Dearest Family & Friends
>
>We're currently in the lovely little market town of VilaReal de
>Santo Antonio, Portugal on the Guadiano River, which forms the
>southeast border with Spain. We're tied up at a marina here, after
>spending LOTS of time at anchor in various portuguese towns along
>the southern Algarve Coast. Change is always good. VilaReal is
>across the river from Ayamonte, Spain, but this seems to be the
>better town.... plus, the marina over there is temporarily closed.
>There are about a zillion stalls selling everything from
>screwdrivers to purses to ceramics to pots and pans, and on and on
>and on at a long stretch of open air market along the waterfront.
>Then, in the town square there's another bunch of food-oriented
>booths. This is a GREAT town. Close by is a free internet center
>offered by the town. Chuck especially likes it here; he gets a
>little stir-crazy when we're at anchor & he can't get off the boat
>and wander around. He frequently goes for a "walk-about", and i
>just KNOW he patronizes the several food vans selling churros!
>(fried sugary dough... sort of a long donut.) I did 2 loads of
>laundry (by hand & air drying), and it's a good thing i got it done
>when we first arrived. Since Sunday, the weather has gotten really
>nasty. Not only is it our first RAIN since Spain -- way back in
>July, but it also blew about 40 knots all night. It's still in the
>70's though. Sure is nice to be tied up and not have to worry
>about the anchor dragging, like that bad night in Bermuda.
>
>The Algarve coast of Portugal is almost all beach, separated only by
>sharp, steep cliffs and caves. We stayed in Portimao for about 10
>days, which is the location of the famous Rocha Beach. And indeed,
>the beach is about 1/4 mile wide of beautiful, soft, white sand.
>It's populated primarily by Brits, Dutch and Germans. We also met
>some resident Americans while we were indulging in a Pizza Hut
>Pizza. (We had eaten so much whole grilled fish and sardines that
>good old pizza was really appealing!) We also met the first
>american boat since July. The Schooner "Bonnie Lynn" with Earl and
>Bonnie MacKenzie of Isleboro Maine is a 58' Topsail Schooner. It
>certainly cast the most distinctive profile in the anchorage. They
>make their living by chartering their boat in the caribbean during
>the winter months. There were spending their "off-season" by
>crossing the Atlantic, cruising around Ireland, then crossing the
>Bay of Biscay and bouncing down the spanish and portuguese coasts.
>They're now headed to the Canaries to prepare for their passage back
>to the caribbean. (already!...ShortTrip!!). Anyway, it was fun to
>talk to a fellow american!
>
>I'm happy to report that we have been MAKING WATER with our reverse
>osmosis Spectra watermaker. We had the new membrane replaced while
>in Portimao, and it's been working spendidly. FINALLY! Another
>great milestone that only our boat friends will be able to
>appreciate is that Chuck fixed our non-functioning generator by
>bleeding it for the first time. schweh! Is it only 2 summers ago
>that we took ChaliVentures up to Maine for her "shakedown
>cruise"????? ....when everything that COULD go wrong, DID go wrong?
>At the time, we were fairly intimidated by our new boat and its
>unfamiliar electronics and unfamiliar (to us) systems. Chuck knew
>about gasoline engines, NOT diesel engines, which gave him a lot of
>angst. So, bleeding the Westerbeke generator of some air that had
>sneaked in was a BIG DEAL. Without our generator, we can't run our
>refrigerator/freezer while at anchor, so it's pretty important to
>have it operating! We DO have our solar panels to keep the
>batteries charged up, but since the fridge is AC, not DC driven, we
>woulda lost all our food.
>
>We made some lovely new friends while we were in Sines and we've run
>into them in several places since then: Ian and Maggie on "Just
>Tinkerbelle" are from Scotland; Jette and Poul are from Denmark.
>Ian was an "up from the ranks" SAS officer and Poul retired from the
>Danish Parliament where he chaired the Armed Services Committee.
>Chuck and they had lots to talk about! It's lots of fun to be
>sitting at anchor or in a marina and see who's coming in, since more
>often than not, we've met them SOMEwhere before. It's a special
>cruising fraternity. Ian and Maggie have a DVD collection about as
>big as ours so we've been enjoying each others (new) movies. Just
>watched "Long Way Around" with Ewan MacGregor, a documentary about
>Ewan and his buddy who ride their motorcycles from London to New
>York, via Russia, Ukraine, Kurdistan, Mongolia, Siberia, (fly to)
>Alaska, Canada and the US. What a GREAT STORY!!! Highly recommend
>it. 3 Irish gents parked behind us over the weekend. Conner
>keeps his boat on the Algarve and he flies down to Faro from time to
>time to cruise. Anyway, he brought Colin and Gabriel with him this
>time, who keep THEIR boats in Ireland. They invited us over for
>some "irish whisky", which turned into a really yummy spaghetti
>dinner. They are 3 successful entrepreneurs from County Cork and
>were incredibly well-informed about about American politics; it was
>a thoroughly enjoyable and stimulating evening. They all wished
>that THEIR wives liked to sail. [Andrew C., Conner was a fan of
>the Cockburn clan AND Bob Fisk.]
>
>It feels strange that we are coming to the end of our first season
>of european cruising. We're due in Rota, Spain on November 1 for a
>4 month stay, during which time we'll be flying back to the USA for
>7 weeks. So, we still have about 3 weeks to go. We're only about
>2 days to Rota on the Bay of Cadiz, so we're going to take our time
>and explore this river. there are two towns about 20 miles up (one
>spanish, one portuguese) that are supposed to be quite nice. Nice
>place to anchor, too.
>
>Well I hear Ian out on the dock, so i'm going to close now.
>Hopefully it'll stop raining so I can send this off today from the
>Internet Center.
>
>Love, Alison & Chuck
>Aboard S/V ChaliVentures
>....Living the Dream