The picture below is actually Troija, a saints day parade with hundreds of boats taking part.
Portugal has been a country of motor sailing and whilst I'm probably being pessimistic (or feeble of memory) I can only recall one day where I sailed the whole day and that was a few days ago.
Sines (pronounced Sinch) was pretty good, €10 a night for the Catweasel and the local internet cafe did a mean skewered kebabby meat thing very similar to the ones I had in Jo'Berg.
Lagos was the party town I was expecting and, providing you like noisy bars, I can recommened the Three Monkeys. The marina price was on a par with Cascais and Troija (some €30 a night).
Albufiera offered me nothing, it seemed very quiet and I was quite content to push on to Isla Canela the next day. Price wise it was up there with Cascais. Oh!! we did find a most excellent restaurant used predominantly (sp?) by locals and it was there that I bade farewell to Treoggin and David*..
Albufiera did offer me another lesson though - a bikini clad babe can severely impact ones ability to moor up professionally. I badly overshot my mooring when this goddess (thanks Vicky :)) appeared wearing not a lot. I suspect she realised as the sound of me throwing the Catweasel into frantic reverse almost certainly attracted her (and everyone else's) attention. Lesson learned..from now on I wear blinkers when mooring.
*David was a most excellent single hander that Stewart and I met a few weeks previously. He has/d a 34 (I think) brown hulled Elizabethan and was bloody helpful. He set up my rigging, gave me advice galore and generally made me a better sailor. I don't want to play on his age but...he was 70 and, if I'm that capable of activity when I get to his age then I'll be bloody happy.
Anyway, Robert (Halcyon 27) and I motorsailed our way to Isla Canala and that's where I started to sink and the engine blew up. I got to call my first pan-pan (although maybe it should have been a "securite") so that's another first for me :).
A guy in Budapest (Benjamin) asked me to comment from time to time on my mental health so here it is - right now, to date, no issues. I attribute this to the fact that I'm only day sailing single handed right now and then even then I'm sailing with other people (Robertt, David, Dick, Jack, Dani, Martyn to name but a few). There's a real sense of community and support with everyone helping each other. I don't think I'll get lonely or regretful until I cross the Atlantic...but I'll keep a notion of this aspect in my head and comment every now and then.
Providing I can get the boat fixed my current passage plan has me headed around the Rock in a few days, then north up the coast of Spain to about 20 miles north of Benidorm and then east to Ibiza and the Ballerics. That's about 500nm from here and, at an ideal pace of 20 to 30 miles a day will take me somewhere between 14 days and 25 days.
Enough for now, back to my book and waiting for the engineer to call me.
adios amigos
Just occured to me that I'm selling my experiences short - imagine long sunny days, with dolphins on a regular basis, a book, a boat, good people, good, for the most part, sailing, new places, new lessons, emotional and physical lessons learned. This is not a Japanese game show, it's, very much so, a very long holiday. It's 7 knots under sail, it's America's Cup, it's sunsets and sunrises, blue skies and wind, friendships and music. Exploration - within and without.
