LISBON TO LAGOS

We made it to Lagos on the Algarve! The leg from Lisbon to Sines (birth place of Vasco de Gama who discovered the Cape Hope route to India) was even windier than previous legs with gusts up to 30 knots. Perversely the last leg had hardly any wind most of the way and we had to motor for 7 hours – the first lengthy period of motoring we’ve done. But as we rounded Cape St Vincent (the most SW point of Europe and at one time, before the Americas were discovered by Europeans, thought to be the end of the world) the breeze came, the skies cleared and dolphins joined us for a lovely gennaker reach along the coast to Lagos – and for the first time in 3 weeks and 1,000 miles we had flat seas – superb sailing.

Sadly the Rally ended in Lagos and after a few farewell parties some boats left for the Med, some to go to the UK immediately and some are cruising the Algarve/Spain. After a few days rest, cleaning the boat and sightseeing in Lagos (famous as a base for the Portuguese exploration of West Africa inspired by Henry the Navigator and as a slave market), we’ve left ALMA in Lagos while we spend a week in Malta catching up with admin and having a good rest! Its been quite a hard few weeks between strong winds/rough seas, sightseeing and lots of parties! We plan to cruise along the Algarve coast (slowly and quietly) when we get back to Lagos from 4th July until 22nd July. Then we’ll head for the Alps to escape the mid summer heat in southern Spain/Portugal. We plan to return to the boat late August and then head into the Med and spend a few weeks in the Balearics before hopefully finally getting to Malta late Sept/early Oct. Beginning to appreciate just how long a journey it is – we’re still not even half way!

Hope you’re enjoying the summer and hope we’ll catch up soon.
All the best
Iain and Helen.

BAIONA TO LISBON

Now in Lisbon after a very windy and rough passage down the coast from Baiona. We called at Povoa/Porto (great visit to Taylor’s Port caves – resisted buying the 1994 vintage but now a fan of Tawny port!), Leixos, Figuera (wonderful visit to Coimbra University – one of the oldest in the world with an amazing library – they keep bats in the library to eat the insects which would otherwise damage the books, some of which date from the 1500’s), Nazare, Peniche (visited an old medieval town inland) and now in Lisbon which we think is a lovely city – great history, lovely streets and a relaxed charm. Friends Peta and Steve joined us in Povoa for the leg to Lisbon. They sailed with us last year in Brittany and it poured with rain and this year when they met up with us it was again pouring with rain! Next year we’ll need to make sure we’re in sunnier climes.

Winds in this section as we sailed down the coast have been from the North and quite strong – up to 28 knots and seas were quite rough with 3m to 3.5m waves. Glad to be in Lisbon for a couple of days rest. We hope the winds will abate a little for the next two legs down the coast – we leave Lisbon on Saturday for Sines then on Monday plan to round the SW corner, Cape St Vincent, to Lagos and the Algarve. Looking forward to it. We’ll leave the boat in Lagos for a week while we go back home to Malta (via UK so hope to catch up with many of you in the UK either 25th/26th June on our way to Malta or 2nd/3rd/4th July on our way back to Lagos). Then we’ll have a few weeks in the Algarve and SW Spain – hope to visit Cadiz, Seville and Jerez.

This section of the Rally has been quite eventful. One boat lost steering in heavy seas and two others tried to tow it but the tow line snapped and so eventually the life boat came to the rescue. There have been a few crew changes – one unplanned as crew and skipper fell out. Several of us have had a Rally tummy bug which is a bit of a knock out for 48 hours! Two crew on another boat have fallen overboard (at separate times!) – luckily both in harbour! And a third person fell in and got a bad infection. The fleet was storm bound for two days but we had gone ahead the previous day and managed to keep sailing. We were lucky to have our friends Peta and Steve with us as it would have been very hard work with just two of us. They did a lot of helming (in difficult conditions) which was a great help. Judging by the smiles I think they really enjoyed it! Today we’ve been catching up with repairs and doing a wall painting (quite a tradition in some ports where lots of passage boats pass through). I hope Helen will post a photo of ALMA’s contribution. One repair I must mention – I asked the sailmaker here to splice a new rope for me (hi tech spectra rope which I cannot splice – need to learn but it seems a miracle to me anyone can splice this type of rope) and he’s just returned it to me perfectly done (I think) at 7.15pm (he should have finished work today at 4.00pm but the Rally has kept him very busy!) and won’t accept any payment for it! I really can’t believe the kindness and generosity we’ve encountered in Portugal – wonderful and amazing.

