Swallow's adventures

On 24/04/17 we departed Portimao at 0900 and mostly motor sailed to Albufeira; there was a negligible amount of wind and quite an uncomfortable swell which had been whipped up by the previous high gales. A strong cross current made the entrance into Albufeira marina quite interesting! The extremely bouncy reception pontoon was difficult to tie up to. We were warmly welcomed by Clare and Andy (Ula) who we hadn't seen since Christmas; they took us on a little walk to the Intermarche to stock up on supplies and also to a hardware store which offered all sorts of chandlery bits and bobs! We only stayed here one night and did not venture into the town but I believe it's rather touristy; the multi-coloured houses around the marina were quite interesting.
The following morning we fuelled up (still paying ridiculous Portuguese fuel prices) and headed for Ilha da Culatra, an anchorage. Again only one knot of wind, with bright sunshine, so we had to have the engine on to maintain 5 knots so that we could enter the Formosa Ria, at Cabo De Santa Maria, at half-tide on the flood ( the ebb can run at 7knots through the entrance on springs, which we were on). Ula was behind us and they decided to use their cruising chute with the engine off: they could catch us up later as they have a more powerful engine than us. We cruised along and enjoyed the view of the multi-coloured cliffs which reminded us of Alum Bay, this sparked happy childhood memories for both of us. With four miles to go and having just gone past a vast fish farm the wind picked up and we goose-winged along. Just before the entrance we headed into wind to drop the main sail, the wind was then crazy- 20 knots (why couldn't we have had this earlier?!); we struggled a bit and after that a fisherman motored into Paul's fishing line, which he had forgotten to haul in. We got in just on high tide and then had to swerve a cargo ship which was coming out; we radioed Ula to warn them and they informed us that they had turned back under sail as they had an engine problem. We found somewhere to anchor ,turned off our engine and settled down nicely after a couple of hours when the bouncy wind over tide effect subsided. Several sand banks appeared at low tide and we could see people foraging for shellfish; there were lots of fishing boats coming in and out and small ferries which take people to Faro and Olhao nearby.
15 knot winds were coming in the next day in the afternoon, so we took the dinghy to shore in the morning to explore the flat island; there are no roads or cars, only tractors and bicycles! We had to scramble across piles of fishing nets on the quay. Apparently there are 3000 residents here; there certainly appear to be quite a few dogs judging from all the little 'parcels' on the paths! A wooden path, and little bridges over the sand dunes, led us to the beach which was a 20 minute walk to the other side of the island. The long sandy beach was adorned with shells and the sea was beautifully clear .We walked back to the town, which has a couple of tiny supermarkets, a school, a social club, a red cross centre, a post office, a church, several bars and restaurants and a cash point; the boats come in daily to deliver supplies for the shops and restaurants; they also bring in frozen bait for the fishermen. We enjoyed a lunch of grilled fish and ventured back to Swallow in the dinghy; by this time the wind had got up so it was a rather wet, choppy ride! Rain and wind was forecasted for the next few days so we decided that, although this was a beautiful place, we would head for the Guadiana River tomorrow, the border of Portugal and Spain.