Hardly, but it seems like our 'sprayhood business' i. e. the original reason for us to go to Portimao/Alvor could be suffering from less than likely mishaps.

Firstly, as told in a previous post, we waited for sailmaker # 1, let's call him Mike, to come back from a trip to the UK, to make us a sprayhood. When he came back here he suddenly raised his price with some 70% from his own estimate! Of course I 'shoved him overboard' (not literally though, I am still a civilized Viking). Then sailmaker # 2, let's call him Jerry, comes onboard giving a decent qoute together with some good ideas on how to make a 'smarter' hood. So we made a deal. He says he needs 3 weeks to do it. That's four weeks now, almost five.... he's blaiming bad weather, which undeniably has some truth to it, but then, yesterday, he delivers the real blow. He had an accident, running, and ruptured two thirds of his achilles tendon. Flying back to.... guess where? ....-the UK- to undergo surgery and a recovery period of 3 weeks.

I know enough about those kind of injuries to say that it will take at least 8-10 weeks before he will be able to walk and function normally, so it seems like we will hang around here for quite a while longer.


Shit happens, and everything that happens to you in life does so for a purpose, according to my beliefs.

As long as the weather is as rough as it is at present, this is probably the best anchorage in the Algarve, so we're safe and sound. The alternative would be to sit in a marina but that is not only expensive, but also deadly boring. Here at anchor, we see the horizon, we see the fishermen leave and return and it's all in all a lot more lively and interesting than in a marina. This time of the year, the marinas are mostly occupied by boats left there, while the owners have returned to their country of origen. This means the UK for about 70% of all boats around here.

If and when the weather gets 'normal' for this part of the world, we can do the 35 miles to Faro/Olhao/Culatra and then in due time for the sprayhood affair to be closed we can come back.

We also have our neew friends and neighbours here in 'Le Village' to keep us company. Jaques, the Belgian, has a car, and was nice enough to let us have a ride with him to the supermarket in Portimao a few dys ago to provision.

I am helping him with some computer-related issues in return so it's like everyday life in a quiet suburb more or less. Not at all bad.