Csárdás

I apologise for not updating the site as frequently as I have been in the past but I have had to cut down on mobile phone usage due to an astronomically high phone bill for June!

I am now back in Bayona, NW Spain and have a Spanish mobile. The yacht club here also offers free internet access, so I am taking the opportunity to update the site now.

Here’s a daily summary of happenings since the last entry.

Saturday 10th July

After 5 days on my own in Vilamoura doing very little apart from a bit of business admin and reading, Dominic [Miles] Horner (from Hanse Yachts UK) and his friend Matthew Oswold Henshaw Penfold Hadfield (or something) flew to Faro this evening to spend a few days helping me sail North. It goes without saying that the first thing we did when they arrived was find a bar and a restaurant, another bar (it isn’t hard to find bars in Vilamoura) and then bed (I found my own).

Sunday 11th July

Up at 8 and slipped lines at 9 and had a leisurely sail westward to Lagos. Met up with Swagman, Casbar, Trillium Wind and Secret Breeze. All of whom had stayed in Lagos for the last couple of weeks. Lovely to see them again. Decided to do an overnight leg the following day and head straight for Cascais, skipping Sines.

Monday 12th July - Tuesday 13th July

After copying some photos from Casbar’s digital camera we finally got away at 1015. After an hour of motoring the wind picked up and we had a great sail along the coast to Cape St Vincent. The wind picked up around the cape (surprise surprise) and saw us put in a reef. Very bumpy sea off the cape, the NWly swell rather confused. Wind from the North so we sailed out in a more or less Westerly direction with a little north in our course for a good 20 miles and tacked early evening. The wind stayed in the North from exactly our destination and bagan to drop. Coupled with the swell it became gruelling and frustrating so we put the engine on. To begin with we were unable to motor the rum line without slamming horribly into the swell so we motored a few degrees off. By late evening Dominic was overcome with seasickness and I was feeling a bit queezy too. Matt, the bugger, was fine and couldn’t understand what the fuss was about. The sea was very confused, with little wind but a left over swell and irregular chop and the boat was slamming into it. Matt made some chilly for tea. Dominic managed a grunt from a horizontal position that we took to mean he wasn’t feeling like eating very much. I decided I should eat but one mouthfull was all it took and I threw up. I wasn’t going to be defeated so I took another mouthfull. This was clearly pushing it and my stomach was having none of it. After throwing up again I tried just eating the pasta and managed to keep it down. I then decided I should get some kip. Since Matt was happy as larry I left him in charge with Dominic comatose in the cockpit. By midnight the wind had dropped and the sea was finally beginning to settle down and the rest of the night was much calmer. Our forward navigation light had suffered from the slamming and submarining of the bow. One wonders how the manufacturer of the most popular navigation lights in the industry can get away with selling them at at least 5 times the cost of a car headlight but make them less waterproof and less shock proof. Having taken this light apart the next day I fail to see how it can cost more than one pound to manufacture. It is not waterproof at all and the electrical connecters and internal brackets are all push fit so that the bulb is pushing the connectors OUT of their sockets. The nuts and bolts holding the wires onto the connectors are clearly not even stainless steal. Frankly it is an absolute heap of crap. A new bulb and plenty of araldite later I have a working light. Anyway, enough moaning. Where was I … oh yes, apologies to the yacht coming out of Sines who must have wondered what on earth we were with just a steaming light and stern light. I did put the tricolor on to try and give an indication of what we might be, but if that confused you even more, sorry, blame the idiots that make the lights. Considering it was still under warrenty we did consider sending Dominic up to the foredeck to fix the light there and then, but given that the bow was frequently either 2 feet under the water or 10 feet above it and that Dominic was a pale green colour even we felt that would be asking too much.

Anyway, by the morning Dominic was feeling a whole lot better and the sea had become flat calm. We motored gently into Cascais at 10am.

Wednesday 14th July

A well earnt day off from sailing. We got the train into Lisbon to have a look around (oh, and buy some spare bulbs for the crappy nav lights!).

