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Olhao ... Portugal
11.6.99
Tirla Web site Email No.4
Olhao ... Portugal
11.6.99
I woke up at 05.00. We are drying out for long periods on each tide. Some cockle diggers had arrived in their boat and in the dawn I saw them prepare for the walk across this sandy island to the Atlantic side to search for cockles. I could hear the surf pounding in the distance. Got up much later and my first job was to re fly the kite which flies on the wind that follows the sun round, that is if the main air flow is too weak to overcome the wind sun effect. The kite has a 6ft span and is bright purple red and blue. It is very stable and hovers all day at around 150ft up ... quite what the local fishermen think I don't know! All the ship's curtains are up on the sunny side of both hulls to keep cool. Luckily the wind is fresh and reviving. Deck hatches are left open with moz nets over them. Over morning coffee there was a long discussion in an attempt to identify what day it was! We had to consult the GPS in the end. Our only task today is to go over to Dave's boat and borrow some large planks to put under one hull per tide so we can re anti-foul with Micron - a leaching paint. We are now running on Camping Gaz and still using the water we filled up with in Bayona over a week ago. We made some fresh using the watermaker but we are out of the sea for most of the tide over these next few days. In this sandy cove we have seen White Storks, one of Europe's largest land birds, which hiss if annoyed and clatter their mandibles together during courtship ... takes all sorts! Also a single Little Egret and Little Terns, who fish, dropping within feet of the boat where the small fry swim in large shoals in the shadow of the keels. Several boats are in contact with us via email sending information about harbours etc. No fresh meat or fish left so it's ships stores for meals. Our various dried beans from Scoop are now very useful. Seems a life time away when we went to the shop in
Penryn. Fae baked bread and banana cake. We are anti-fouling in a different
colour, we will be a dark blue below the water line. We have no Portuguese money so there's no point in going to the nearest town. We don't need anything anyway! The cockle gatherers returned at 11.30 a.m., as they do each day, carrying the fruits of 7 hours
labour. Standing waist deep in the Atlantic dragging a large metal claw along the sand cannot be easy work. Economically the rewards must be minimal, yet they come every day and repeat the cycle.
12.6.99
The Antifouling is done, and we look great in the new
colour. We've learnt a lot, and next time we will find the job easier, the trick is to get right down to the bottom of each hull to paint everything which sits in the water. We dug under the sides as the tide went down but the effect was to lower the boat into a trench! Next time we will leave her to dry out and let the sand water table go down below the keels, then we will dig! Anyway all's done now.
In the Med we expect the European antifouling to be effective, in the West Indies it will be near useless. The conservation lobby has reduced the kill factor to "very mild". As we have been advised, once in the
W.I. they sell two types, one with a plain antifouling label the other with a huge skull and cross bones with "Not for sale in Europe or the USA". "That's the one you need when there", we were informed! We left on the top of the tide for the anchorage near Ponte Cais ready to leave tomorrow. Several boats from UK are near us. Music started at 21.00 hrs until 02.00 at the fishing village. Heard several "pop" classics sung in Portuguese!
13.6.99
Up at 06.30, anchor up, and headed for the entrance. We left 2 hours below low water with the ebb producing an impressive series of standing waves as we shot out over the bar. Only one came aboard! Then we were out. Sea flat calm, hardly any swell, so motored off towards Rio Guadiana which is the river forming the Portuguese/Spanish border. Passed a small fishing boat guarding a vast line of what we took to be tunny nets going out to sea for a mile or so. ...Large shoals of mullet, noses on the surface. Many pot and line floats all over the place. Well up river now, we changed to the Spanish flag as soon as we started to enter the river because we intend to go to Sanlucar do Guadiana which is on the Spanish side of the river. All around are olive trees, orange trees, fig trees, maize etc. In the distance are some large Moorish castles. We hope to make it to the pontoon at Sanlucar before the benefit of the flood tide is lost to us. It's giving the engines an extra knot at the moment. The terrain is hilly and arid with very small villages. We have passed Laranjeiras where they have put down moorings for a few visiting yachts and a pontoon. There is a nearby restaurant with all the European flags on the fence posts, so I expect their custom benefits. There are about five yachts moored there - all from abroad. With the wind sheltered by the hills it's getting noticeably warmer! By 16.30 hrs we are anchored off Sanlucar but the pontoon is full with three yachts. On the way up you get the feeling you're on expedition into something like the Orinoco, then suddenly a few other yachts are there as well. There are two villages here. The Portuguese one is called
Alcoutim. Their church clock chimes four o'clock and the Spanish follows with five o'clock! The two countries may be a few hundred yards apart but an hour in time. Midnight should be quite a musical event! The Spanish castle above the town is straight out of the Foreign Legion and looks very impressive. It's high on the hillside and dominates the area. In the villages storks are feeding their young on great nests on the bright white washed red roofed houses. We need water as we don't want to make it from the silted river water. We had hoped to go alongside and fill from a hose. We don't know if there is a tap nearby so we will shortly be investigating with a shore party expedition.
