1 April 1993 Sesimbra to Sines
We passed the three-masted training ship “Sagres” as we left Sesimbra. As we entered a depth of 200 metres, a group of dolphins joined us and stayed for 10 minutes. There was was a 2 metre swell just on the aft quarter, so I poled out the genoa and we rolled downwind. About 15 miles from Sines, the swell increased and the motion became very unpleasant – I tried to turn the run into a broad reach but we still rolled – I must try 2 jibs poled out. Sines looks like a nice anchorage – time will tell. This is our first time anchoring this year. I took Brett and Craig to the beach and unfortunately fell off the side of the dinghy into the water when leaving the beach – rucksack, camera, wallet and all!
2 April 1993 Sines
Glenys went shopping and I did a few jobs. We had an early dinner and weighed anchor at six p.m. The wind in the anchorage was 15 knots, but when we got out in the open sea, the wind was gusting 30-35 knots. We sailed downwind for 10 minutes and then decided to return after we had an indicated gust of 30 knots when we were going at 8 knots boat speed.
The anchorage is nice and peaceful – good decision! A chap from “Kormoran of Dart” came over to welcome us back – they had tried to go north earlier in the day.
3 April 1993 Sines to Vilamoura (Day 1)
We lounged about on the boat and the beach until six p.m. and then left to go to Lagos. The large swell had disappeared and we had a nice fast reach.
4 April 1993 Sines to Vilamoura (Day 2)
The wind dropped just after midnight. The swell was making it unpleasant to sail at 3 knots, so we put the engine on for 4 hours until we had rounded Cabo De Sao Vicente when the wind picked up enough to sail at 5-6 knots.
We started to approach Lagos at eight o’clock in the morning and then decided to give it a miss and go straight to Vilamoura. The wind dropped an hour later, so we motored all the way to Vilamoura marina. We arrived at midday and had to wait until two o’clock for the office to open. After endless forms and a customs officer asking me about previous owner (again!), we went to a berth which was downwind and I made a complete hash of it (twice!). We met Johann and Marise (age 7) on the German boat “Sa Joma”.
5 April 1993 Vilamoura
We went shopping and generally messed about.
6 April 1993 Vilamoura
Jobs and messing about. Vilamoura marina is OK and the weather is noticeably warmer than the west coast of Portugal.
7 April 1993 Vilamoura to Islas de Culatra
We ran the gauntlet of bureaucracy when leaving Vilamoura. It was a pleasant beat upwind to Culatra which had a tricky entrance with lots of eddies and sand banks. It was a little fraught going across the marsh at nearly high tide at springs – but no problems. There are about 15 yachts already here – I didn’t expect any!
This is a great anchorage, tucked behind a very long sand spit, with the town of Olhoa about a mile away. The small village (Igreja) by the anchorage is very strange – small single storey houses which look like they should be knocked down, but instead the locals are fitting double glazing, TVs and stereos. We went to a bar where Glenys was persuaded to buy a plate of clams for us all – very nice.
8 April 1993 Culatra to Vila Real de San Antonio
We started to weigh anchor at eight o’clock - it took 15 minutes because there was loads of weed on the chain. We had a nice trip to Vila Real de San Antonio. We have started to trust the Hydrovane a little too much. We were really slack with navigation and, at one point, we discovered that the wind had veered 90° causing the Hydrovane to sail us south instead of east! I then managed to lose one of the hydrovane knobs overboard in a tacking frenzy.
The entrance to the river is quite worrying because of the shallow bar. We went into the Doca De Pesca next to a Dutch gaff rigged schooner “Inesplarado” which was impounded 2 years ago for possession of 1,500kg of hashish. It is to be auctioned soon - probably for £10K-15K. The town is very pleasant with storks nesting on the top of chimneys.
9 April 1993 Vila Real de San Antonio to Cadiz (Day 1)
I went into town to sort out the departure documentation but the Capitania was closed because it’s Easter. This was a bit of a surprise to me because we had celebrated Easter two weeks ago in Lisbon! I eventually persuaded the Customs to fill in the necessary forms so that we could leave.
We had a bit of a struggle leaving the dock due to no room front or back and a strong side wind pushing us onto the dock, but we managed to escape without a scratch. We had a fast, rolly reach until midnight.
