Alvor with the tide in

Monday 7th October
There were a few woolly heads as the mini-fleet left for Alvor on Monday morning. It was a beautiful day, the sky blue, the sea almost glassy flat with a slight ever-present swell.

We were aiming to arrive around half tide at Alvor to give us enough water to float but to still be able to see the sand bands lining the channel. We were a little late, nearer 2 hours before so the sand banks were getting covered but we managed to stay in the middle of the channel with 3m under the keel most of the way. The only time things got hairy was between the two buoys after the entrance where we took a curved route around the corner and ended up with only half a meter spare; perhaps we'll try a straighter route on the way out.

The anchorage was quite full with moorings and a few other anchored boats. We decided to stay at the mouth of the channel, picked a spot, but when we sat back were too close to another boat so moved the anchor a little forward to makes things better for everyone.

Through the evening we sat and watched the sand banks appear. Emerald was sitting quite close to them and not lieing to the tide the same way as the other boats. Then as we watched she seemed to move in a strange angle backwards towards the banks before drifting out sideways to sit mid channel with the others. The depth under increased to a comfortable level and we made ourselves stay awake until low water had passed and the depth began to increase.

The next morning Emerald was sat again close to the appearing sand banks as the tide went out. We thought that maybe our chain was caught around something underwater and yesterday had come free when we made the strange movement out into the channel. Unfortunately today we weren't breaking free and the water was disappearing quickly from under us. We tried motoring forward to help free the chain but we kept sitting back in shallow water. At 0.2m under it was time to move. We lifted the anchor and moved it forward a few meters to sit mid-channel. Emerald swung into the space between two other boats with plenty of room to spare, plenty of water under and with much happier crew!