Thursday 15th July

Left Cascais at 0900 in patchy fog. Vis not too bad. Enough to be able to see fishing pots before they wrapped themselves round the propeller! Mostly motoring, managed a few hours of sailing. Caught some mackeral and cooked it for lunch. Arrived Peniche 1835. Rafted up to a German yacht called Scorpion 2 just completing an 8 year circumnavigation. They also heading north so were to see them at each port of call. Office closed so had to check in at fishing harbour. Good timing as Stephen Charlton arrived on the bus just as I was walking along to fishing harbour.

Friday 16th July

Up early to allow Scorpion to leave and then take their spot against the pontoon. Spent the day in Peniche. Walked round the peninsular (following most of route that we were taken on during Rally Portugal tour). Did some shopping, replaced a gas bottle, etc …

Saturday 17th July

Left Peniche at 0630. Wind from NW so sailed out West to Ihla Berlinga before tacking again. After a while decided to motor sail to make sure we weren’t too late - don’t want to arrive after dark in these places ideally because of the lobster pots. At 1350 the wind went more Wly so we were able to switch off the engine and sail on our course. Nice to end the day sailing well. Moored up in Figueira da Foz in front of Scorpion. Dieter from Scorpion came on board to look at the forecast on the Navtex.

Sunday 18th July

Up just after 6am and noticed Scorpion gone. Can’t have left long before as it had only just got light. We left at 0640. Patchy fog again. Motored around the cape following the 10m contour. Motored until lunch time at 6 knots to give us good time but by 1300 the wind had picked up and gone west so we switched off the engine and hoisted the spinnaker. The wind crept forward a bit and we managed to hold the spinnaker at almost 60 degrees to the wind doing around 8 knots. Wind picked up more mid afternoon so we dropped spinnaker and unfurled genoa and sailed nicely into Leixos. Moored up in Leixos at 1715.

Monday 19th July

We all went into Porto, visited the Ramirez port lodge and then had lunch before Dominic and Matt made their way to the airport to head home. Stephen and I went back to the boat and had dinner on board. Stephen’s ankles had swollen up for some strange reason so he needed to take it easy.

Tuesday 20th July

We slipped lines at 0538 and motored until 1010 by which time we had around 7 knots from the SE. Enough for the spinnaker, and in the right direction. Was expecting Northerlies all the way up having had them all the way down, so being able to carry the spinnaker again in this direction was a bonus. The wind died at lunch time so we dropped the spinnaker at 1310 as we crossed the border with Spain and swapped courtesy ensighs. An hour later the wind had picked up a bit so we decided to put the spinnaker back up. As we were hoisting it the halyard momentarily snagger on the upper starboard spreader but then cleared and carried on going up. But as we reached the top the spinnaker came tumbling down to the deck leaving the halyard at the top of the mast. Clearly the snap shackle had come undone as it had snagged on the spreader. We now had the choice of leaving it there, and motoring onward and retrieving it on arrival, or going up the mast and retrieving it straight away. It was quite calm and no other boats around so we decided on the latter. Unfortunately without a spare spinnaker halyard I needed the main halyard so that meant dropping the main. So we went round into the wind, dropped the main and then got back on course under engine. Stephen hoisted me up the mast on the main halyard. I grabbed the spinnaker halyard and brought it back down only to realise just as I touched the deck with my feet that I had stupidly brought the spin halyard back through the upper spreaders. Stephen wasn’t happy as he had to winch me back up again! It’s much easier with three people as you can get the most agile to go up the mast, one person to sweat and the other to heave on the winch. With two one person needs to wind the winch, which is alot harder. Anyway, within 30 minutes we had the halyard back where it belongs and got the main back up and back on course, and hoisted the spinnaker. 30 minutes later the wind died again! Stephen was flat out down below drinking copious amounts of water and muttering mutinously. We motored on towards Bayona and were moored up at the reception pontoon of the Montereal Club de Yates at 1630.

Wednesday 21st July

Stephen was up early to get a taxi into Vigo for the 9am bus to Porto for his flight home. Unfortunately only two buses a day to Porto so he would have to spend a whole day in the airport (and had to get up early).