10 April 1993 Vila Real de San Antonio to Cadiz (Day 2)
We were sailing too fast and would have arrived at Cadiz in the dark – I was not very happy about that because the lights on the chart are different from the lights in the pilot and I didn’t know which was correct! We dropped the main and tried to run slowly downwind with mizzen and jib. This didn’t work too well because the mizzen kept gybing, so we dropped it and ran at 3.5 knots under jib alone. That worked out quite well because we arrived at entrance buoys at dawn.
We went into Puerto Sherry where we met Anne Carlson on “Sandpiper”, an American lady who has been living in the Mediterranean for 7 years. We slobbed about for the rest of the day.
11 April 1993 Cadiz
Cleaned the boat and did some jobs.
12 April 1993 Cadiz
There is a very strong westerly wind so we are trapped here.
I wrote a load of letters to sort out our affairs back in the UK. There are some fun and games going on about the final “earnout” payment from the sale of my company. I rang Mark Neal (one of my business partners) and found out that we will probably getting an earnout of £42K each. However, we have an outside chance of using a legal loop hole to force Feedback (the Purchaser) to pay us £150K! I almost wish I was back in the UK to take part in the haggling. I said that I’ll ring Mark on Friday 16th.
Anne will be in Puerto Caleta, Lanzarote, probably all winter, so we should bump into her again there.
13 April 1993 Cadiz to Barbate
We were a bit worried about the weather, so we waited until half past nine this morning before we decided to go. We correctly deduced that a cold front had gone through – cloud formations, showers, cross winds rule (top winds from right when standing with your back to the lower winds).
A beam swell once more made sailing a bit unpleasant. The wind dropped at lunchtime, so we motored for a while. We were very excited to finally see Africa in the distance.
We had to be careful on the approaches to Barbate because there is a tunny net which starts just 200 metres from the port entrance and stretches out about 5 MILES. This is the first time that we have seen a tunny net and I think that when we go tomorrow, we should be able to pass round the inshore end. Once in the port, we picked up a fishing boat buoy thanks to the kind gesturing of some fishermen who could see that we were confused about where to go!
14 April 1993 Barbate to Gibraltar
We left Barbate in the pouring rain. I wasn’t brave enough to try to go on the inside of the Tunny net, so we went all the way around. We motored all the way to Gibraltar.
It was a very interesting passage. The coast of Africa is really hilly and looks so close. The Spanish coast is very hilly too. It started to rain again as we approached Gibraltar. The “Rock” looks impressive.
We went to Sheppard’s Marina and picked up our mail. The marina didn’t have much space and looked chaotic – so we went to Marina Bay. We filled up with fuel before going to our berth. Gibraltar seems to be like a little England – we’ve already had a pint, bought bacon and sausages and, best of all, we’ve found out where the best Indian restaurant is!
15 April 1993 Gibraltar
We walked into town and looked at the shops – all the same, electronics, more electronics and duty free goods – yawn!
16 April 1993 Gibraltar
Some engineers came to look at the engine and coupling. I’m worried about the amount of “blue-ish” smoke that comes out of the exhaust, so they’ve taken the injectors to check them. I think that it might be valve guide oil seals, but at £25/hr, I don’t think I’ll get them to do them. It’s very calm, hot weather.
17 April 1993 Gibraltar
The “Levanter” started overnight and we got to see the classic levanter cloud on the west of the “Rock”. This weather phenomenon is caused when the east wind blows over the steep sided mountain and forms a cloud over Gibraltar even when the rest of the surrounding area has blue skies.
We went up the cable car to the top of the Rock - St. Michael’s cave is very impressive. The Barbary apes are pretty agressive and one of them jumped on Craig and knocked him over - a bit of a shock for the little lad!
18 April 1993 Gibraltar
The levanter continues. We’re just hanging around until the engine and coupling have been fixed.
19 April 1993 Gibraltar
The levanter continues, nothing to do but wait. Went for a drink on “Maid of Zenor” with Martin, Kay and James (11).
20 April 1993 Gibraltar
The levanter continues - I’ve decided that I don’t particularly like Gibraltar. On a good note, Neville and Margaret of “Bonnie Day” arrived and came to us for a drink or two.
21 April 1993 Gibraltar
Still in Gibraltar - getting really sick of it now. The boys are getting a bit wild now - there are hordes of kids here.
