Culetra to the Guardiana

During our stay in the anchorage at Culatra we had aquired a colony of fish under our hull, literally hundreds of fish, several different species. I assumed they were hiding in shade. My photo doesnt really do it justice but it does show Lynne fascinated by our new creature feature. The weather although pleasant was decidedly breezy.



The wind continuing to increase to force 5-6 every afternoon making our anchorage quite uncomfortable in the wind over tide chop. I had already aborted one departure from the anchorage and was luckily proved to be right, as the wind rose later to 25 knots and 30 knots in the gusts. To be perfectly honest the following days weather looked only marginally better but we took a gamble leaving early next morning in light winds.



The entrance "washing machine" overfalls were awake but not too angry and we got out with very little water on deck. We had about 25 miles to sail to the Guardiana river.



The winds contrary to forecast proved to be southerly giving us a delightful reach along the coast in relatively flat seas under full sail.



Lynne was happy to be away from the choppy bouncing in the anchorage at Culatra and was enjoying being under sail.



We negotiated the areas designated and marked on charts as being for Tunny ( Tuna ) nets, these are extensive and are marked with special marks and cardinal buoys. Our last turn after 20 miles or so put us on a very broad reach into the entrance to the river Guardiana. We were welcomed by a pod of dolphins, the first we had seen in Portugal, however itcould  be argued that we were in Spain, being exactly on the border.



We entered the Guardiana river Portugal to port and Spain to starboard. We called up the marina in Ayamonte ( Spain ) and were assigned a truly awkward berth, F23, downwind and blowing us off the finger. We managed ok and didnt disgrace ourselves. However I was dissapointed to look around and see many easier berths were obviously available, either the marina guy wasn't a sailor or it was a test. If it was we passed.



We were really pleased to be back in Spain. The marina was a bit of a mixed bag, the pontoons and layout of the berths was exellent. The location was hard to beat being right in the middle of town. However 28 euros a night and no wi-fi? The facilities were very basic and dissapointing too. As a place to winter your boat the shelter was excellent.



Being on the border gave us a courtesy flag problem and we adopted the local ( and illegal) habit of flying two courtesy flags.



The town of Ayamonte is really very charming. We went ashore not really knowing what to expect but as usual were pleasantly surprised.



The river is an integral part of the history of the town and provides an unusual temporal distortion in that there is an hour time difference between the Portuguese and Spanish sides. Thus you can catch the ferry at 10am and arrive at 9.30am. Time travel...…



We rediscovered Spanish evening shopping and chatting at bars and cafes, it is such a social event evenings, we enjoyed a beer on the town square decorated in a mix of lovely tiles and palm trees. To be honest we were also simply enjoying the flat smooth pavements, deep joy.



We were also enjoying quirky surprises as we wandered around like the red balcony men.



And the return of religious iconography at street level. Of course being evening the churches were closed.



But there were other things to discover, lots of sculpture nestling amongst the flat roofed buildings. In the photo below Lynne is admiring a pillar depicting the religious history of Ayamonte.



The warm westerly winds had gradually replaced the somewhat chilly southerlies ( how does that happen? ) and we enjoyed a lovely end to the day.



We were really looking forward to exploring Ayamonte.