An eventful day!

Saturday 17th July – left Ayamonte Spain for a short sail along coast back to Vilamoura. Early start as shallow at entrance so alarm at 0700 and off pontoon by 0730. Stiff breeze blowing us on to the pontoon so not an easy departure but managed to spring off ok. Beautiful morning but quite breezy – think it might just be funnelled down the river valley. By the time we get to river mouth tide has already turned – should have left a bit early as don’t like crossing shallows on a falling tide (particularly as channel twists and turns a bit and in places it's not entirely clear where deep water will be)– danger clearly illustrated by a boat sitting aground – he must have gone well out of the deep channel and gone aground on high water – now he’s got a long wait until next tide! We have no problems getting over the bar but discover wind still strong (wasn’t just the river valley!) – up to 27 knots so set off with just the jib and make great progress. Sadly after an hour winds drops quickly and soon we’re crawling along at 3 knots – so engine on as we want to get in at a reasonable time (and Helen wants to see the Tour!). All going well until suddenly there’s an odd ripping sound from below then while we’re wondering what it is the engine overheating alarm comes on. Discover TWO fan belts have disintegrated – one runs water pump for engine cooling. So while Helen sails I explore the unknown territory of the engine compartment. Biggest problem is access – very confined space and the nuts I need to loosen off are particularly inaccessible. Two hours later and skinned knuckles and much frustration I managed to replace one of the belts. Unfortunately I discovered one of the spare belts I’d been left was almost torn through and wouldn’t have lasted 2 minutes. Moral about checking even the spares thoroughly! Difficult to get sufficient tension on the new belt so reluctant to use engine and we continue under sail. However, it is a lovely sail and we have a visit from a large school (Helen says its a pod) of dolphins – always a thrill. Wind holds up until we’re a few miles from Vilamoura but gradually dies in the evening. We should have anchored in last of the breeze but a passing mobo (motorboat) agrees to give us a tow. Interesting experience. So eventually we made it into the marina about midnight Spanish time. Glad to get in although reception pontoon was immediately outside Marina club and there was a very big party which lasted until 4am local time (ie 5am Spain!!) – but we were so tired we slept through it all except just woke briefly for the finale at 4am!

So an interesting and challenging day – but as it's probably about 35 years since I last used a spanner seriously it was a great experience. Now looking forward to some quiet restful days!

Best wishes
Iain and Helen