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Hugh, Anne and Hector's Sailing Adventures
This is your Captain speaking 6th July.
It seems I may have made a small mistake in my last entry by using July instead of June for my date but remember, I'm the Captain and I decide what month it is!
Here we are in Faro, anchored in 3m in a perfect lagoon with storks on the foreshore and other birdcalls in the air with only the occasional roar of a jet heading for Faro Airport to disturb the peace.
We went aground twice yesterday; once in the Gypsy trying to go closer to Faro when I found that 0.5m on the depth sounder means that you are really and totally high and dry. Vigorous reversing sorted it out and we anchored in a less ambitious place. The second time was in the inflatable and the remedy here was to jump over the side and drag it along until the water was lapping at my kneecaps. The salt marches here are amazing and when it is high water ,it all looks completely navigable. At low water, all is revealed and there are just a few twisting channels amid sandbanks and reed beds.
Hector continues to be uncooperative. He now drinks all night and sleeps all day. Some of my friends used to do this and I know from experience that it is a hopeless situation.
Any way, the Algarve is a great sailing area with good winds and flat seas. There is a lack of anchorages but loads of marinas inviting you to shell out €40 per night so some strategic thinking is required. Fergus and Julie arrive tomorrow for a week of spoofing about and Alex and Ruby arrive on the 13th for the serious stuff ;off to Gibraltar and on to the Balearics.
Thanks for the e-mails from Brian on the tinwhistle rig or whatever. Try it on your Dutch trip and report back! ( Hope that goes well and regards to Linda and Ed). John Reid was in contact with an e-mail including more nautical terms than I could possibly include in a regular report. By the way Lynn you're not supposed to understand the technical stuff, it's strictly for the boys!
We are in cruising mode at present, which means spending the entire morning touching up a small area of varnish and most of the afternoon recovering from lunch.
Fergus and Julie have now joined us and Fergus is providing much entertainment as he exposes strange pale parts of his body that haven't seen the sun for years. By that I mean his feet, which are now a glowing red colour. Julie is making the foredeck a focal point for the locals and has saved her image by narrowly avoiding being seasick.
Got the anchor well stuck yesterday on the only piece of rock in a sandy bay. Motoring in a circle at the end of 60m of chain did the trick but it was a solid one and was not keen to free up. Hey how about that for high drama!
Somebody has got to do it and it beats work.
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