We laid our anchor with a trip line, after we saw another yacht where the owner looked as if he was in a wet suit and diving into the murk to recover his anchor! Some large logs are floating up stream and no doubt they will return on the ebb. It's hot, but a welcoming cool river breeze is blowing. Due to the time we have spent at sea coming from
Bayona, and dried out on sand at
Culatra, we have not spent any money for nine days! We took the dinghy to the town pontoon. While there a German boat started to leave so we rushed back to the boat. Up came anchor and trip line and we went alongside a notice on the pontoon. The ferry boat slot! Never mind it's not due until 10.30 tomorrow. I talked to the Dutchman 2 doors away. He's off to the local restaurant and said he was leaving tonight, if not too drunk, well, in the morning definitely. Where was he going? Patagonia after the Canaries ... as you do. The village is "real" Spain. They are voting today so the police are outside the official building ... guns and all. The local children are riding round in a donkey cart. It's more like an African vista. We are expecting the African Queen to come chugging round the corner. However the village water front has been EEC granted with paths, trees and a free shower block, for us visitors, which is as well designed and fitted out as any we have used. It's £2 per night for any size boat and water on the pontoon etc. power free!! A local grandmother, all in Sunday black, sat on the wall as I went into the shower block, and I said
"'Ola!" she looked at me with the eyes of one observing an alien, which I suppose I am. Still, after the showers we are off between the Palm trees to see if the Tapas bar is open. We're informed the Portuguese restaurant across the river has a BBQ not matched on this side, but tonight we stay this side. As Fae says there seems a wonderful feeling of community here with Grandfathers/Grandmothers, fathers/mothers, sons/daughters all together in their Sunday best parading the village in the cool of the evening stopping to talk, with many gestures, or to smoke cigars or laughing together. The Tapas bar was open. They had two strange Spanish dogs of a sort not seen in the UK - cat/dogs in shape but very attentive when you ate! The bar's TV was full of football and the political results. Most people in the bar seemed to support one party who seemed to have increased their vote share by 2.5% or something. Anyway everyone smiled when, after
Tapas, Malcolm ordered chips so it was O.K. The Dutch yacht left on their return from their meal out, so they were not too drunk. We decided after two beers we would wait till the morning to move! The Portuguese village was beautifully lit to show off its small fort and streets, we must go over there tomorrow.
15.6.99
We filled our 700 litre water tanks, the first several gallons were red hot from the pontoon pipes being partly in the sun. Fae started to do the laundry, it took three hours as Roger, the German (back from 5 years sailing in West Africa), and Richard, the Englishman , (found a ferro archer type hull damaged in UK re built it, and sailed here) came to swop information with us and talk of foreign ports. Live-aboard sailing is like that. I gave Roger a copy of the world freeware tide programme for his 386 P.C. Malcom installed it on his machine in DOS to his great delight. Every possible port tide prediction for any date forever! We are giving it to anyone with a P.C. By 14.00 hrs (Spanish time), even with the curtains up, it is 30C inside the boat. Later on the sea breeze will blow cooler even though we are 20 miles up the river. Last winter there were torrential rains higher up stream. The two dams were opened and the river went up nearly 10 meters and the flow sped by at 15 knots ...full of trees, furniture and debris. Several people were drowned yet only one boat sank. Many yachts ended up anchored in olive orchards !! We went over to Portugal by dingy last night. Alcoutim has a totally different atmosphere ... busy, active and seems to exude a more liberal commercial approach. The bar took Spanish money, two beers, lemonade and crisps was £1.80. The views back over the river to Sanlucar were very attractive. The evening was warm 32deg C but gradually cooled a bit. We were asked on board a boat I recognized from the UK. They had been cruising for 4 years. Three days into a crossing of the Atlantic they started to take in water, 90 gallons an hour. Only by connecting their engine cooling pipe into the bilge did they limp back into the Canaries just afloat! An old repair which had been done during the previous ownership had failed and the mast was resting on the front end of the keel ...slowly opening it from the hull!! When we were aboard they had two friends who sailed here three years ago and never left, having bought a derelict house with 200 orange trees. He has retired but now works harder than ever in his orange groves!.. The yacht he arrived in is anchored off his house. We stayed until 22.30 then came back for dinner on deck in the river breeze.
