on the (presque) Ilha de Faro
We set off in the morning to anchor off Faro. A Portugese patrol boat was coming in the other direction, and we were relieved when he turned to head up to Olhao. The Portugese are enforcing their equipment regulations (liferaft, flares, extinguishers, life jackets, etc.) with heavy fines. We thought we might get to Lidl by dinghy at high tide, by going up the creek east of the commercial quay, and we anchored at first just beyond with the intention of investigating. A friendly local went out of his way to point out that where we were was not the best anchorage. When we explained our purpose, he put us off, saying that leaving the dinghy in that location might be inviting trouble at the rough end of town. We moved on, and having investigated the pool, crowded with moorings and with little room for anchoring, we decided to anchor in the final reach leading to it. There were other boats there, and it should be relatively sheltered by the saltmarshes when the bad weather came in.
We wanted to find Lidl, and decided to try the southern of the two in town. We landed at the long pontoon, as the tide was high and it would probably be impossible to duck under the railway lines to get into the small boat pool. We set off through the town, and by sheer instinct (having been aided by Google), crossed the railway lines, passed the gas tanks, and found the store at the end of the road. We loaded ourselves with as much as we thought we could carry, and set off back again. Fortunately it was not too hot. I wanted to top up the data credit, but for some reason the Vodafone shop's system was down. We took note of the hotel Eva on the corner, and the Capitania, for rendezvous purposes.
The water pump keeps running, and we suspect we might have a leak. I went into the cockpit locker to investigate, without finding anything, but while there hauled out the spare dinghy in anticipation that Tom and Emma might enjoy it.
Later, I took myself off for a scouting trip. I had intended to head south down the creek leading from the pool where the larger boats are moored, but decided to be responsible and first check out the channel in to the town at low tide so that I had a better idea of where it ran. I managed to run at full tilt into a soft grassy mud bank not far from the centre of where I imagined the channel to run. The propeller was in so deep that I had to dig the mud out with an oar blade before I could raise the engine, and even then I was firmly in the mire. Getting out was not an option, as my foot just went down and down into the oozing black mud. Eventually I managed to haul myself off by kedging with the anchor. There was plenty of water, if you knew where, as a passing fisherman demonstrated. I continued on up the creek to Bruce's yard, but finally ran out of water. I did see three spoonbills, though, a heron and a stork as well as numerous small waders that I couldn't identify.
We spent the day stowing stuff and generally preparing to receive visitors, including a haircut for me. We were also anticipating the onset of wind and rain during the evening, and in this we were not disappointed. It started on time, around 2100 hrs, and wound itself up to a Force 8 with 47 knot gusts. Unfortunately the tide was high, so we did not get the shelter we would have liked from the saltmarshes intervening between us and the beach. I am writing this log on anchor watch, at 0330. The pressure has dropped a couple of points to 1002, and there is a hint that the wind is just beginning to veer. I might soon be able to go to bed, leaving NavMonPC to watch the anchor for me. The decks are now getting a good wash down. Unfortunately it was a false dawn, the wind continued to gust, until it gradually died down around 0530. The dinghy boards lashed on the foredeck were banging around as we veered, and I had to go on deck during a lull in the rain to try to sort them, not entirely successfully.
Having got to sleep eventually around 0600, we were awake around 0900. The wind had veered to the north west, and was only blowing around F4. Mo soon discovered that her fresh vegetable supplies under the floor boards were awash. I had topped up the water tank with bottles and a jack, expecting there to be plenty of room. However, with our extreme heeling overnight, the water had leaked from the split water tank, and distributed itself around the bilges. So the first, unwanted, job of the day was a mop up operation there. I had regretted leaving the dinghy in the water, but it had mercifully not capsized: it was two or three inches deep with rainwater. We cleared out the back cabin, bringing the bikes up on deck, and aired off the mattresses that felt a bit damp.
Later, we went ashore to do some final shopping. At around 2330, we got a text to say that the plane had landed, so I set off to collect the family. We met up outside the Capitania, as planned.
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| Leaping from the dunes on the seaward beach on the (presque) Ilha de Faro |
We made a leisurely start, after the late arrival of Peter, Debbie, Tom and Emma last evening. We were surprised to hear that Faro airport had suffered structural damage due to the winds the previous night. After lunch, an expedition was mounted up the creeks to the west towards the beach. We took two dinghies, with Pete and Tom in the Avon so that Tom could drive. On the way there we had crossed some shallow waters, so that it was slightly worrying that the tide was falling by the time we reached the beach. After some leaping around in the dunes, and a snack, we returned to the boats. The journey home was not without incident, but we made it back ok.
We tried to anchor off the island Ihla da Armona, but when we arrived at our proposed anchorage north of the island, much of the space was obstructed by unoccupied mooring buoys, and we could not find sufficient depth to anchor. We retraced our steps along the Olhao channel and went to Culatra, where there was more room.
