Ans theyr off....

Had a cracking last night in Albufeira with a full on curry in the company of Lin and friends - about 20 of us. Got to bed a little late and missed the 4AM sail by a bit; sailed at 06:00. Weather fine, wind and waves on the nose but making good progress. As I write we are off Portamao ish heading for Cape V which we should round at tea time. Roger has made abondigas for dinner and nobody fancies a beer yet....
Cariad is loving it and is springing along motor sailing hard on the wind at a bit better than 5 knots.

Aaaaaaaaa happiness

MJF 09:30 Tues

Getting ready to return to Coruna....

After a great year based in Albufeira we are going to make the passage back to La Coruna. Its been a great year and if you are ever in the area you must visit Sharkeys Bar and enjoy the company of the regulars and Lin and Erik (spelt wrong sorry)








It will not be so easy going this way with predominant Northerly winds and adverse current all the way - looks like plenty of motorsailing overnight so we have stored the boat for survival in all conditions!
We fly into Faro on Sunday 5th September and hope to have a plan by then as to when we can set off (!)

The team for the full trip will be:

Martin F - Skip, owner (wallet), co-chef, dreamer... (seen here successfully completing some wallet activity in the battery area)









Glyn R - Mate, Dad, sparks, dreamer.... (seen here communicating entirely by eyebrow, an advanced technique used exclusively by old salts to inform their wives of their longing for an early night)



Roger P - Trainee Admiral, Co-chef, languages, dreamer...(seen here mutating into a panda after 2 cans of San Mig)






Mick F - Engineer, drinks specialist, fishing, elbow support to Julian, dreamer... (seen here in the naughty boys locker after a spell of 3 days punishment for over zealous head polishing)




Julian B - theology, drinks specialist, galley slave, watchkeeper, cleaner, car driver, moralist, entertainment, no time to dream...(seen here in his traditional native attire (smart-casual)for festivals, library visits and high court duties with mdm whiplash)

Next blog entry soon MJF

Back to Albufeira

Cariad in Portimao






Final day of the venture, Portimao was left behind and we sailed and part motored back, actually saw dolphins today but as I was steering didn't manage to get a good enough photo to publish..



Sailing is fun:-




Now it's time to clear up and put Cariad to rest until the next visit
GR

Towards Portimao

Best sail of the holiday yesterday. We left our home port and had nice sail to Portimao some 10 miles from Albufeira (we actually logged double that mileage with tacking so you can see that we really sailed! It was a lovely afternoon with much booze at lunchtime, a 1.5L bottle of Mateus Rose and many cans of beer. On arrival at Portimao we had our traditional gin & tonic.

A lovely meal in a beach restaurant (Senhora Da Rocha)owned by a dutchman (Jason) was a fitting end to the day. It's hard to think that we are about 5 weeks to xmas and yet we have sunshine and temperatures in the 70's whilst you at home have been suffering rain, high winds and even floods. Well it's us who is suffering!

This morning, Wednesday, we are heading back to Albufeira; clean up the boat and then go for a nice meal tonight at Mario's Restaurant. Tomorrow we return to our loved ones in England. Have a good day. JB

More on today from the driver...

Good trip and the roads are easy and little traffic. I think Faro is porbably a nice visit but today was late in th eseason, almost dark and much of it was closed - a bit like Evesham on a Saturday nite!! All well here and we may even get another day sail in before coming back. Love to all. MJF

Non sailing Day

started with cockpit stripping !!





more stripping....




until it was bare....



Then we went off in the car, travelled across the border to Spain to Ayamonte (steep narrow streets and a Marina, found some Tapas then headed back across the border (via a bridge) to a Portuguse town on the opposite bank of the river - Rio Guardiana



From there, after a beer and more tapas went for a look at Faro



and so back to Cariad

GR

Vilamoura to Alberfiera

a leisurly sail, reaching, (thats the point of sailing the yacht not the physical act) with a medium swell from the South see the movies....



note the "Sunday" roast>>-


GR