Mexilhoeira Grande

After a good nights sleep at anchor in the Bay of Sagres, we had a busy day ahead. At first we had to fix our spreader issue: getting the spreader back up and tighten the rigging again. Hilda and Lajla came over to help us think how to best ensure the spreader would stay up (without a better alternative we used a tie wrap), measure our rigging and to lift me up in the mast. Since I didn't have to go aaaall the way up, I enjoyed my time up there and used the opportunity to take some nice photos. Once the spreader was back in place and the tie wrap secured, we lifted our anchor to set sail for Alvor together with Beautje.

The sail to Alvor was another gorgeous one. Sailing on south coast of Portugal is completely different from the west coast. The sea is so much calmer, even in stronger winds. On our way, we played around with the reefs again, as the wind picked up quite a bit closer to the coast. Once we were near Lagos we passed some beautiful cliffs and caves. In different weather conditions we could have anchored there and take the dinghy inside the caves. But unfortunately the waves and wind didn't allow us to do so. We would just have to do with the beautiful sightseeing, which a lot of tourists pay a lot of money for, from our boat.

Beautje unfortunately beat us to Alvor, but luckily we were both able to find a good anchor spot. After a bit, once we knew our anchor was holding, we took our dinghy to go over to Beautje for some board games, drinks and good company. After a couple of drinks we were joined by Kiki and Harmen, our mutual friends from Square One. As usual, the end result was a bit too many beers for Bart and glasses of wine for me. Luckily we were able to sleep it off the next day 😉

We were anchored at the beginning of Rio Alvor, which meant that, especially about an hour before and after low and high tide, we were rolling a lot. After two not so peaceful nights, we decided to go up a bit further down the river where it should be a bit calmer and where we would be a bit closer to the town of Alvor. However, Rio Alvor is a bit like the Waddenzee with a bunch of sandbanks. So we couldn't just leave whenever we want. Since we didn't fully trust the buoys nor our plotter, we decided to wait for high tide to make our way further down. We had at least 3,5m below us, so in the end we were more than fine, but still, why risk it right?

In Alvor we surprisingly met up with a lot of people. Jeroen and Natasha plus family, Bart's friends from his Lemsteraak sailing team, turned out to be in the neighborhood and paid us a visit. A day later we got a message from Lenneke, Bart's old babysitter, and her mom that they were near and would like to meet up with us. Very fun! We also, finally, had drinks with a non-Dutch boat, Angie and Mike from the Oso. We now refer to them as The Americans.

The town of Alvor is pretty cute, but very touristy. We mostly enjoyed the people and the beautiful nature. At one point we took Beautje and our supboards to the beach to make an attempt at surfing. The waves were very short, so this wasn't a great session to become better surf babes. We did have a lot of fun though and even had an awesome personal photographer with us. All photo credits go to Lajla.

On our last days in Alvor we had a very special guest: Bart's mom Marloes. Bart picked up Marloes with the dinghy late in the dark. After a cup of tea and one glass of wine we went to bed. After a bunch of rainy days, and two absolutely amazing rainbows, we woke up to a beautiful morning. We saw some people picking things at the beach. We didn't know what they were looking for, but armed with a good pairs of boots and a bucket Bart and Marloes made their way over to the sandbanks. When I arrived a bit later on our supboard, I was send back to get some salt. The two of them had learned that people were looking for razor fish (scheermesjes) and to get them to crawl out of their holes you need to pour some salt on them. We didn't have any luck with the razor fish and almost lost our bucket due to the upcoming tide. In other words, we arrived late at the party again. Not a market, but a razor fish hunting party this time.

Afterwards we prepared the boat to depart Alvor and make our way over to Portimao. Of course, we were accompanied by our loyal travel buddies from Beautje again. Another race was about to start soon.Read more