The Algarve, Portugal

1st - 17th Sept 2019

Wow!  Portugal's Algarve coastline is beautiful.  We stop off in Portimao for a couple of days on route to Faro.  The anchorage is just inside the entrance to Portimao.  Here we bump into Float On, Amy & Martin who have recently purchased a Beneteau name Olli and have a Youtube channel, but most importantly they have a lovely dog called BamBam.

We had a wonder around the town and visited the marina to find out the price of a berth for the winter.  The town had an amazing collection of sculptures along the waters-edge but the town did not have a lot going for it.

We decide after a couple of nights to head for Faro but know we are going to have to do an overnight stop.  This had to be the worst night we have ever had on board.  We had a swell that swung the boat so hard over that we had a job to stand up.  We hardly slept and our stomaches ached from clenching each time the boat rolled again so firs thing the following morning we set off for Culartra.

We arrived in Liha Da Culartra early Sept and celebrated Steve's 56th birthday in style at a restaurant.  This is not something we normally do.  We may have a coffee during the day and maybe a snack for lunch but we never go out in the evening.  It was a real treat haha!
Culartra is beautiful.  Its like stepping back in time where there are no cars or roads, only single rise houses, lagoons, sand dunes and stunning beaches where the sand is like icing sugar.

There are a couple of small shops, an ATM and about 6 bars/restaurants.  The men hang around the harbour either readying themselves to go out and fish or sit and gossip in the shade.  The women are nowhere to be seen apart from first thing in the morning when they all catch the early ferry to Olhao with their shopping trolleys to bring back the fruit, veg & provisions they need.

You can achieve your dream ❤

Annette's thoughts..............

We arrive in this world as equals and leave this world as equals. My resting place will be no better or worse than yours when my times comes but I know I will have a memory box of dreams that I can take with me.  

I had a dream and tried very hard to fulfil that dream and whilst doing so was a part of and witnessed the most wondrous breath-taking things and most of all I was fortunate to share my dreams with Steve.

We weren't lucky to live our dream, we'd worked hard for 40yrs laying down the foundation that would hold us up when we finally left to live our dream of sailing as liveaboards to wherever the wind took us.

Yes we've had to compromise, we can't physically hold our children or hug our grandchildren. We still have parents that are with us. We left very good jobs 12yrs before official retirement time and the remuneration from our private pensions will not be as good.  But......we can video talk to all our children, grandchildren & parents. We have a small private pension and we have a home we own. We have a yacht we love and that we know is capable of taking us wherever we want and we know the budget we have to live on.....WE CAN LIVE OUR DREAM.

Our families grow up and create their own circle of friends & gradually slowly their need for you is less and less. We'd bought up our children to be independent in a loving but working home. They all know the importance of being able to set a goal in life and each of them have started achieving these.  This had been our biggest dream, for our children to be happy & healthy and bring their children up to love & live their dreams.

What we do now in living aboard our boat full-time sailing from port to port visiting places we didn't know existed, being fascinated by the different cultures, adapting to a different cultural way of living, seeing magical ocean life and being able to do this without restrictions in our own time is what our life is about and we love it and cherish every day of it.

Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it. All dreams are achievable in some form.  They have to be worked for otherwise you'll never appreciate them. You need to be able to look back and say you lived a part of your dream. You may have to make compromises in order to reach and maintain your dream but remember these are your dreams that you can take with you wherever forever.

A dream or goal doesn't have to be a forever thing it can be anything. What you need to be able to say is 'I have my memory box of dreams' 💙💚.

Sailing the Atlantic Portuguese coast

22nd Aug - 31st Aug

We left Biaona heading for Peniche, Portugal.  It was going to be an overnight passage.  Once again the winds were light as we started but picked up later in the day, which meant we were able to do some sailing but not a lot.  Our autopilot that had been playing up and decided to give up all together, which meant hand steering almost all the way.  We were not happy people, especially overnight.  It amazing how much more you can do with an autopilot, the rudder sensor has stopped working.  It stops us both helping out with the sails, eating, drinking, watching the dolphins, seeing the sunfish etc. etc.

We arrived in Peniche at 6pm the following day, not a place that looked particularly inviting.  From our anchorage it looked very industrial and our anchoring app had informed us that it was not unusual for the police to turn up and ask you to move on, like we're sea gypsies!!  We didn't even get the tender out.

Anyway, we had decided to stay the following day so that Steve could sort out the autopilot.  Lucky for us we had bought a 2nd hand system newer than ours and had not yet installed it.  Firstly Steve found the wire to the sensor had been rubbing against the alternator belt, causing 3 small breaks, he changed that and it still didn't work so he changed the main control box and 'voila' it worked - fingers crossed no more hand steering on long passages.

