The direct route from Ria Formosa to Vilamoura would only be about 15 nautical miles. That wouldn’t really be worth a blog post! So we took a little detour just to have a little more to report on.
Ria Formosa – Praia Grande Ferragudo 34,9 nm
The morning starts as usual, calm and sunny. The forecast for today is actually southwest winds up to 20 knots, but who believes a weather report? We weigh anchor and sail out of the Ria Formosa. Out on the open sea, we are greeted by a mirror-smooth sea and we chug leisurely westward. Maybe there will be wind for sailing? In any case, we are in no hurry, as the distances in the Algarve are short. We pass Vilamoura with its hotels and high-rise buildings. We pass the beautiful red cliffs of Praia Falesia. We briefly consider anchoring off Albufeira, but decide against it in view of the numerous tourist water sports activities. We continue along the rocky coast, with views of numerous caves and grottos. Then comes another kilometer-long stretch of beach before Armação de Pêra with its high-rise buildings clouds the picture again. We continue around Cabo Carvoeiro and past numerous caves again. Among other things, we pass the famous Benagil cave, which is literally besieged by excursion boats and kayakers. After a five-hour journey, we finally reach the entrance to the Rio Arade and drop anchor off Praia Grande in Ferragudo with a view of Portimão. Compared to our last visit in February, the anchorage has become much busier, but we still find a good spot for La Ola. Here, too, we enjoy another beautiful sunset from our roof terrace. The rest of the evening passes quietly in the cockpit before we retire to our bunks early. Too much sun, too little wind, too much engine noise – it’s tiring!
Apart from a few fishing boats creating swells and shaking us around a little, the night passes pleasantly and quietly. As usual, I am up early and can enjoy the dawn. Lucky keeps me company, as always. After Axel has also made it out of his bunk, we have muesli and yogurt for breakfast. We can’t always have eggs! As the anchorage has cleared up a bit, we seize the opportunity and move La Ola to a mooring closer to land. Then we take the dinghy ashore to go shopping. On the way back, we stop at Marina Portimão and refill our outboard tank and spare canister. We don’t want to have to paddle by accident at some point. At the same time, we take the opportunity to say hello to Guido and Mücke from the Playmobil. The two of them have just arrived in Portimão together with the crews of the Lillemar and Junia, and we are glad that everyone made it to the Algarve safely. We also hope, of course, that we will have a chance to spend an evening together in the next few days before Junia and Lillemar continue on to the Mediterranean. The Playmobil is also spending the winter with us in Vilamoura. While the three boats have booked a berth in the marina, we are heading back to the anchorage. No sooner are we on board than we receive a visit from the Independence 2, which is anchored right next to us. They are also German and – what a small world! – acquaintances of Guido. Sylvia and Wolfgang are also spending the winter in Vilamoura, so we quickly find a few topics of conversation. After the two of them leave us to head for the beach, we tidy up a bit. We stow away the groceries, wash the dishes, and inflate the dinghy. Then we relax a little, and soon it’s time to soak up some sun on the upper deck again. Thanks to the Noforeignland platform, I also chat with our other neighbors, Martine and Martijn from the Amel Super Maramu Nalu. There’s no shortage of social contact here in Portimão. In the evening, we use the freshly bought ingredients to prepare another delicious vegetable stir-fry with sheep’s cheese. Then a little reading and blog writing in the cockpit, and another day in paradise is over.
