Mir, Mandy & Me

Mandy left me for a week in Vilamoura marina, to go home and work, and I managed to service the engine and generator. New oil, impellers, fuel filters and oil filters, also replace the 20 year old exit pipes on the toilet. As well as this I managed to flush the water maker, grease the rudder post, tighten the altenator belt and fix the water heater. I am well happy, no engine or genny work for another 150 hours, hopefully.  We left the marina and had an ace 20 mile sail to Faro, specifically an anchorage off a town called Culatra. We flew up the Faro Canal at 9 knots, with the tide, and arrived 1 hour before sunset to the most peaceful, flat anchorage we have ever seen. The seas was a sheet of glass.  Yes, and we had the best sunset EVER! I know I keep banging on about sunsets and sunrises but the colours always amaze me. A Lapis lazuli sky is such a great colour. And on the other side of the sky you can sometimes see the belt of venus, the earths shadow,  rising like som...

This is for all my astronomical friends from Kielder forest star camp and of course Flodge and Julian. Surprisingly there has only been one standout clear night since we set off. There is a lot of light pollution whilst coastal sailing. I suppose it's a worldwide problem. In harbours and marinas it's work and party time which means lots of flashing lights. Look at the hotel above, they really don't like astronomy types around here. You'd think out at sea would be better but the fishing boat working lights can be seen for miles and destroy night vision. Also there are marker buoys and lighthouses which of course can be seen for miles as well. Even in a quiet dark anchorages the bobbing around of masthead anchor lights on sailing boats can really spoil a clear night sky. The one standout clear night, the seeing was amazing, the stars and milky way went right down to the horizon, so many stars so low down. It was like a planetarium, didn't look real. This was in the mi...

We left the Troia anchorage at Setubal with another beautiful sunrise, 3m waves and a great wind but that didn't last long. The wind died and we had to motor. Still we had loads of dolphins for a few hours. (You can see one in the background while Mandy is doing the lines) It was another uncomfortable overnighter. We arrived at 3am and had another first. Anchoring in the dark. It was pretty easy, full moon, big bay, good charts and no other boats or lobster pots. It was a bit rolly but we still managed to sleep. I'd forgotten that the days are shorter at this time of the year so the dark part of an overnighter is at least 12 hours and much longer than in the summer. Good job there was a full moon. Had a few walks in Sagres where we stayed for a week in a grand anchorage.  Great sunsets in Sagres - suprise suprise. Caught my first fish, a comber, not very edible so let him go. Left Sagres and had an ace sail to Lagos marina which had THE greatest boat chandlers I have ever been ...