As said before, one morning one just wakes up knowing that it is time to heave anchor. Today was such a morning. Southbound for the Algarve coast, 60 miles around Portugals SW point - Cabo Sao Vincente- and then into the sheltered anchorage at Enseada de Sagres. The only thing we knew about the town of Sagres before arrival was that the name of it has been lent to one of the biggest beer-brands in the country.

After several windless days, we were naturally hoping for a decent breeze to sail south, and the forecast suggested around 10 knots of wind from the Northerly quarter which seemed fine.

We took off just after dawn after a quick breakfast. Soon enough the skies became totally overcast, dispite the mighty high pressure system, and I started to suspect that the calm we experienced in the morning was going to sustain during most of the day. It did. Around 3 PM a blue 'hole' between the gray skies showed up, and provided just enough wind for us to be able to hoist sail and move along at around four knots, allowing the engine to rest a while. Shortly after, the wind decreased and the boat speed dropped to just above 2 knots. going dead downwind, with some 3-4 meter swells and all of you who have been at sea in a sailing boat know exactly what I am talking about. We fired up the iron genny again to posssibly arrive before dusk. Not to long after this, a dense big cloud passed further offshore. A typical squall, that made the wind pick up again and allowed the engine to rest and 'Röde Orm' to move along at 5-ish knots despite the fact that we - out of sheer lazyness- flew too little canvas, since there were a mere 5 miles left to our waypoint.

We entered the anchorage a little less than an hour after dark, together with 'Zephyr', with whom we mad company all day along. The picture of 'Röde Orm' under sail is taken by Steve on 'Zephyr'. They got some really nice wind from the cloud by the way, and came rocketing under their spinnaker shortly before we passed cabo Sao Vincente. Well done!