When we chose our berth for the winter in Portimao it was beside a well sorted Portuguese steel yacht; a classic Van de Stat design, painted yellow called Babile'
They were living on board so we soon got to know John and Natalie. Both spoke excellent English and one morning came aboard for coffee to share home made sweet treats. Fruit shapes made from marzipan with egg yolk filling, sounds a bit weird, but they were delicious.

John is from Portimao and Natalie from Brazil.They had worked in Angola to earn the money for the boat and where now ready to set off. Heading via the Cape Verde Islands before crossing the Atlantic for Brazil and beyond. Interesting how these countries are linked by Portuguese language and history.

Operating from the next pontoon is a sailing school, which amongst other things, runs a project called "Vela Solidaria" to get disabled and deprived children on the water both in yachts and a couple of specially adapted dinghy's. John and Natalie were involved in some away with this and decided to try and promote it on their adventure.
So it was that our pontoon became the centre of attention. TV cameras were there to interview the couple and get their story a couple of days ahead of departure.
To Johns' irritation the emphasis seemed to be their love story rather than the charity! This was however nothing compared to the melee on the Sunday morning. We had throngs of well wishers as well as the TV cameras and a small armada of local boats and dinghies to escort them out to sea. They were then joined by a Navy ship for their final exit!

They have since kept in touch with us on Facebook. We watched the links to the Portuguese TV news items showing their departure. Malibu features as the background for interviews etc and Yvonne succeeded in keeping our washing out of shot! John and Natalie were stars, their positive cheerful personalities showing through on TV just as we had found them to be.
Notable that this was the one good news story. The other news items tending to remind us of the hardships and national financial misery which is very apparent around us in Portugal. Although Spain is also undergoing financial problems we got the impression that most of the places we visited in the North were actually prospering. In Portugal however there does seem to be a general mood of despondency.
Fair winds to Babile' lovely young people with positive attitude making things happen giving everyone a lift!