Anchors aweigh*! It took us 15 minutes to free the anchor from the seabed, remove the huge amounts of kelp from the chain and clear clumps of silt from the anchor!

Based on last year's experience we wanted to arrive at Ayamonte near HW. This would allow us to clear the sand bar that lies near the entrance, put some depth under our keel upon arrival in the marina and as a bonus make berthing easier with little current around. Timing was also important upon leaving Culatra as we wanted tide going out or slack water, basically as little current as possible.

We followed the buoyed channel to the entrance where we knew it was going to be a bit lumpy - wind over tide.



I thought we were going to be in for a rough ride having watched the yacht in front being tossed around until he was well clear of the entrance however Flirtie took the waves in her stride, pushing them out of the way with great ease - good girl Flirtie, what was I worried about!


Flirtie pushing through the turmoil

With a gentle wind we started the day sailing under genoa only before unfurling the mainsail later. We were hoping that we'd be able to sail all the way and we did, albeit a bit slow on occasions.

Whilst we were sailing, we recognised yacht 'Salara' (Peter from Portimao) who was catching us up. He put us to shame by sailing up the fairway almost to the marina entrance whilst we motored in.


Peter sailing 'Salara'

Total distance this season: 132.83 nautical miles


*aweigh definition - is a report that the anchor is clear of the sea bottom and, therefore, the ship is officially underway. "Anchors Aweigh" is often misspelled as "Anchors Away," leading to confusion of the terms and the misunderstanding that it means 'to drop anchor' (ie. 'away').