We have been struggling to give Brett consistent school lessons while onboard. It’s hard work thinking up what to teach him and then doing the actual lesson - we’re using small booklets from the UK that are designed to help parents consolidate what children learn at school. He’s only six at the moment, so it’s going to get harder and harder. Glenys talked to an American couple who are educating their 8 year old using a correspondence course from the Calvert School in Baltimore, USA. The course looks really good. It includes all the text books, a teacher’s manual covering each lesson in detail and they even supply pencils, crayons and paper. It costs about £120 per year. It follows the American “Grade” system, but seems to be the answer to our problems. We’re going to order a Grade 2 course for Brett.
22 April 1993 Gibraltar
Still in Gibraltar - it’s all a bit too much like England! We had a disappointing, awful curry on our last night!
23 April 1993 Gibraltar to Puerto de Estepona, Spain
We left Gibraltar in a very light south westerly. We rounded Europa Point, poled out the jib and ran down wind. At about three o’clock, the wind veered to the NW and started to increase. By the time we had berthed in the marina at Estepona it was back to SW and gusting 30 knots. We had a really nice sail but I’m glad we got here before it blew up! Reaching in gusty conditions continues to be a problem for the Hydrovane – why?
The marina is quite nice, but the town is about a mile away, so we didn’t bother to go. Couldn’t see the shower block and couldn’t be bothered to go hunting for them.
24 April 1993 Estepona to Marbella
We were going to sail to Mona overnight, but decided to do it in two 40 mile hops. We left Estepona in sunshine, but showers kept coming through. The winds were very gusty and variable, so we decided to stop at Marbella. Thank goodness we did - it’s blowing 35 knots and raining now!
We were experiencing a lot of swell while we were on the “waiting” pontoon, so when the wind dropped below 20 knots we decided to go to our berth. By the time we’d got there it was gusting 30 knots and the swell was worse. Instead of trying to go “stern to”, we came alongside. That wasn’t too clever; the wind and waves were bashing us against the quayside and, even with all our fenders out, I was worried about damaging the top sides. Eventually, in a brief lull in the weather, I rowed a Danforth anchor out and pulled us off the quay.
It was windy all night with the pressure dropping down to 1006 at eight p.m. I foolishly used an old genoa sheet to tie up to the dock. This type of rope doesn’t stretch, so in the vicious swell it has managed to rip the rear cleat out of the deck - another thing for me to sort out. To cap it all, the starter motor is playing up again!
25 April 1993 Marbella
Still blowing a hooley. The starter problem seems to be the ignition switch. which is good because it won’t cost a fortune to fix. The annoying thing is that I have a new ignition switch, but it’s at Carol’s in the UK! The boat was rolling so much in the afternoon that I felt seasick, so we went out for a meal (any excuse!)
26 April 1993 Marbella
The wind seems to have gone away, but we are getting heavy showers and its cold! I rigged up a temporary starter switch because the ignition switch has completely stopped working. I tightened up the cables on the rudder quadrant and then we went to McDonald’s for lunch as a treat for the boys (and me.) It’s still raining at eight o’clock at night. I want to get out of here!
27 April 1993 Marbella to Marina del Este
No wind first thing in the morning, so we started early(ish) to escape from Marbella. We motored until one o’clock when the wind picked up enough to sail. Forty minutes later, we had to drop the main because it was too windy. We ran downwind all the way to Mona, passing Benalmadena because we would have been there too early. Marina Del Este is a lovely marina between a very large rock (hill) and a cliff. The entrance is very spectacular.
28 April 1993 Marina del Este
It rained and rained and rained. I did a few jobs and made a dipole antenna, which doesn’t seem to be any better than the wire antenna supplied with my Sony short wave radio.
29 April 1993 Marina del Este to Almerimar
Again no wind first thing in the morning. The wind picked up by eleven o’clock and by two o’clock was blowing 20 knots. We ran straight past Adra because we would have been there too early. We were going to carry onto Almeria, but Glenys’ morale was very low, so we stopped at Almerimar.
The place seems deserted – apparently their prices were too high and everyone left about 3 years ago. They are now the cheapest on the Spanish coast and actually provide a list of charges at other marinas to prove it!
The damn ignition light stayed on while the engine was running as we approached the marina, I suspect that the alternator has packed in now – there’s nothing else left on the engine to go wrong now!
30 April 1993 Almerimar
A beautiful day, but again we have a cold, twenty knot, southwest wind. I checked the fan belt tension and wiggled the wires on the alternator and when I started the engine the alternator worked OK. I suspect we’ve got a loose wire on the alternator. I’ll leave it, see what happens and, if I need to, I’ll fix it in Ibiza along with the ignition switch.