And every day is Groundhog Day? A quiet night, a beautiful dawn and sunrise, breakfast, and then? Desk work. We sort invoices and receipts for our tax return, digitize and dispose of waste paper, and are busy with this until noon. Then we install the pelican hooks we made yesterday into our railing, which now allows us to easily open the railing at the front and rear. At the front, to make it easier to operate the bracket for our gennaker nose. At the rear, to make it easier to load and unload the dinghy. Heavy purchases can now simply remain in the dinghy and be winched up with the davits. At least, that’s the plan. We’ll see if it works. Then I practice a little ukulele while Axel prints covers for the computers on our e-bikes. At 6 p.m., we take the dinghy to the marina and meet up with the crews of the Playmobil (Guido and Mücke), Junia (Frank and Julia, as well as their two dogs, Luna and Gelato) and Lilimar (Ralf and Marbelis). Together, we go to an Italian restaurant and spend a nice evening together, giving each other a few tips for the onward journey east. In the dark, we finally head back to La Ola. Thanks to the remote control for the lighting on the aft deck, we can find La Ola in the anchorage without any problems and lift the dinghy back into the davits.
The next morning, I am able to observe not only the sunrise, but also the small TO fleet sailing out of the Rio Arade. It is unfortunate that the others are already moving on, but Junia and Lilimar still have a long way to go to reach the Mediterranean, and they need to take advantage of the favorable weather windows. Besides, in my opinion, they haven’t quite arrived at the peaceful blue water sailing life yet and „have“ to move on quickly. They all set sail from Germany this summer. Their everyday life still consists of getting ahead, trip plans and routes, and goals to achieve. They feel more like vacationers than boat dwellers, so-called liveaboards. After more than a year aboard La Ola and our experiences with Hello World, we are already a little more relaxed. We hardly make any plans and are happy to stay somewhere for a few weeks. We are not interested in clocking up miles, but in relaxed discovery. If the weather is not suitable, we don’t struggle against it, but stay and simply enjoy ourselves a little longer. We are not vacationers, but travelers with a mobile home. It takes a while to get into this mindset, and some people may not even want to. Regardless, for us it’s the right way to go and the right attitude to life. And in any case, we’re staying anchored in the Rio Arade for a few more days. Axel has booked a motor check for our outboard, and the weather forecast until the beginning of next week is not conducive to anchoring off the coast. And even though we’ve been here several times before, there’s still something new to discover and explore. But first, Martine and Martijn from the Nalu come to visit us. The two of them are on their way back to the Netherlands and are waiting for a suitable weather window to make good progress northward at this time of year. After they leave, we take our dinghy and explore the beach. First we go to Praia do Molhe on the outer pier, then to Praia Grande. We have a little cocktail at Club Nau and enjoy an hour of beach vacation. Then it’s back to La Ola, where we prepare a scampi pan in the evening and then enjoy the sunset with a glass of wine from the rooftop terrace. In front of our view of the sunset is the port outer pier, which literally transforms into Sunset Boulevard in the evening. Changing music blares from land, and then a tourist boat with a sunset dinner cruise program parks in front of us. It definitely doesn’t get boring here at anchor! We enjoy a good selection of music from the Beatles (I Wanna Hold Your Hand) to Billy Joel (Uptown Girl) to Otis Redding (Sitting in the Dock of the Bay) and save the electricity for our own music system today. In any case, the music selection is much more to our taste than a few days ago in Faro!
