We departed at around 8am leaving behind some very low lying dark clouds and fog that appeared to be hugging the hills. Hanse said that he would 'find us later' as he needed to refuel and pay marina fees.

Once outside the harbour we found ourselves in fog. It wasn't thick but it reduced our visibility down to around one mile, not ideal but it could have been a lot worse.

Sadly we didn't get to see the coastline however the pilot book suggests that this part of the coast is low lying sand and marshlands so even with good visibility we probably wouldn't see that much anyway. We did however pass a floating fish farm, strategically marked by four yellow markers and full of floats!



IIha da Culatra is a small island near Faro and Olhao, the whole area consists of a network of lagoons. It's all pretty shallow so you are advised to time your arrival at half tide or above.

With improved visibility we approached and gained an additional 4 knots, making our speed an impressive 10.5 knots with back eddies and swirls of water that made Flirtie slew around a bit but Bruce did a sterling job steering us through the worst of it as we followed the buoyed channel into much calmer water.

With a few anchorages to choose from and with the wind coming from the SW we decided to anchor on the North side of the island. The bay was larger than we expected and quite busy but still plenty of room to anchor.

Having found a suitable spot we launched the anchor and waited for Flirtie to settle only to find that she lay at right angles to all the other yachts around. Normally, this would mean that the anchor hasn't set but we could clearly see that we weren't moving so decided to give it an hour whilst we observed our situation.

After an hour and still lying at right angles we were still unsure as to whether or not the anchor had set in so we decided to stick the engine back on and reverse hard. The chain tightened and Flirtie's bow swung around, confirming that the anchor was indeed dug into the mud/sand so we concluded that we must have anchored in a back-eddie, after all we're surrounded by lagoons, marshlands and estuaries. We eventually aligned with the other yachts when the afternoon wind picked up.

Hanse and Dagmar anchored nearby having arrived a couple of hours later. Needless to say that evening drinks followed as we watched the sun go down.

Total distance this season: 1172.34 miles