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| Miracle's crew were swept ashore in their dinghy by the wind after losing an oar and returned the next day |
With the forecast of increasing southerly wind, we decided to recover the outboard and rib. It was around 1900 hrs and quite dark when we heard a voice calling us, and went on deck. By this time it was blowing a Force 8. An open dinghy was being swept past us, with a man and woman on board, and they appeared to have only one oar. They asked, very nicely, if they could come alongside, but never made it. Very soon they were also swept past the yacht to leeward. We re-launched the rib, and got the outboard back on and started, but by this time Debbie had lost sight of them. Peter and I set off with a search light to see if we could find them. We very soon found ourselves in breaking waves, and as we turned around the outboard grounded a few times. We were fortunate to get off the beach. On returning to Fuga we alerted the emergency services via 112. We later were called by Lisbon control, and repeated what we knew, then again by the Maritime Police. It seemed a long time before we saw the blue light of the ISN lifeboat. They did not seem to know what they were looking for, and it was some time before we were able to flash torches and get them to come within hailing distance. They did not take much notice of what we tried to tell them, and merely stated that there wasn't any water where we said the dinghy was driven by the wind. After an abortive search in the wrong direction, they gave up and headed into Culatra. At some stage the wind veered to the west/north west, gusted briefly to 53 knots, and then remained quite strong (with a long fetch) all night. We wondered what had become of the occupants of the dinghy, no doubt saturated in the driving rain.
We were highly relieved to see a dinghy being rowed towards us, with two people on board, in livery matching the yacht Miracle anchored nearby. We were later surprised to receive an e-mail from Maggie Corder:
"Hello John and Mo - I got your email address form David and Jeanne on the Guadiana last week.
I would like to thank you very belatedly for your efforts on our behalf that stormy evening in the Culatra anchorage.
We stupidly lost an oar as we came alongside Miracle and ended up on Cocos Island where we spent an anxious but dry night in a fisherman's shack. Fortunately it wasn't as uncomfortable as it might have been as we received help from a fisherman who gave us dry clothes and shelter, and lent us an oar the following morning so that we could return to Miracle. As the weather continued to be so bad we never had the chance to speak to you that following day to thank you for calling the coastguard. And you must have wondered what had happened to us!!
Anyway, we are now home in N Yorkshire for a few months, in the damp and drizzle. We hope to get back to the boat on the Guadiana in the spring. I hope we may meet up at some time....it always amazes me that the sailing world is so small, so undoubtedly we will share an anchorage somewhere in the future.
With thanks and best wishes
Maggie Corder
Humphrey Holland
S/Y Miracle
We managed to get ashore to Culatra during the morning. The wind got up again, and it became quite uncomfortable, so that people were not feeling too well. We decided to cut and run for Faro, where there would be more shelter. This meant that we had a much more comfortable evening.
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| Both Tom | and Emma did a good job helming up the channel |
We set off for Culatra, and stopped off near the lighthouse so that the family could go ashore. After lunch we set off on a rising tide to follow a route east through the lagoon, and then heading north to a deep hole off Ihla da Armona, this time just west of it and south of the port hand channel buoy. We decided to lay our kedge to keep us from swinging, but the wisdom of this only became really apparent at low tide springs the next morning, when sand banks appeared on either side of us. We also deployed an additional anchor light as we were in the middle of a narrow channel, where boats might not normally anchor. Fishing boats came roaring past from about 0400.
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| Returning to Culatra as the sun set |
We all went ashore to Olhao from our anchorage in the two dinghies in the morning. Mo and I attended to some shopping and topping up the fuel supplies, while the others had a look at the market, and wandered into the old town of Olhao.
We had lunch, and then the family launched in the Caribe for a trip up the Ria Formosa in search of Fl'ingoes. Progress was a little slow, as it was difficult to pick out the channel, and at one point they had to retrace their route. They made it up to the next 'entrance' out to sea, and spent some time on the beach, but failed in the main objective. Tom helmed the dinghy much of the way, but suffered afterwards with perhaps a touch of 'sunstroke'.
We left the anchorage, and returned to Culatra as the sun set, as we did not fancy being in the firing line for a further night.
The family made a trip to the beach on Culatra. When they returned we set off for Faro, where we enjoyed an early supper done on the barbeque. Tom enjoyed driving the Rover, and even coached Emma in the use of the small outboard. Later Peter and Emma swam off the boat, while Tom operated a rescue service.
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| Tom got on well with the outboard | as well as rowing the Avon effectively |
The family got up at 0445, and we made it ashore at around 0545, finding a taxi on the rank by the small boat harbour to take them to to the airport.
Back on board, we downloaded another forecast, and decided that it was 'tomorrow or sometime after next weekend'. This concentrated the mind wonderfully, and we sorted out the re-stowage of bicycles, collapsing and stowing of the Avon dinghy, and re-stowing generally.
We had also run out of fresh water in the tanks. We decided to set off for Olhao, where we could get some water from the 'marina'. We anchored between the 'marina' and the small boat harbour, and ran our errands. The chandlers had neither flares or suitable navigation lights.
Once back in the anchorage off Culatra, we recovered the dinghy, and I managed to make a temporary bodge of the navigation lights, ready for the early morning start.
All photos on this page by Debbie Walker