Deja Vu?! Why another port report from Vilamoura?
Well, somehow Vilamoura just won’t let us go. The weather forecast doesn’t bode well and we decide to stay a little longer. That’s not bad, because it leaves us time to meet Dirk and Nicola from Saga in Albufeira, enjoy a wine tasting at the Hotel Tivoli in Vilamoura, go on bike tours to Praia Falesia, Vale do Lobo and Ohlos de Agua, as well as other boat projects. We will (probably) never run out of them! In view of the heavy rainfall in recent weeks, we arm ourselves against the mosquito plagues that are soon to be expected and install mosquito nets in our cabin. For our safety, we install a surveillance camera – affectionately christened No. 5 by us – in the cockpit. We build a net under the solar panels for fresh fruit and vegetables. An additional socket in the saloon. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough sockets on board and they don’t correspond to today’s charging habits for electronic equipment, which we carry in large numbers. And – the longing for some greenery on board is finally satisfied! Axel prints – what else – holders for a small herb garden in the conservatory. There will soon be plenty of fresh herbs and a small geranium has also been added. Just for mosquito protection, of course! The lemon geranium is said to repel mosquitoes with its scent. The colorful pots have a built-in water reservoir, so there is no need for daily watering. The pots are also designed in such a way that the water cannot spill over, even at sea.
With the start of the Easter vacations, Vilamoura becomes much more crowded and also much louder. The karaoke bars are open again and the music is blaring until 3am. Phew! The excursion boats drive roaring crowds of people through the harbor and lightly clad, but clearly drunker tourists enliven the everyday life of the marina. Double phew!!! Our friend Jens from the Marieke, who was previously ashore at the shipyard in Portimao, takes advantage of a short break in the weather and flees to Lisbon. We say goodbye to him beforehand over lunch and hope that our paths will cross again. However, Jens has a different timetable, as he is heading back to Germany, while we are now considering whether heading north still makes sense for us. Maybe we’ll just stay in the Algarve before heading to Huelva in July?
At least the rainy Easter weather ensures that the booming music doesn’t get too loud at night. The doors of the pubs prefer to stay closed after all. We make the most of the weather and enjoy – not quite in keeping with the season – kale with smoked pork loin and Mettenden. Also delicious! However, we would prefer to switch back to grilled food and salad quickly.
As there are a few activities taking place in Vilamoura and Quarteira at Easter and the weather still doesn’t promise to calm down and improve, we decide to stay in the marina until after Easter. We start the long weekend with a visit to the market in Quarteira on Wednesday. The range of fresh, local fruit and vegetables is simply amazing! And the prices too! We get a thick piece of the freshest tuna from the fish market and the salad season can begin again. We have Niçoise salad with grilled tuna. Soooo delicious!!!! On Maundy Thursday, we also go shopping in Quarteira again. After visiting the small, but for us not very productive artisan market in the pedestrian zone, we can replace our carbon dioxide bottle for the Sodastream water bubbler at Borges & Martin. Afterwards, we head to our favorite chicken grill, Aki-Bom. A little later, we sit back in the cockpit with delicious chicken piri piri. On Good Friday, we visit the Mercado da Vila. We only have to walk around the corner and we are already standing in front of a handful of market stalls. Just like the day before in Quarteira, there are all kinds of knick-knacks and goodies to buy here too. Not really anything we could use, though. On Saturday we go golfing again. Mini golf again after a long time! Vilamoura is said to have Europe’s best mini golf course and of course we have to try it out before we leave. We play 18 holes on the Via Apia course and are very impressed with the course. Despite my hole in one, Axel wins in the end and has to buy me dinner. We go to our favorite Chinese restaurant Tai-Tai and are served delicious food as always. Easter Sunday is quiet and leisurely. We send Easter greetings and go for a walk on the beach to get some exercise. We have a delicious barbecue in the evening and then Easter Sunday is already over. As Monday is not a public holiday in Portugal, we start the week with another round of provisioning. The water tanks are also thoroughly flushed and then filled with fresh water. In the meantime, the weather is getting better and better and the forecast gives us hope that the weather situation will finally stabilize and we will have calm and warmer weather from the middle of the week. At last! So on Tuesday we buy some fresh fruit and vegetables from the market, do some laundry and give La Ola a wash. Now we are prepared and we can finally get going.
And then the time has actually come: after a winter break of almost 6 months, we’re finally getting going again! We really enjoyed our time in Vilamoura and were able to do a lot on board. We were able to visit many places in the beautiful Algarve and also explore the hinterland extensively. We like the region very much and we can even imagine that we will settle here one day when we no longer like sailing. But for now, we are back at sea.