Flat calm. The Gulf of Cadiz has its own microclimate making it sort of Mediterranean. We took advantage of a break in the northerly flow to head across to the Algarve (Arabic, of course, from Al-Gharb, “The West”) and so it was that we changed courtesy flags in glass out conditions as Diomedea motored and motor-sailed across the board-flat Atlantic Ocean. We entered the lagoon/wetland network of Punta Santa Maria (town of Faro nearby) and had a lovely evening anchored (finally, an anchorage!) in the shallow but sheltered water inside Isla Culatra. A stopover point but nothing really to do there other than a beach walk. It is in the flight path of a very busy airport nearby.
From there it was another push up to Lagos for our first real day in Portugal. The small river mouth is remarkably narrow and shallow and there is a significant tidal flow. Turning the boat in the river without a bow thruster proved most interesting. A small opening pedestrian bridge allows access to an excellent marina with very good facilities and the best chandlery I have seen since Mallorca. This would be a most satisfactory place to winter a yacht in or out of the water. The outstanding Pingo Doce supermarket is 10 minutes walk away, there is good fishmarket nearby, and every Saturday there is a farmer’s produce market, just across the little bridge. Local growers even arrive by horse and cart. Last seen in Turkey. There are nice beaches, at which we strangely observed quite negroid folk sun-bathing.
Lagos itself dates back to Neolithic times but was taken by the Romans and then the usual suspects thereafter. There is a nice museum with excellent preserved mosaic flooring, columns and artefacts from Roman times. In the 15th century Lagos was a maritime centre from which Henry the Navigator directed activities. Bartolomeu Dias sailed from here to the Cape of Good Hope but not Vasco da Gama who sailed 10 years later from Lisbon around the Cape to India. Lagos became a marketplace for African slaves being sold into Medieval Europe. Henry received 1/5 of the price of every slave sold. A nice little earner if your morals permit.