Sunny and warm today after a few cold (7-10 C) niights and a bit of rain. In fact it was so warm in the morning I was preparing our departure on deck dressed in nothing but shorts. Not bad at all compared to late November in Sweden!

It was almost dead calm, and we were low on power in our batteries after two-three days with gray skies. Hence we motered the 5,5 miles to Alvor in around an hour. A narrow entrance between two moles leads to a very shallow but also very protected lagoon just outside the fishing town of Alvor. Mostly catamarans and cnterboards in this anchorage but we made it without touching the sand of the sea bed. In the entrance we passed a large dredge at work and our echo sounder showed 7 feet t some point so a bit thrilling to enter. According to the piot book one shall enter on the young flood to be able to see the sandbars. Doing so also has the added advantage of providing more water within short in case of having one's speed unintentionally reduced to zero knots.

This once very nice and picturesque fishing village, has been literally invaded by tourists, mostlu Brits, it seems. Time sharing apartments and condos galore and about ten signs for 'Guiness' for every 'Sagres' or 'Super Bock'

Quite a few of the boats on moorings have got that long time live-aboard look over them and I guess that more than one mosttly is used as a flaoting vacation house. Very nice never the less and we are looking forward to exploring theis area before returning to Portimao/Ferragudo again.

Before we came here, we met Kurt, a German gentleman on a catamaran who has a permanent mooring here that we are borrowing now. He is at anchor in Ferragudo, waiting to receive some parts with the mail. Since he has been cruising between here and teh Bay of Cadiz in Spain for the last couple of years, he gave us most useful information about the places we are going to from here.