first, and then decided to stay put after all: we had already visited the town and it was actually more scenic where we were anchored. The kids had great fun the next day donning their wetsuits and snorkelling around the sandbanks. The sand was so deep in places our feet sank in over our ankles

Deep sea divers at Alvor!

The sand was so deep even the birds footprints sank in

We then went to Portimao, where there is a big protected anchorage off a long sandy beach. Perfect for swimming, kayaking and beach walks, with a great view of the sun setting on our boat behind. The beach leads past an converted castle-type villa to a little fishing village, where fresh fish is cooked outside restaurants on braziers.

Looking down on the beach at Portimao

Sun setting behind our boat at Portimao

The town of Portimao itself is a bit ramshackle. Most of the shops have moved out from the centre to new shopping malls, which we discovered when we tried to do a bit of Christmas shopping! However, there were a couple of little shopping streets left, and it was warm enough for us to sit and have lunch outside.

Ramshackle Portimao

dining outside

dining outside

Reuben loved this place, especially the old brick towers with storks’ nests on top. We must have spotted at least twenty of them, with one if not both parents in the nest. Apparently, these towers are left over from old sardine-canning factories. The factories themselves are now gone but they are not allowed to knock the towers down if birds are nesting on them.

Storks' nest on an old tower

We had only intended to stop for a few days but met up with a French couple on a boat and also a French family with three children – the first ‘boat children’ so far! We ended up spending ten days there and it felt like a little holiday. No more checking weather forecasts and lashing stuff down for sea. We simply had a lovely time exploring and spent several afternoons and evenings in the company of the ‘Frenchies’.

Like us, the French family were doing ‘school’ on board, but were tied to a very strict schedule. I am broadly trying to follow the National Curriculum but basically we can pick and choose each day whether to do maths, English, science… or anything else! The French system insists that children follow their set workbooks (purchased at great expense). They have eight modules a year, each of which have to be sent back online for evaluation. So if the children fall behind because of being at sea, they have a lot of catching up to do. The elder girl (a year older than Katie) was doing five hours of school per day. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for exploring! 

Katie with new friend Tiannael

Bonfire on the beach

Sunset at Portimao

This coast of the Algarve is notable for its incredible crumbling cliffs and caves. We get a fantastic view of it from the boat as we follow the coast along close to shore. You can see clearly how the cliffs are formed from layers and layers of sediment – some pale yellow, some more orange, and some grey in colour. When you get close up, you can see that the rocks are packed with sea shells, so the 200-foot tall cliffs were obviously at the bottom of the sea at some point!

Rocks full of shells

Caves in the cliffs

Crumbling cliffs

The wind, rain and sea have all been taking their toll and huge sea caves have formed underneath the cliffs. They are big enough for trip boats to take people inside. Some of them have collapsed already, leaving sea stacks and beautiful sandy beaches. We found one secluded beach that you could only access by climbing down a rope, but I’m going to let Katie describe that for you!

KATIE'S BLOG - peniche blog

We are now in Sesimbra, after a ‘short’ day of sailing, around five hours at sea. About 11 miles to go I was so desperate, I even put the death mark on my forehead and hands!  💀👿💗😡    

My death mark

We are sailing!

Yesterday, we were in Cascais (near Lisbon) in a pretty anchorage off some big beaches. To our left was an old castle-like building next to an ugly modern hotel thing, the difference was really surprising. We also saw Mickey and Carl from Bayona on their yacht.

The two buildings side by side

Sailing round the headland

Last week we had a new crew member for eight days, her name was Rachel and she’s really good at following orders! I made some shortbread biscuits with her while Reuben and Mum made something called ‘pumpkin snickadoodle cookies’ out of the inside of mine and Reuben’s Halloween pumpkins.

It was our second day sailing with her when, only a couple of hours until we got there, the Vbox decided to snap, leaving us engineless. Luckily, a boat called ‘Salt’ was near us and towed back to Nazare. It was really fabulously great for me because that meant we wouldn’t be travelling for a week or two until we got it fixed, but really BAD for everyone else.

With Rachel at the bottom of the funicular in Nazare

Personally, I enjoyed nearly every minute of it until, of course, the time came for Rachel (who I had become quite fond of by now) had to leave us. I was truly and utterly heart-broken. And there’s nothing more to say about it. We also had to make the journey to Peniche. Dun, dun, dun!

It wasn’t really rough, but the motion was pretty unbearable, I felt sick the whole way there, but just as much as anything, disappointed not to have any blueberry bon bons to add colour to my sick if it came out. But luckily it didn’t.

The next day we walked out to the headland – it was amazing and I’m glad we went. We had lunch out in a small café and I tried the Portuguese dish Francesinha which was, well…                Different…        A new experience let’s say.

It was two pieces of bread with beef and ham in the middle and cheese on the top, all covered in homemade tomato sauce and chips and egg on the side.

My Francesinha

Looking at the sea from a cave

On the way there, we came across some steps leading down onto a little platform overlooking the wavy sea. We found a little hole in the rock shooting air out, then you’d hear the sea crashing below, silence, then a huge waft of air. Dad put a bottle down it and it fell down onto some ledge or something before shooting out violently and hitting me on the leg, it was really painful!

