A farewell to thermals at last

25.5.2017

Yesterday morning, after 23 hours at sea we arrived in Lagos, our intermediate destination before we return home for a couple of weeks.

Early morning at Ponta da Piedade

Apart from watching the lights of Cabo Saõ Vicente, Ponta de Sagres and Ponta da Piedade together with the lights of the dreaded fishing nets and tuna fish farms, which extend several miles from the shore, we didn’t see much of the coast of the Algarve until dawn, when the majestic cliffs and caves of the Ponta da Piedade emerged from the shadow. Wow! what a magnificent sight.

Perhaps because dawn brings with it the delights of the day, the cliffs were bathed in honey colour.

ER amidst a British "Armada"

For once, our passage from Cascais to Lagos (125NM) was calm. Not much wind to mention (a maximum of 14kn for a very short time), no exhilarating sailing either which, if you ask us, we preferred.

A calm night under engine.

The entrance to the harbour was quite interesting, with the swell across the breakwaters. Once inside, the heat really hit us. In the shelter of the harbour it was at least 28ºC. Now we have to adjust to it and take all the thermals, gloves, hats, thick socks and boots back home. At night, until now we always needed every single one of them. Between 03.00 and sunrise, everything gets damp and cold.

Once we were allocated a space, exhaustion really caught up with us. From Falmouth to Lagos (960NM) we have only stopped in 4 harbours. We have been 16 days under way (including the days we had to wait for good wind). The wind, although almost always from an excellent direction for us has been very strong.

a well deserved ice cream!

It is not that we are trying to do a lot of ‘mile bashing’, although we are quite content that we can still do it! Our goal is to get to Corsica and Sardinia by the end of July. Next year we will take on revising the 3rd Edition of the RCCPF Corsica and North Sardinia pilot book. We would like to make a start in April 2018.

Now we are about half way there. 

We will return to Devon at the end of next week. We need to sort out some issues with our brand new electronic equipment, which is draining our batteries. Just as well that Stephan can work around technical issues, if not we would not have arrived in Lagos so fast. For 20 years we only had an AP6 Navigator where you were excited to get your GPS position. Now the instruments have become so complex that one would almost need a technician on board! We still love our new equipment, although it provides so much ‘entertainment’ under way that one almost has to make a conscious effort not to look at it all the time and to remember to turn off the cockpit repeater and watch the stars instead!

We will resume our journey mid June. Watch this space!