Wednesday - 15 August 2018

I had a fitful sleep, intermittently listening to the wind howling through the bay at, I presume, the same 20 knots we had while dropping the anchor last night. It was strange that, despite high cliffs, which one would expect good protection, the wind was whistling through the bay. The anchor was well secured though, so the boat hardly moved.

We could have a relaxed start, having set ourselves a relatively short day of 36 miles. It was just as well, because, although we had started to get ready at 7.30, it took until about 9.00 to get the anchor up. The windlass, the electrical device for lowering and lifting the anchor is rather temperamental, often requiring Steve to clean the connections with sand paper, before it will work. At one point we thought we might have to lift the anchor and the 40 metres of chain by hand, but, thankfully, the electrics kicked into life.

We hoisted the sails before leaving the bay and accelerated off to racing away at 9 knots plus on a beam reach (wind about 90 degrees to direction of travel).

After an hour or so, the wind dropped and changed direction, so it was time to fly the kite (spinnaker), which we did for the rest of the journey, until we turned into the narrow channel in the harbour of Albufeira.

The bay was busy with tourist fishing boats, ribs and jet ski’s, some of whom seemed to get great delight in heading straight for us, then ducking away at the last minute.

The lady in reception at the marina couldn’t have been more helpful and we had a nice easy berth to park into.

The marina, we understand, is at the quieter end of this holiday town (we shudder to think what the noisy end is like), but, as it is the place folks board the various boat trips, it is busy. We are relieved it has quietened down after sunset, suspecting the active night life is in the centre of town.

Distance covered today	35	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1239	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1959	nautical miles
Tricia (and Steve)