Portimao anchorage

Wednesday 16th October
We've decided to head east for a few days before coming back west to our winter marina. Today was a short motor out of Alvor to Portimao, leaving around 2.5 hours before high water. We had almost 3m under the keel for most of the slow motor out down the channel but we ran across a shallow hump between the two buoys. It got down to 0.4m under, the water so clear you could see the ripples on the sand looking very, very close. We turned to port as the water was a slightly deeper blue that direction and the depth increased a little.

It wasn't long before we arrived at Portimao, 10 or so other boats anchored (mostly British or Dutch) and plenty of space.

I went ashore for a walk along the beach and to the fishing village of Ferragudo just up the river. Here there were narrow, windy streets between small, one storey fishermans cottages, most painted white, some with tiles. On the waterfront fishermen were sorting their nets and mountains of fishing pots lined the quay - maybe that's why we haven't seen so many pots out at sea as they are all lying ashore.



Ferragudo

Sun downers on Emerald and our stocks of Skinners beer are getting low; it will be a sad day when the last one is drunk. Although I did see a bar advertising London Pride so there may be a bit of hope for an occasional proper beer!