Emerald anchored in the lagoon beyond the small boat harbour

More Culatra - Sunday 20th October
Until recently Culatra didn't have many facilities; in the last few years there has been some investment with the building of the fishing boat harbour, water supplies and community facilities such as a library and an astro turf football pitch. Unfortunately when building the harbour they didn't think of providing somewhere to tie up dinghies so we left it tied to the bridge down to the pontoon even though there was a no parking sign.

Saturday was wet with thunder and a moderate south westerly that built up a small chop, enough to prevent us getting ashore to listen to some Fado music that evening. Well we could have gone but would have been soaked by the time we got there. Sunday was back to warm and sunny and as we'd walked along the beach to the town of Farol at the far end of the island on Friday we had a longer wander around Culatra town in the sun.


Tide in along the boardwalk to the beach

We headed out to the lagoon next to the town where around 20 boats were moored, mostly cats and those able to take the ground as the lagoon dries. We assume they winter here or even spend the whole year here. When the tide comes in it spills over into the creeks and gullies coming right up to the sand dunes that back the ocean side of the island.


Culatra church

As we passed the little church we heard some beautiful singing coming through the open doors. It being the weekend there were plenty of locals out in the bars or strolling the paths. Most people we met were friendly and traded smiles and 'boa tardes' but there were times when we passed groups of people that we felt like we'd wandered into the outdoors equivalent of The Slaughtered Lamb and were waiting for someone to tell us not to stray off the path!