Our next step Cascais, Portugal. We head out early as it's going to be at least a 10hr sail, but the winds picked up and for the most part we had a cracking sail.  This knocked a couple of hours off the estimated time of arrival, we were chuffed as we averaged 5.5/6knts.  Cordelia is at her best and is a boat that likes to be sailed in slightly stronger winds due to her weight. We had our passage friendly dolphins a lot of the time and it was wonderful.


Cascais is a lovely town.  It was very busy as the Portuguese take their holiday's there too and the cruise ships that go into Lisbon take their passengers there too.  There's a huge supermarket called Jumbo about 10mins walk from the marina (which we weren't in, we were anchored in the harbour).  The marina also had a fuel berth where you could fill up with water too, €5 for 200ltrs.

From Cascais we took a train to Lisbon.  We loved Libson, WOW! what a place.  Such beautiful buildings.  The cost of the train was €4.50 return, we then bought a tram/bus all-day ticket for €6.20 that was great to jump on and off all day.  We loved the trams, what rickety old trams they were too but a fantastic ride with open windows that move fairly fast up hill and round corners with about 10cm between the side of the tram and the buildings - it was better than a fair ground ride!  It's a not to be missed placed to see.

 

The Spanish Rias

19th July - 20th August

Wow!  The Spanish Rias are beautiful.  So many beaches and little fishing harbours, tapas bars and great people.  We started off going to Corme and Camerinas, both of which are north of the Finisterre Peninsular.  Not quite into the Spanish Rias but heading that way.

Matt & Anna came to see us in Corme for lunch, which was a lovely surprise as we didn't think we were going to see them for a long time.  Lunch was delicious with scallops & garlic prawns.  There are few shops in Corme and a lovely small fishing harbour.

Camerinas is a slightly larger fishing town where we anchored and went into a marina.  We were there when the Spanish Galicia were celebrating the Feast day of St. James (Santiago de Compostela) with decorated boats hooting their horns, cannons being fired and Celtic market stalls- it was wonderful to be a part of something that is so bright & colourful.

We love the siesta's the Spanish have every afternoon.  Although it can a bind when everything closes up if you need something between 1pm & 4.30pm, it does mean the tapas bars become busy with everyone having their lunch-break & siesta time.  It also means that the day's feel so much longer because you stay awake later as everything is open so much later than we are used to in the UK.  Every day is a Sunday to us, it's brilliant.



This Atlantic coastline is very pretty.  Although it has it's pitfalls like the Great Atlantic Swell, which can catch a lot of people out, including us (more on that another time), when you are sailing along you would be pretty unlucky to not see a pod of dolphins and maybe a family of Pilot whales and if you're offshore a bit more you may even come across one of the many gigantic whales that swim in their own ocean.  The Atlantic Coastline itself is very rocky so makes for a very scenic sail and holds many surprises within the beautiful Rias.

It's very easy to spend weeks in the Rias as every one has many small anchorages or marina's if that's what you want.  Most of the villages are lovely to wander, some of them are a bit run down but that just adds to the beauty of the place.
Plenty of supermarkets & launderettes and the obligatory Spanish Fiesta creating a lively noisy but happy place to be.

A Coruna and Northern Spain

12th - 18th July 2019

We arrived in A Coruna and had decided to join Nomad and go to a marina for one night.  Dread set in again with the approach to the marina.  It looked like a city, smelt like a city and felt like a city.  This was not quite what we thought a main stop-over for a lot of boats was going be like, but we were committed as soon as the man in the little boat greeted us at the entrance of the marina and directed us to a berth.

A Coruna is a city that like most, it has its beautiful and not so beautiful parts.  The main square just near the marina that houses the the civic offices has many streets leading off of it.  These little streets are not designed for cars, although that doesn't stop the Spanish and the streets are full of little tapas bars.  They are really lovely and give you a true feeling of being in Spain.  The walk though to the beach was nothing to shout about but if you are a big shopper, then this is the place to be.

 We ended up staying 4 nights in the marina.  We are members of the Ocean Cruising Club and this gave us a discount on the rate (which we weren't aware of until we paid), so the bill wasn't so mouth watering.  Matt & Anna are staying here, having decided they would leave Nomad here for the duration of their employment period on the super yacht that starts in September.  A great price for the annual berth at £2500 for a 46' yacht.

We'd decided to cross the bay and anchor in Mera, a little village that had a couple of awesome beaches.  We are still getting used to the Spanish culture who only visit the beaches from about 4pm onwards.  With the beach to ourselves and my love of beach-combing I was in my element.