It’s hard to believe, but in the morning we are woken up by raindrops on the deck! Fortunately, after five minutes it’s over, but it was still a bit of a shock. Apart from that, it’s unusually overcast and gray today. A color that we had somehow already mentally banished from the sky. But of course, the beginning of autumn is also just around the corner in Portugal, and we are on our way to winter storage. While Axel takes the dinghy to the outboard service at Ondanautica to the shipyard, I stay on board and do the housework. The washing up is quickly done. Then it’s time to tackle our cockpit refrigerator again. Unfortunately, the last fish purchase left an unpleasant smell, so I defrost the refrigerator again after a relatively short time and then clean it thoroughly. Then I tackle the dust and mountains of cat hair. However, the vacuum cleaner is Lucky’s mortal enemy and he has to flee several times. Meanwhile, new yachts are dropping anchor, while others are leaving the anchorage. The hustle and bustle is complemented by wing surfers whizzing around and rowdy partygoers on tourist boats. Fortunately, the sun eventually comes out again and it becomes humid and warm. So humid and warm that even I consider cooling off in the water. And that’s what I do! Anyone who knows me well knows that this is not something I would normally do. I don’t really like water. Especially when it’s cool. But you can’t always hide behind your fears and aversions. You have to face them from time to time so that they lose their terror. So I go into the water, all alone on board and without any safety supervision to watch out for sharks or other sea monsters! And it’s definitely not cool, but cold. Refreshing. Actually quite pleasant once you’re in. To be on the safe side, I keep my feet in contact with our bathing ladder so that I can quickly escape from any sea monsters. However, there are none to be seen far and wide. Do they even exist? Have any attacks been documented off Portimão? Probably not, because in the end, fears only exist in your head! So I just enjoy the coolness. Yes, I should dare to jump into the cold water more often! To dry off and warm up again, I go to our rooftop terrace accompanied by Lucky. I look out for Axel, but he doesn’t arrive until hours later. The inspection took much longer than expected, but eventually I hear the familiar hum of the dinghy and Axel is back. We enjoy the sunset together – which isn’t so spectacular today – and grill hamburgers for dinner. Then we make plans for when and how we might continue. Unfortunately, the weather remains rather unstable and we have to decide at short notice whether and when we can anchor a little further off the coast. I would like to anchor off Sagres, Burgau, Lagos, and Alvor. But if the weather doesn’t cooperate, we might just stay in Portimão. We’ll see…
Unfortunately, the Algarve now seems to have succumbed to the cruise ship plague. After encountering one cruise ship upon our arrival, the next one is already approaching at 7 a.m. today. Fortunately, the really large cruise ships cannot fit into the river, so hopefully cruise ship tourism in the Algarve will remain tolerable. Otherwise, the weekend is starting off calmly and with sunshine. After breakfast, we take our dinghy and go ashore to do some shopping. With a shopping trolley, the task is quickly completed and we are back on board. There, Axel cleans our dinghy a little and installs a new anchor. The old folding draggen was much too small and unfortunately only kept the heavy inflatable boat in place to a limited extent. The new plate anchor is significantly larger and should hopefully hold better. In the meantime, we receive news that there were two orca attacks off Culatra today. Fortunately, our friends from Junia, Lilimar, and Playmobil were not affected, even though they were only 500 m away from one of the attacked boats. Lucky escape! In the afternoon, the weather deteriorates briefly and heavy raindrops fall. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to wash the deck clean. The raindrops just leave a sandy smear that urgently needs to be cleaned off. Unfortunately, our water tank capacity is not sufficient for this, despite the water maker. A little later, it is dry again, but remains overcast. We are probably too spoiled when it comes to the weather, but the 25°C feels quite cool to us. To warm up, we cook spicy chicken today. Always delicious!
During the night, the wind starts blowing strongly and the howling wind causes Lucky to slip into our bunk. He lies there quietly until 6 a.m., when his stomach growls too loudly and I have to wake him up. After his breakfast, I am allowed back into the cabin and Lucky joins us again. When I get up at 7:45 a.m., it is still quite windy, but the sun is shining and it promises to be a beautiful Sunday. While the water maker fills the tanks today, I tap some of the water directly into the washing machine and make sure we have fresh towels and laundry. Thanks to the bright sun, our batteries are still charging despite this double power load. How nice to get water and energy delivered free of charge in this way. When you consider how much money we had to spend on it in our mill. Otherwise, we dawdle away Sunday once again. We actually wanted to go to our favorite beach club and enjoy sushi and live music there. But the wind is blowing hard all day and spoils our trip to the beach. After all, we don’t want to sit in the restaurant completely wet. Instead, we have homemade lasagna from the freezer and a delicious glass of wine to go with it. And we can still hear the live music. So it could be worse. In the afternoon, we realize that the forest fire season in Portugal is unfortunately not over yet. About 40 km away from us, scrubland catches fire during agricultural work near Bordeira and cannot be extinguished due to the strong winds. Even though we are far away, the clouds of smoke are visible from afar and darken the sky to the west of us. A huge cloud of smoke hangs over Lagos. Fortunately, the smoke is not drifting towards us, but that can change quickly if the wind shifts. We hope that the fire can be extinguished quickly. Not so much out of concern for ourselves, but for the residents of the area. At the moment, no buildings or towns are threatened by the flames. But that can change just as quickly. In any case, the smoke makes for the most spectacular sunset I can remember. A little later, we read that there is also a fire in Faro, where we were recently. And it’s relatively close to the center. So we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the fire can be extinguished quickly, because there are definitely a lot of people living there. By the way, we use the fogos.pt platform for information about forest fires in Portugal. You can also see the extent of the fires very clearly on Google Maps. To do this, click on the layer symbol in the upper right corner and switch to the „Forest fires“ layer. This allows you to quickly identify road closures and danger zones, even if you are unfamiliar with the area.