I managed to organise getting the mainsail cover fixed. Some teeth of the zip were missing and a few days ago we finally lost three adjacent teeth making it nigh on impossible to get zipped up. The zipper itself had also fallen apart. It was going to need replacing or we’d not be able to cover the main. The secretary in the club phoned a local sail loft who said they’d be able to fix it and organised a taxi for me to get there - it’s 30km away unfortunately. I am having to remember some Spanish as very few people speak English here so I was pleased to have been able to say a few words to the taxi driver and to explain to the sail maker that not only did I want a new zip (that was obvious) but I wanted the zip to overhang the bag to make it easier to do up. The sail maker said it would be ready the following day for 50 euros. A good price. Unfortunately the taxi fare was 35 euros!

Thursday 22nd July

Picked up sail cover in the afternoon. Another 35 euros to get it though, but a very good job. Applied loktite that Dominic had brought over to autohelm steering arm. Lots going on at the yacht club. There’s a regatta on. First race is to La Coruna and back - that’s a good 200 miles or so. Next door neighbour sent a diver down to scrub his (the boat’s) bottom before leaving. Obviously a major event as Galicia TV present. TV cameras and so on outside the yacht club. Apparently the King of Spain frequents this yacht club.

Friday 23rd July

On Tuesday evening while having a shower (or trying to!) in the boat the shower hose punctured and water was pumped into the bilge. Looks like the chrome outer had come away at the tap end and a sharp piece of it had punctured the internal rubber hose. Yesterday I went to replace the hose at one of the chandleries who said he’d order one in for today. Unfortunately today was told the sizes are all different. He couldn’t get the right part. Went to the other chandlery. Same problem. Seems the bit that fits the rose is a different size. Frustrating ‘cos these are ten a penny in English chandleries and seem to be standard sizes. As a workaround they sold me a hose with a shower rose. The end that fits the water pipe is the same. Back on the boat I discovered that the rose end does match their hose but that my shower rose has a kind of adaptor on it designed so that the rose sits in the tap fitting. I couldn’t really use their hose/shower because it wouldn’t fit through the hole in the tap - short of leaving it in the locker under the sink and opening the locker to use the tap! However, in messing about with all this I accidentally managed to take the end off the hose. Having discovered how to do it I managed to carefully prise the end fitting off the broken hose. I then cut off the damaged section of hose (beneath the chrome outer) and refitted the end fitting. A bit of tape to prevent the chrome slipping down and bob is, as they say, your uncle. I still should get a replacement hose as this fix is not ideal, but at least it works until I am somewhere where I can actually procure the right part.

Today I bought a Spanish pay as you go SIM card. Found a free Spanish ISP with local call access. So now can connect a bit cheaper.

This evening my neighbour arrived back from the race. “Bien Carrera?” I asked. Apparently not. “No, mal”. The wind died overnight. Hmmm, well, there’s a surprise. I could have forecast that.

Alcoutim’s a very small place. We found three cafes. One was closed. Another was very small and only had indoor seating. So we ended up at the other which was full of locals. The proprietor didn’t speak any English, we’d left our phrase books on the boat and there was no menu. We’d seen a list of three items on the window and saw people eating prawns so we figured we could get Tapas. One of the items on the window we thought was snails. We ordered one of each anyway. The waiter looked amused. He brought us snails. Not like they do them in France - these things were whole, cooked snails, with their little faces and Antennae poking out of the shell. There was nothing for it, we’d better tuck in or lose face. They were actually quite good, although I expect it was the sauce that we could taste. We were also brought some prawns and something meaty. Still no idea what it was but by this time our minds were coming up with all sorts of horrid thoughts. One suggestion was that we were eating goat testicles. The village was overrun by dogs and the waiter kept shooing them away. Perhaps ….