16.6.99
Motored up river to the tributary Rio
Vascao. We anchored and when the worst of the suns heat had gone we took the dinghy into the Rio
Vascoa, a fresh water river. It's only 50 yards across. As we went in a Portuguese goat herder stood on the bank waving at us. In the end we realised he wanted us to take his net rope to the opposite bank and we then saw his son coming down to take the rope. We carried on and found the small ancient damn that we had been told has created pools of warm fresh water to swim in. We swam with the sound of exotic birds and the hot valley rocks reflecting the day's heat, it was very refreshing. On the way back we saw water snakes, a large terrapin and wild grapes, figs, oranges and olives. Malcolm slept in the netting to keep cool.
We ate the Dorados that Fae bought the day before, from a grumpy fishman standing at the back of his van with the local women clustered round. The fish were full of bones but the little meat did taste good. We ate on deck with the main table set up and it was dark by the middle of the meal.
17.6.99
By morning we had a huge raft of bamboo, dead fish and large bits of trees round the anchor chain and both engines. We raised the engines and watched our raft float up stream. Soon we would be leaving the steep rocky hill sides. Up anchor and under way on the first of the ebb, forecast is for NW winds, good for us if we go directly to
Gib. We are full of fresh water and still have 140 litres of petrol for the 4 stroke outboards. We find Tirla is able to maneuver very well even in high winds, much to the surprise of onlookers. After 4 days in the river the sea will be a real change. Sweltering heat, rocks close on every shore, wood and debris, but we would never want to have missed this expedition. When we passed Sanlucar the town quay already had a different yacht community, a young Australian couple on a 30ft Laurence Giles sloop that had been round the world, (the previous owner died aboard aged 70 while sailing in Russia ), a new Dutch boat and an English sloop from
Maldon. In a few days they too will be scattered in various ports. So many people have come up the river and ended up buying a
"Finka " (spelt wrong I'm sure ), some live on their boats while they rebuild the ruins, farm the rich plain for their vegetables /fruit and put a track in to the nearest road. Others have no well and need to go once a week to carry water to their shack. Our thoughts are now about going to
Gib, some 120 miles away. Will the wind hold in the NW? Which marina do we go into, everyone has a different opinion. We find that to be the case with so many places. It seems some have bad experiences in certain places, others have a great time so any given port or venue has different memories for every yacht. We anchored back under the main road bridge on the Portuguese side of the river close to the entrance.
18.6.99
Left for the entrance at 09.30. Northerly wind. All looks good for the final push 120 mile to
Gib. Outside the long shallow harbour mouth the wind went Easterly and we saw a huge Tunny net right in our path. We know we should be able to sail over them as we have only 1m depth and with the echo sounder up only the Hydovane rudder is vunerable and that is on a pivot with a crash pin so it can swing upwards on any impact with debris. We watched a large pod of what we took to be false killer whales, actually part of the dolphin family, ( about 2 to 5 m long) following a large fishing boat that was trawling. One whale leapt high out of the water. Impressive beasts.
During the day the wind was 8 to 10 knots and followed the sun round giving lazy sailing at 4 to 6knts ending with an evening reach. 23.30 hrs brought a warning from Navtex of head winds up to force 7 in the Straits of
Gib. We decided at 01.00 hrs on the 19th to turn for Bahia Cadiz and selected an anchorage well inside opposite the Puerto Sherry Marina walls, sheltered on the other side by the harbour entrance of Santa Maria. Put in waypoints and followed radar etc into dark bay. Found the Puerto Sherry entrance and saw a large yacht aground, bows up, having missed the entrance! Took 3 hours to get in from 18 miles out. Anchored just after 04.00hrs and found ourselves opposite a pounding Disco dance with full laser show .. who cares at that time ! Lit oil anchor light, woke up mid morning to perfect day and water bikes at 30 knots, ......yes it seems its the week-end again!
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