Lagos
The cliff coast was beautiful, and when we finally got around the corner of Pta. de Piedade to go into Lagos, we were stunned by the amazing rock formations and islets to the west of the approach. We anchored off the long beach to the east of the harbour entrance, in an offshore wind that had built up to a force 7, however the anchor went in well and we had a good night.
On 25th June we took the dinghy to visit close up all the rocks we had seen the day before outside Lagos. The winds do not blow offshore until about 2 pm so we made sure we would be back by then. Daniel was stationed on the bow of the dinghy to spot the rocks, and we went in between the rocks and into the caves, accompanied by a large number of small local fishing boats, carrying two or three tourists each. By the time we got to the end of the rocks, there was a substantial swell and we warily copied the tourist boats as they zoomed in and out of the caves through the swells, somehow both they and we avoided being swept into the rocks!
Later we went to the beach where we were very soon informed by the local beach guard that we were not allowed to land the dinghy anywhere on the beach, it had to be at least 150 m from the beach! This was to avoid accidents with swimmers. Well fair enough if it was busy, but that day the beach was sparsely populated over its length of several miles, and it certainly wasn’t difficult to avoid the swimmers. He conceded that we may be able to use the boat channel which was about a mile away, but even when we got there we were informed that it was only for use by non-motorised items such as windsurfers and pedalos! The windsurfers at speed are a lot more dangerous than us. However both the beach guards we saw said that they had no power to enforce the rule themselves and the risk was from the beach police who could impose a fine if they saw us. The Portuguese seem to have police for every purpose!
Later we went to investigate the town, we were overenthusiastic with the dinghy and stopped at the marina, as it turned out we walked back most of that distance until we found the town centre! The place was absolutely swarming with tourists, mostly British, and although the town was very pleasant we felt as
if it bore no other resemblance to Portugal at all.
The next day I thought was Sunday so we stayed on the boat apart from Nigel doing some windsurfing and us all going to the beach in the afternoon. Daniel tried surfing the waves on the windsurf board, it went excellently and he had a great time. He was so pleased that he didn’t want to go back to the boat, we had to force his lifejacket on him and still he wanted to swim, so we took the opportunity to test the lifejacket for the first time. He “swam” in the small waves and then Nigel took him deeper, I suggested that Nigel dunk him completely to see if he came up the right way, so Nigel did just that! Dan was very shocked but all was well and the lifejacket did its job perfectly. We had some explaining to do to Dan afterwards though!
That night the beach position got uncomfortably rolly, so at 5 a.m. we took the yacht into the river to the pontoon outside the marina, next to the fuel berth. We figured that they wouldn’t try to charge us if we filled up with fuel in the morning. As it happened when we tried to move the boat to the fuel berth, two of the small tourist boats who could quite clearly see what we were trying to do, jumped in before us, leaving us between two pontoons with our fenders all in the gap! They did not seem at all bothered and we were convinced they had an attitude towards foreign yachts, so we thought sod that and promptly left,
to anchor on the beach again.
I thought that day was Monday, so we went into town but found everything was closed, eventually we found out that it wasn’t a Monday closing but it was Sunday, so we really messed up! Anyway we bought Dan a surfboard and had some fun with it on a beach next to the town where the surf was up. Dan crashed on the first go so he refused to try again, but Nigel and I got it working well, although my first run failed and I got soaked!
Down here I find it too hot in the afternoons, from about 12 until 4. The beach is baking, and the boat gets too hot too unless you are on deck in the wind, or running the diesel generator and extract fan. I am working on a better routine to get around this problem.