It remains very windy and correspondingly rough at the anchorage until early morning. At some point around 4 a.m., someone pulls the plug out of the large fan and suddenly it is quiet and windless. When I get up in the morning, the view towards Lagos is no longer obscured by clouds of smoke. Not only has the wind died down, it has also shifted to the east, so that the smoke is now being carried further away from us. However, it can still be seen as a dark band of clouds over the sea, because the bush fire is still burning. After breakfast, Axel takes me to the small beach at the outer pier. While Axel drives back on board, I take a short walk. First, I climb the stairs up to the cliffs, then walk along the Caminho dos Promontórios past Praia do Pintadinho to Farol da Ponta do Altar. A little further on, I can see the Leixão das Gaivotas rock standing in the water. Behind it, one beautiful rocky beach follows another. The turquoise-green water invites me to take a dip. I take another look into the fenced-off caves, but can’t see much except deep rock faces. At least you can hear the water rushing below. On the way back, I walk along the road past one or two dream properties. A quick phone call and my water taxi picks me up again at Praia do Molhe. In the afternoon, we set off together again and treat ourselves to a late lunch at Club Nau. Sushi for Axel and spare ribs for me. As always, it’s delicious and we have a beautiful view of the anchorage. Around 5 p.m., we are back on board and enjoy the rest of the day in the cockpit. We think about what we want to do in the next few days. The wind and swell should finally allow us to anchor further west off the coast from Wednesday onwards. However, the bush fire is spreading further and further, and we would end up further west in the smoke and probably also ash cloud. Not a good idea! So, should we just stay anchored in Portimão for a few more days? Or go back to Culatra? Or head to Vilamoura? We don’t know! But maybe the fire will be extinguished faster than expected and we’ll still be able to anchor a little way off the coast. We’ll just take it as it comes.
The next morning, we wake up to some sad news. Our friend Stephan, who visited us in March, has sadly passed away in tragic circumstances. We are deeply affected by this news and our thoughts are with his wife Anja and his family! We start the day feeling sad, but everyday life goes on, as banal as that may sound. So we go ashore to do some shopping as planned. We need to replenish our supplies on board, regardless of where we are going in the next few days. The fire near Lagos is still burning, but seems to be 70% under control. However, rising winds are causing it to flare up again in areas that had already been extinguished. In addition, a hurricane is approaching the Azores from the Caribbean and threatens to bring wind and waves to the Portuguese mainland. With an eye on the weather, we consider whether we should head to the marina in Vilamoura in a few days. Back on board, we do a little tinkering and cleaning. Surprisingly, it is already evening and we have visitors from our neighbors John and Angie from the sailing yacht Ultima. While Axel prepares delicious crab cakes, I serve our onboard cocktail La Ola Olalá. Both are very tasty and we have a nice evening with our neighbors. John and Angie have two cats—Batman and Robin—on board and have been sailing their Oyster 56 for seven years. After they leave, we sit in the cockpit for a long time, thinking about life. And also about the helplessness we feel when faced with death, especially when it is sudden and unexpected. In the end, I am left with the realization, which is by no means new, that you only have one life and should enjoy it for as long as it lasts. There are always ups and downs, it’s never easy, no matter how it may appear to others from the outside. You can never control everything, but you can always make the best of it. And you can, should, and must allow yourself to be helped if you cannot find the path to this realization on your own!