So now heading for Cape St Vincent and the Algarve. Looking forward to visiting the UK and seeing many of you.
Best wishes
Helen and Iain

ALMA’s travels have begun for 2010! ALMA had been in winter storage in Lymington waiting for the summer to begin her long voyage to Malta. We had a great test sail to Weymouth on 8/9 May – good winds (although very cold for May) and everything seemed to be in good shape except the anchor light which Berthon had somehow managed to re-wire incorrectly (it came on at the same time as the radar!) after putting the mast back up! It took a good few very frustrating hours to find the cause and fix it. However, I now know a little bit more about the boat’s wiring! I guess that’s why it’s good to have a test sail at the beginning of the season.

On Friday 14th May we sailed to Plymouth to be ready for the start of Rally Portugal. Another great trip - little wind overnight but a lovely breeze on Saturday as we crossed Lyme Bay and past Start Point, Dartmouth and Salcombe and on to Plymouth arriving at 5pm. We left ALMA there for two weeks then we (Helen and I plus Geoff, Doug and Andy) were all back on board by Friday 28th to get ready for the Rally – safety checks, provisioning, checking over the boat, getting new charts, navigation prep, weather forecasts etc. Sunday morning 9.00am start and we were away from the pontoon by 0730 so we had time to check the instruments (electronic compass and main compass were not agreeing!) and the start line. Nice breeze at the start and at 0900 the fleet was heading out of Plymouth Sound for the Channel and Ouessant. I was a little late at the start and we were behind a few boats to begin with but by the time we left the bay we were in the lead (ALMA sails really well in these conditions – upwind in a breeze over 12 knots) and upwind of the fleet. We settled into our 3 hour watch system and looked forward to warmer weather further south.

We had a couple of periods when the wind was very light but for most of the time we had great winds, up to 25 knots. At one point we had a little too much wind when we had the gennaker up and we had a real struggle getting it down! I think it was about 3am – always seems to be the middle of the night when these things happen! Anyway, once we were back under control the off watch slept a bit better. We also had periods of fog which are always disconcerting – especially in the very busy shipping lanes around Oessant and Cape Finisterre. We were very grateful we had radar and AIS (a radio signalling system that gives the position, course and identity of ships). Downside of having these systems is that you see just how much traffic there is!

Much of the way across Biscay we had frequent visits from dolphins (some dolphins may have been porpoises!) – great feeling as they jumped alongside us or “torpedoed” the boat then dived under us at the last moment. I’d swear they were laughing at us as they came alongside to watch us struggle with the gennaker in the middle of the night! One boat saw two whales – minke I think.

After 3 days it was great to see land again as we approached the coast of north west Spain. We had been sailing off the continental shelf in depths of over 4,000 metres (the depth drops from 150m to over 4,000m in only 30 miles!!) and enjoyed the longer ocean waves but were now back into choppier seas as we sailed down the Costa del Morte and rounded Cape Finisterre.

We crossed the finish line at Baiona at 0050BST on Thursday – about 550 miles in 3 days 15hours 50 minutes. A great trip and although we were pleased to have arrived in Baiona we were really enjoying the fantastic sailing conditions on Wed as the weather improved (sunshine, blue skies, warm, and great wind – champagne sailing) and we had settled into our sailing routines and felt we could have just kept on going!

Doug, Geoff and Andy had a day to explore Baiona before they had to fly back to the UK from Porto. Helen and I have been able to relax and enjoy the town ( famous for being the first place in Europe to hear about the “New World” as the Pinta sailed into Baiona on her return from Columbus’ voyage. We’ve also visited Santiago Compostella – amazing to see the huge numbers of pilgrims making the journey from many parts of Europe as well as other areas of Spain by bike and on foot to visit the burial site of the Apostle Saint James who had lived and preached in Galicia for many years. His body was apparently brought back from Palestine after he had been executed. Santiago also has a wonderful Parador hotel which claims to be the oldest in the world – dating from 1499! And it looks wonderful – if we ever return to Santiago we hope we’ll stay there!

Now we’re getting ready for the next leg of the Rally on Tuesday to Povoa de Varzim near Porto. Let you know how it goes in next update.

Best wishes
Helen and Iain