Friday 4th April

For our first trip out of the marina we had planned to travel the grand distance of 7nm to anchor at Portimao, but a last look at the weather forecast before bed Thursday night changed our minds. The forecast was for winds from the south west up to F4 which could make the Portimao anchorage a bit uncomfortable. If we carried on to Culatra instead we might get the chance for a sail too which would be unlikely if we made that trip on Saturday with winds of nothing more than a F2.

The alarm was reset for an hour earlier with a plan to be off by 9:30 to give us enough time to be into the entrance for Culatra before the tide turned.

We had to use one of the breaks in Terry's Friday broadcasts to request the bridge lift and with barely enough wind to flutter the flags we cast off and reversed easily out of our berth.

Emerald was moving again!

Singing our 'farewell' song as we motored down the river we played dodgems with the fishing boats returning to habour and were soon out into the bay. Where we were met by a metre or so of swell, enough to have us wobbling side to side and making us glad to have changed our plans as the swell was straight into Portimao's entrance.

The winds stayed light for a couple of hours, not enough to keep the sails filled in the swell and not worth the risk of damaging them as they would keep flogging about. By midday the wind had filled enough to unfurl the genny to give us a better motion and a bit more speed. Unfortunately the rolly motion had taken its toll on my stomach and I had to resort to a trusty Stugeron which makes me a bit sleepy for a while but it was a pleasantly warm day for a snooze and so much more comfortable on the new foam in our cockpit cushions.

After a little nap I felt much better, even more so when the wind increased a touch more and we were able to sail for a couple of hours (10nm sailed). Engine off, waves burbling past the hull and not much to disturb the silence other the fisheries patrol ship calling up fishing boats on the vhf.

We saw what were possibly 2 baby sunfish flapping away on the surface and some arctic skua - they didn't attack us unlike most of our previous encounters with them. We were surprised to see them here but have since read that they winter in the south Atlantic so maybe they are on their migration back north.

Our favourite animal encounter was with this:

It came aboard as we entered the river mouth clinging onto a line up the mast. When we anchored it flopped down on to the sprayhood seemingly too exhausted to fly off. We guess it was a moth about 4cm long. I'm going to call it a rabbit moth as it was furry and looked like one the way it crouched on the sprayhood.

Off the river entrance we lost the wind so engine back on. We entered an hour before high water and sped through at 8kts; we'd been doing 5.5kts so had 2.5kts of tide whoosing us in with eddies, overfalls and whirlpools creating crazy patterns on the water and doing their best to nudge us off course. There is plenty of depth with the tides having scoured out a deep pit and the entrance channel is wide so it never felt dangerous, I found it quite fun and awe inspiring to feel the power of the tide.

Up to the anchorage, 6 boats were already there but there was still loads of room. We waved to our friends from Lagos on Ice Maiden and settled down to our first night at anchor this year. The calm and peace was occasionally disturbed by the fishing boats who like to get really close and planes on their approach to Faro but we slept well on the first night of our next adventure - Into The Med!