The next morning starts off leisurely. We spend the morning on board, the water maker is running, and the boiler uses solar energy to produce hot water for a pleasant shower. Everyday life on a boat. At 1 p.m., we meet up with John and Angie again. We take our dinghies to Portimão and the Indian restaurant Papadum. There, we enjoy a delicious and inexpensive lunch menu for a mere €9.99. We enjoy papadum with three different dips, chicken korma, chicken vindaloo, rice, and naan bread, accompanied by a cold beer. Full and satisfied, we then visit the nearest supermarket and a Chinese store before heading back to the anchorage. Wolfgang and Sylvia have returned after a few days away and spontaneously invite us for a glass of wine on board. So we sit comfortably together on board the Independence 2 and chat about all sorts of things. And once again, it turns out that the world is smaller than we thought. In addition to Guido and Mücke from the Playmobil, I also know another friend of theirs, with whom I sailed the NRW Cup about 30 years ago. Despite being a random crew that had never sailed together before, we won the regatta back then. For me, in my mid-20s at the time, it was a very memorable experience! It’s not until around 8 p.m. that we return to La Ola and listen to the live music from the beach for a while in the cockpit before eventually retiring to our bunks.
As the weather conditions are not improving, we decide to stay anchored in Portimão for another day and then head to the marina in Vilamoura. Anchoring off the coast and also in Portimão will be very rough over the next few days, and the only alternative would be to anchor in Ria Formosa again. It’s a shame, but this way we can arrive at the marina in peace before the bad weather hits and don’t have to worry that Hurricane Gabrielle might find its way to the Algarve after all. At the end of our time at anchor off Portimão, we take the dinghy to Ferragudo again and enjoy a delicious meal at Suoeste. Not quite in the €9.99 class, but super tasty. I have delicious sardines, Axel has sole. Back on board, we tidy up a bit so that we can get an early start the next day. Even though it’s only a short distance under engine power, we want to try to anchor off Benagil Cave and also want to arrive in Vilamoura around noon if possible. We spend the evening in the cockpit as usual and are treated to disco music from the beach bar in Portimão. It saves electricity in the end when you don’t have to run your own radio, and the music selection is so good that I find myself dancing along.
Ferragudo – Vilamoura 20,7 nm
The next day, we set off early. At 8:15 a.m., we weigh anchor and leave the beautiful anchorage off Praia Grande. Later, we learn that the authorities asked the anchored boats to leave the anchorage in the morning for safety reasons. Apparently, Hurricane Gabrielle is bringing too much wind and waves from the southwest, making it unsafe there. Outside, the swell is surprisingly strong, which is not commensurate with the lack of wind. When we arrive at the Benagil caves, there is already a lot of tourist traffic, so we decide not to stop, but rather to get to Vilamoura early. We arrive there around noon, check in, and fill up our diesel tanks a little. Then we head to our old berth at pier G, where Guido and Mücke from the Playmobil take the lines. A few minutes later, we are sitting together in the cockpit chatting. We decide to have a barbecue together in the evening, and Mücke and I go shopping for ingredients. When we return to the marina, Sylvia and Wolfgang from the Independence 2 have also moored at our pier. In the end, we have a nice evening together in our cockpit and are happy to be back in Vilamoura. Even if the noise from land accompanies us with booming music and shouting until the early hours of the morning.
We will now be staying in Vilamoura for the next six months over the winter. We will definitely be going on a few trips, and our first visitors have already announced their arrival. We are looking forward to a wonderful time and will, of course, continue to report on our experiences here.