Sunday:

We got up early and motored back down the Rio Guadiana. It was a big spring tide so by the time we got to the entrance to the river it was very low. There’s a sand bar outside the entrance and I thought we might just get over it. There was no wind and very little swell - practically flat calm - so I decided it was safe to creep out. Had there been any wind or swell we would have anchored up in the river until the tide had risen again. We made it across the bar with almost nothing to spare. The echo sounder read zero as we passed over it. No wind still so we carried on motoring. Later on the wind picked up. Unfortunately it blew from the West - exactly where we were going. For a while we enjoyed the sailing and tacked back and forth along the coast. About 6 miles from the entrance to the Canal do Olhao however we decided that if we were to arrive in time to watch the Euro 2004 final we had better just motor. We arrived at the breakwaters just after high water. The water at the mouth was confused and choppy and rushing out fast. At full revs we made only 3-4 knots over the ground until we got through the entrance and it eased up. We motored up to Olhao and saw the half built marina where boats were mooring freely on the outside pontoon. Being full spring tide it wasn’t clear where the channel into the quay was. A few withys only just poked up above the water and there was water everywhere. We got it wrong first time and felt the keel sink into the mud but eventually figured out where the channel was and we were moored up close to the town quay with about half an hour to spare before the football. Right above the pontoon ramp by the quay was a small stadium with a large screen. We bought ourselves some beer and found a seat and watched the game. Quite an anticlimax. The Portuguese were lucky to get to the final and seemed to know it. The atmosphere suggested they knew they were going to lose. They all left a few minutes before the final whistle. They could have tried a bit harder!

Tuesday

We ended up staying in Olhao on Monday, did a bit of shopping and bought some tuna at the big fish market. On Tuesday morning we left early and motored (again against a strong Westerly wind) direct to Vilamoura as quickly as we could so that the girls wouldn’t be late for their flight from Faro.

I am now on my own until Saturday so have been catching up on business matters (boring VAT return etc) etc.

I am currently uploading pictures to bring the photo galleries more up to date. So check out the Summer 2004 picture gallery by clicking on the link at the right of this page. Or go here.

So much for the short trip across the river to Ayamonte. We left the marina at Vila Real de Santo Antonio and pottered across the river to find the marina at Ayamonte full. Should have called or phoned first. The spring tide was falling so rather than risk going round into Isla Christina on a falling tide we went back into Vila Real de Santo Antonio a little frustrated at having to spend another night there.

I poured over the pilot book working out best times to arrive at Isla Christina or Tavira and when best to leave the Guadiana. For most of the harbours and rivers around here the chart shows plenty of water but the pilot book always advises entering near high water. Impossible then to leave one place at the advised time and arrive at the other at the same time. I was getting doubtful of the pilot book as we had successfully left Isla da Culatra at low water springs when it advised never to enter or exit before half flood. If we were to go anywhere the next day we’d have to ignore the advise the pilot book gave. I thought I’d get some local advise and phoned Martin Northey, an RYA Yachtmaster Instructor and Examiner who lives in the area. He said Tavira could be entered at any state of the tide, and Isla Christina could be entered carefully at low water - maybe a bit after during springs. We agreed that the pilot book (RCC Atlantic Spain & Portugal, 4th Edition, 2000) was not much cop - maybe rather out of date.

So I decided that the next day we would go over to Ayamonte on the ferry in the morning, return around 11 when the tide was about to go slack and leave the marina to travel up the river on the tide and find somewhere to spend the night up river.

We found a popular cafe by the river and enjoyed some authentic Tapas before retiring to the boat for Port and cheese.

This morning we got up early to catch the first ferry over to Ayamonte, Spain. Ayamonte is a pretty little town with lots of shops. The girls were in their element and found at least four shoe shops! For the boat we found a good quality parasol. I thought we could move the boom to one side, lash the parasol to the pedestal and create some shade. When we got back we tried it out and found it works really well and looks great.

At around 11.30 we slipped lines and motored out of the marina and up river towards the bridge. There is supposed to be 20-22 metres beneath the bridge and Csárdás’ mast stands around 15 metres above the water. 5 metres doesn’t look like much from the deck and we all held our breath as we slipped under the bridge! The river is quite beautiful. Much wildlife, including Storks, orange groves and ranches line the river with just a handful of small villages between. The river is deep and you can anchor anywhere. Some of the villages have pontoons that you can moor to for free. We continued right up to Alcoutim on the Portuguese side, opposite Sanlucar on the Spanish. Unfortunately the pontoons were full, so we anchored a hundred metres or so off.

