Bob's gap years

At Foz a Portugese tourist from Lisbon and his son (who was fascinated by my boat) came on board for a look round and told me there was a regatta up the river at Alcoutim where he was staying for a short break with his wife and offered to come and give me a lift up to enjoy the celebrations. Having had enough of the isolation at Foz (previous blog) I decided to take the boat the 10 miles up. So pleased I did - it’s a real treat sailing up winding rivers. Met a sailor from Crediton and bought a Portugese man with 4 kids on a boat half my size beer and ice creams for helping me berth and for taking their spot on the pontoon with them rafting alongside. The town is across the river from the Spanish town of Sanlúcar de Guadiana. Both had cafes, restaurants and bars for a bit of life and each a tiny supermarket. If the Portugese one didn’t have what was needed I would jump in the dingy, go across to Spain and buy the missing items (eg carrots) there. It was all a bit confusing though for a simple sailor as there is a 1 hour time difference, my mobile would switch at random from P’gese to S’ish time and the church bells (several of them) rang a different number of times and up to 5 minutes either side of the hour.
Finding all this a bit hard I returned to Ayamonte on Monday 26th August and next day went the 55 miles to Chipiona, at the mouth of the river to Seville, mainly motoring but with lovely close reach sailing for the last 15 miles.
Chipiona was a good place, busy and attractive with a long beach, and one day I cycled to Sanlúcar de Barrameda which I have always liked from a previous visit.
Sunday 1st Sept I headed for Cadiz where I am to meet Neil from Starcross.
Hoping your weather is good - September at home is my favourite month if it is.
Love to all
Rob.
Picture is one to the squares in Ayamonte early morning.