Friday - 17 August

Albufeira toVila Real de Santo Antonio

We left Albufeira about 7.30, when the harbour was blissfully quiet. Only one or two of the tourist ribs were refuelling.

There was little wind in the morning, but at lunchtime we were able to start sailing and had a fabulous spinnaker run for a few hours until we reached the outer approaches of the Rio Guadiana, which forms part of the border between Portugal and Spain. The Algarve cliffs, which looked stunning from the sea, gave way to a coastal plain around Faro.

We were heading for Vila Real de Santo Antonio, on the Portuguese side. There is wide flat land either side of the river mouth, which is very shallow, with numerous sand banks, so we were aware we had to time our entry carefully. The tide rips strongly up and down the river, but nothing more than we have been used to in the Hamble river. We couldn’t be too early and spent part of the day deliberately keeping our speed down, as high water was 8:00 pm and we judged we would have enough depth of water to get over one of the sand banks at the entrance about an hour an hour and a half before then. We dropped the spinnaker an hour early in order to slow down en route.

Having got over the initial sand bank we had to carefully navigate upstream, about 3 miles, hugging the wrong left side of the channel to keep in the deeper water. When we arrived at the marina entrance, about 7:00pm, the tide was running at about 2 knots, fairly significant, and we would have to park down tide, which is not ideal. Our size and draft meant that we would moor next to entrance and we would have no space to turn to go into the space against the tide, which is always preferable. After three attempts, and not without a fair amount of angst, we were in, greatly helped by the two marinaros, who did appreciate how difficult it was. We had drawn an audience on the opposite pontoon and I felt much better to be given a bow by one of the sailors watching. Never the less, once in, I was shaking with relief and very pleased to relax over a lovely dinner with a glass of wine.

Distance covered today	54	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1293	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	2013	nautical miles
Tricia (and Steve)