It’s hot up here so we’ll inflate the dinghy after a siesta, and go ashore. In the mean time we have put up the new parasol in the cockpit and created a wind chute using a bed sheet tied over the forehatch to generate a draught down below.

We decided we would stay for another night at Ilha da Culatra, so on Wednesday we chilled out a bit. We went ashore and had a walk around, but in the intense heat we ended up sitting in the shade at the cafe drinking lots of water .. and beer. We can’t get over how hot it is. In the high 30s even out at sea.

I have a confession to make. Not sure I should be owning up to this. I was a bit of a wally and got caught out by the high spring tide. We were in Ilha da Culatra only a few days ago and it was near neaps. On that occasion we dragged the inflatable up the beach to above the tide line and all was fine. This time, however, I hadn’t checked the tides before we came ashore and did the same thing. Guess what? When we got back from the cafe the water was almost right up to the concrete and there was no dinghy! We spotted it drifting away about half a mile out. So we went for a swim. Luckily as the dinghy floated past a cateraman the owners jumped into theirs and went and retrieved ours. Jo was swimming near by and they brought the dinghy to her. I swam out and jumped in. I feel suitably stupid, and should have tied the dinghy to something. But it could have been worse. Because it is so hot and sunny here the water dries so quickly and the tide line is not as obvious as it is back home. I shouldn’t have assumed that because it was neaps a couple of days ago it would be similar on this occasion. Very silly. But quite funny after the event.

Later that evening we went back to the restaurant and had a lovely barbecued fish supper while we watched the football. Portugal beat Holland. We were in the right place to watch that game. Portugal are now in the finals which is great for them - to host the event and get to the finals - what a great achievement.

Ihla Culatra is very real. Hardly any tourists save for the other visiting yachtsmen, and no one speaks English. The food was superb and incredibly cheap. Beer is less than a euro a bottle. Compare that to places like Vilamoura - tourist central - where you pay around 4 euros for a bottle. Our two course meal with 4 beers each came to 15 euros each - around a tenner.

We got up early the following morning at low tide, carefully lifted the anchor - the fuse wire held thankfully - and inched out of the anchorage to deep water. We motored for about an hour until the wind started to build and for once we actually had a consistent northerly breeze and we were close reaching at 7-8 knots all the way to Rio Guadiana.

Rio Guadiana is a big river separating Portugal and Spain and the tide runs very strongly through it. The marina at Vila Real de Santo Antonio is positioned along the river with a small entrance across tide. So it pays to get there when the tide is slack. Add to this the strong wind funelling down the river, and it can be a tricky place. So we had planned to arrive about an hour before high water. We were actually a little earlier due to the nice wind that we got, but it was close enough.

As were entering the river I noticed a catamaran leaving. It looked like a Prout. It was Barracuda. We waved enthusiastically and they called us on channel 16. We went to channel 77 and had a nice chat. They were continuing East and this would be the last time we would see them. They had been up the river right to the top and found some nice places to stop. It was nice to speak to them.

As were getting fenders and warps ready I heard Seraph (another rally yacht) calling me. I looked towards the pontoon and saw Steve waving to me. We carefully ferry glided through the entrance to the marina and turned into the wind and Steve and Liz from Seraph and the friendly marina man helped take our lines. We tied up and while waiting for the marina office to open we had some nice cold beers on board Seraph.

Later, after finding the supermarket and stocking up on groceries, we went for a walk round the town and ended up in a small fish restaurant near the marina, before retiring to bed, early, with intentions of a well earned lie in the following morning (today).

The plan today involves cleaning the boat, servicing the engine, chilling out, and maybe making the intrepid crossing to Spain later on this evening when the tide goes slack. It’s all of about 3 miles to Ayamonte in Spain on the other side of the river, where there is another marina. We think we might just manage that passage later …