This was also the first time we got our paddle board out.  Neither of us have done it before so this was going to be a laugh.  We both managed to stand up though and paddle for a little way.  I was too scared to fall in the water, not because of getting wet but the Atlantic water is cold, very cold!!  Mera only has a bank, supermarket and hairdressers but best of all it has a little tapas bar on the beach, great for a cold beer when you're hot on the beach.  A beautiful tranquil place, only a 30min sail from A Corona and just what we were looking for.  We stayed for 3 nights and then got ourselves ready for our next passage to Corme & Camerinas.

Gijon - Southern Spain

8th - 11th July

'Was your Biscay crossing a lion or a lamb?'  Our friend Carole asked us.  I can definitely say it was a lamb.  Being our longest passage yet we were shattered.  We were also worried we were going to run out of fuel (we don't have a fuel gage!).  Due to having motored about 90% of the way it was mutually agreed with Nomad that we would detour into Gijon 140 miles east of A Coruna.

On the approach to Gijon the town looked awful.  To the right the coastline has a full blown LG Power Station and to the left it looked like a 50 tower block row of flats/holiday apartments.  I was not looking forward to this!!




On the approach to the marina you are directed to the fuel berth(there are not anchorages in Gijon).  the fuel berth then direct you to check in and then you're given a berth.  We both fuelled up and booked for 2 nights.  Crikey, it was £44.88 per night so couldn't afford any longer!

We all had a sleep and then ventured into the local area near the marina to find something to eat.  We were astounded.  What looked like sight from a bad Spanish holiday resort actually turned out to be a beautiful old town with stunning buildings even along the beach.  Never judge a book by it's cover.

How wrong can you be, Gijon was fantastic.  Our 2 nights and 1 full day was a great relaxing time.  We found a supermarket that had a great fishmonger and butchery department.  The fresh tuna looked fab so I asked for 2 steaks to which the lady pulled a full fresh tuna out from the fridge, threw her huge fish knife straight through the middle of it and cut me 2 steaks the full size of the tuna.  I didn't like to say it was far too much so I just nodded, smiled and said 'Gracias'.  It weighed a ton hahaha!



The architecture was also something else. Old with new and the old was beautiful.  The little tapas bars along the windy streets were fabulous.









The weather window was good for the next day or so to make our move to A Coruna.  We set off on 11th June.  It would be an overnight as it was 140nm.  The weather was warm, seas were slight and we motor-sailed again arrgghhhhhh........

Crossing Biscay - France to Spain

5th - 8th July

This is going to be our longest passage yet.  We seem to be ticking off things on our 'must do list' on this adventure quickly with the English Channel and now crossing Biscay.  We were obviously a little anxious but excited too.

It was a great start with slight winds as expected.  We passed Ilse de Glenan Islands, reputedly the Caribbean of Europe.  Unfortunately we do not have time to stop and will have to visit another time.

Gradually the slight winds dies and we were left with no wind, the sun out and motor sailing.  The water was like a liquid silver with the sea state so smooth.  Dolphins joined us for short periods but nothing like the Channel crossing.

The first night the winds picked up and we were able to sail a fair bit but overnight those winds died and the engine went back on again.  Steve and I took it in 3hr watches.  We would normally do 4hr watches but for some reason, excitement probably, we were unable to do 4hrs!

We were greeted in the morning by the most glorious burning red/orange sun and dolphins, dolphins and more dolphins from every spec of the horizon you could see them - it was magical.  Then to top it off mid morning we saw a family of Pilot Whales.  The parents were very large.  What a day, amazing!

The engine stayed on all day due to no wind.  We motored through more fishing boats than I thought existed.  Whilst fascinating to watch and see in the dark it is also quite nerve wracking to sail through and obviously the reason our seas of empty of fish!  This is just one small part of the planets oceans that are being fished empty.

The next morning we saw a mahoosive whale 50mtrs to our starboard.  Unfortunately we were not ready with the camera and it was a missed opportunity.  What an experience and another first 😃.

The highlight of the trip though had to be on our last night.  Matt called from Nomad and told us to turn our lights off.  It was 1.30am, no moon and we were launched into complete blackness.  We looked over the side of Cordelia and to our complete amazement we watched dolphins in bioluminescent water.  I can only describe it as a scene from a water based Disney Film or science-fiction film.  They were incredibly sleek and serene darting under the boat, away from the boat and jumping in the air leaving a sparkling glittering stream behind them.  Absolutely AWESOME!