It was really windy when we finally got there and the sea was looking really mean with waves breaking, and even from the cliff top we could still feel the salty spray on our faces. Where the water had hacked away at the hard rock there were holes and patterns all around us, it was like a maze.

The amazing rocks

The next day we walked along the old city walls to the beach. There were three kite surfers at our end of the beach: 
Mr. Black with the black kite, Mr. Orange with the orange board and Mr. Yellow with the yellow board. Mr. Black was definitely the best, when he surfed over a big wave he would go 20 feet or so in the air! I really wished I could have swapped places with him, it looked so fun!

Walking along the old walls

Mr. Black in the air

The day after we visited the prison museum, there used to be about 2,487 prisoners and only 20 escaped!

The walls of the prison

To be fair, I haven't been feeling half so bad at sea recently, and it's only because we have stopped for a few days and I've been used to being still that it's all a bit of a trouble but otherwise I'm fine.

Me on the bowsprit

               Anyway, in a minute we are going to have chicken risotto for tea so I better finish now.

On the move again

We are on the move again! 

Dave managed to get a new shaft manufactured and installed within a week. We had to get the port police down to inspect the repair, although I’m not convinced they were any the wiser for looking... It is amazing that in such a small town, we could get such a tricky job done, and in record time. We had the new shaft installed before the Italian company who made it were even available to answer the phone…

The broken shaft, which was re-made from new

V-drive getting put back together

This was mainly down to an old friend of Dave’s, Alec, who sailed up the Exe 16 years ago. He has since set up a boat business in Nazare, and knew exactly where to find the right materials – chrome nickel steel and oil seals -  and also the man with the knowhow to do the job – and with the right tools, including a 60-ton press!

Celebrating the successful installation of the V-drive 

So all in all a successful week in Nazare. While Dave and ‘the boys’ were busy on repairs, boat school continued as normal along with afternoon excursions. Rachel joined us for another trip up the funicular and out to the end of the clifftop headland. The flat roof of the lighthouse gives fantastic views along the coast, and is a perfect platform for watching the Big Wave action. There was nothing to see when we were there but photos on display showed incredible scenes of surfers on unbelievably HUGE waves. 

 Lighthouse at Nazare

Loved these seagulls

Photo of a surfer on a Big Wave - he's the white streak on the right!

On the beach below the lighthouse was a beach with a wonderful roofless ‘cave’ that had been scoured out by the sea. Reuben enjoyed a splash in the safe lagoon of water washing into a dip in the beach while Katie, Rachel and I sat and sketched the scene. A memorable afternoon.

View of the sea caves from the lighthouse

Looking down on the sea-sculpted cave             
              

Looking out from inside the 'cave'

We were all in Nazare for Bonfire Night and decided we ought to celebrate the occasion. Rachel took the children beachcombing for wood in the day (tricky with no trees, only scrubby bushes and bamboo around!). We managed to find a semi-sheltered spot at the end of the beach and, despite strong winds, soon had a lovely fire roaring. Red wine was drunk, marshmallows were toasted and our thoughts were with the Topsham crowd at the rugby club. Hope you all had a good night!

Bonfire Night

Once the engine was back up and running, we had one day of good weather before a big Atlantic swell came in again, so we took the chance to move 25 miles south to the next port, Peniche. The crew were all laid low with motion sickness during the trip but the new shaft performed perfectly!

Sadly, Rachel was unable to join us as she was booked to fly out and rejoin the ‘Bessie Ellen’ in Tenerife. We have all enjoyed having a new face on board, it is quiet now we are back to the same old crew! 

Bon Voyage Rachel. Thanks for putting up with us!

Peniche is a pretty cool town. It sits on a knobbly peninsula, almost cut off from the mainland by a strip of water and seriously solid old city walls. The original castle was converted into a prison for political prisoners during the 40 years of dictatorship until 1974. It has now been turned into a museum.

Castle walls and entrance at Peniche

                         Castle walls at Peniche

typical Portuguese scene of laundry drying. Love the colours 

We walked around the coast to Cabo Carvoiero on ‘the day of big swells’ and saw some impressive waves and spray crashing up along the cliffs. The children were captivated by a blow-hole up in the cliffs. It was only 6 inches across, but as the sea crashed into the seacave below, a jet of air came whooshing out of it with such force that you could barely hold your hand there. Dave experimented by dropping an empty plastic bottle down the hole and on the next wave, it came flying out at great speed – straight into Katie’s leg! Ouch.

Katie by the 'blow-hole'

Waves crashing up at Cabo Carvoiero

Looking down from the cliffs at Cabo Carvoiero

As an aside, we were sad to miss seeing the ‘big waves’ for ourselves at Nazare (we left the day before). It must have been quite a sight with a strong wind and 4- metre swells. Out of interest, we googled ‘Nazare big waves 8 November 2017’, and were shocked to find about the British surfer (from Devon) who got injured there that day. There is video footage of his wipeout, which would put me off for life, but it sounds as though he will make a full recovery. Full respect to all who are brave enough to take on those massive waves.