New friends in Portimau

After Lynnes birthday we had a lazy week exploring Portimau. We got to know another British couple on another small steel boat on their way around the world. A circumnavigation is something you either want to do or you don't. I am firmly in the latter category, its such a long way. In my youth I was afflicted with a burning need to circumnavigate islands, Iceland in the 80s cured me of that particular affliction, although I still occasionally display symptoms. We wish Deborah and Guy fair winds and lots of luck in the next few years.
We decided to visit Portimao`s small museum because it was a free day as it was the anniversary of the museums opening,

It is housed in  a smart new conversion of an old fish processing factory. Owned by the Feu brothers. Their brand (on the sardine cans ) was the Rose.

Fish are a big part of both Portimaos history and the museum exhibit's although there is a good bit of archeology as well.

A nice touch is that many of the exibits are not hidden behind glass and it is possible to observe them closely (and even try a surreptitious touch or two, but it isn't encouraged )

Full size figures in a rather ghostly white reproduce the production lines of the fish factory.

The factory floor is immaculately clean, which isn't my remembrance of a fish processing plant and although sound effects were piped through to enhance the effect thankfully they avoided reproducing the smell.

The sardines were delivered from the boats to the factory floor by a system of baskets that were attached to hooks on a moving overhead rail. Lynne was less interested in the mechanics and more enamoured of the mannequins....
Below the factory floor was a surprise, an underground cistern had been converted to an approximation of a submarine and its claustrophobic and convoluted passages led to an exhibition space about the undersea world.

It has a control panel and interactive screen, unfortunately a lot of the information was in Portuguese but we struggled through.

Each of the portholes gives a view to a different exhibit, its really quite well done.

Outside in the open air we were quite relieved to be back on the surface and we......well me, could have a close look at the sardine delivery system.

Lynne was more interested in the breeding Storks on the factory chimney, it was the first time she had heard their characteristic clacking of their bills, a very distinctive noise.

It was a very busy weekend, there was a royal wedding in the U.K. it was also the FA cup final and in Portimau it was the F1 powerboat world championship Grand Prix. Lynne began by listening to the royal wedding on radio 4. I must admit I was not particularly interested in this notable event but was happy to watch the practise laps later of the fearsomely quick and very noisy F1 Powerboats as they rehearsed the race course.
This had been set up as a short and very tight course in the river opposite the town quay. As well as F1 there were F4 races scheduled over the weekend.

We watched the little boats being craned in to the water from the works encampments on the quay.

Reliability seemed a problem as several boats finished up being towed back into the pit lane by jet skis.

They were certainly impressive in full flow and their ability to turn very tightly around the marks was astonishing.

We carried on walking around the harbour to the opposite side of the river as we had been invited to tea at a facebook friends villa. I had done my yacht master exam with a lovely bloke and legendary ocean rower Leven Brown.

This is the man himself ....

His mum Hermione was living just over the water from us near Ferragudo and we had arranged to meet outside the restaurant that was the normal water taxi stop. However due to the disruption of the Grand Prix we chose to walk which led to us discovering a quirky little arts and crafts place.

Hidden away through a beautifully carved (but oddly sized ) door was an artists workshop called Studio Bongard. Full of interesting and humerous sculptures and ceramics.

It is a place that photos cant really capture so if you ever get the chance go visit.

It feels as though nature has invaded and taken over a traditional Portuguese house and there are surprises round every corner.

The roof has a great view back across the river to the marina and again is full of ceramic chickens insects and other forms of life.

Sea life is a speciality it seems.

After a delightful interlude we wandered into Ferragudo and looked to see if we could find a bar to catch a glimpse of the FA cup. Ferragudo has a much more relaxed feel than the other side of the river which can be a bit too brash for us!

The town itself wanders back along the banks of a small creek from the fishing harbour and is a beautiful spot to sit and relax. We found a bar and were surprised by the number of ex-pats who turned up to catch the match. In retrospect we shouldn't have been surprised however we were still getting used to the number of English people who chose to live on the Algarve. Who can blame them? it really is a fabulous spot with a wonderful climate, particularly at this time of year.

We met up with Hermione who whisked us off into the hills to her stunning villa. We enjoyed a garden tour and drinks by the pool and were treated royally. It was lovely to finally meet Hermione in person after being online acquaintances for so long.

Hermione's husband Mick kept our glasses full while cooking a chicken in the Barbecue, it was utterly delicious.

We watched the last of the FA cup match and watched Manchester go down to a crushing defeat at the hands of Chelsea, but on the bright side Lynne got to see "the dress" from the Royal wedding so that was some compensation.

We dined on the terrace and had a wonderful evening which we will long remember, it isn't often we get invited into someone else's lives and welcomed so well. We will visit again hopefully the next time we pass this way.

Big Birthday

Peter and Sharon landed at close to midnight in Faro, consequently we only managed to meet up in the morning, the morning of Lynnes birthday. We walked over to Portimau and immediately ran into a problem in that we had decided to lunch in a fish restaurant and Sharon didn't eat fish!

Easily sorted by the substitution of chicken, its probably symptomatic of my wife's experiences over the last few years that food that looks at her holds fewer fears than it did. Peter however still needed a few top tips on head and bone removal. Seafood Portuguese style , fish wi nowt taken out!
After a nice lunch we had a few more drinks on the square before visiting a supermarket for essential supplies, toothbrushes, 3 litre box of wine etc.
Peter had thoughtfully brought out our essential supplies, hard to find fuses, a replacement OCC burgee, electronic charts on memory cards, pilot books for the Mediterranean, the latter very heavy! and Lynnes all important pension paperwork.
That night we celebrated with a curry in the best restaurant in Praia de Rocha, (according to trip advisor). Very good it was too!

We then went to an Irish bar allegedly for one, there was a Benny Hill lookalike travelling troubadour with a guitar and a karaoke machine, (he is just over Peters left shoulder in the photo below) He turned out to be a star, or maybe we were just drunk but we did have a great night, and one became many.....

This bar became our go to place the following night after a lovely meal in one of the restaurants on the beach the Senhora de Rocha, again cocktails proved our undoing.

Dancing was attempted, not always successfully.......

But in the mornings the beaches were glorious. We got to try out our new beach umbrella we had rescued from the river at Seixal. Peter bought presents for the children from the "lucky lucky man"

Thecoastline of the western Algarve is a geologists dream with soft rocks and caves ,wave cut platforms arches and other stuff

All in all we had a wonderful meet up with Peter and Sharon, without any prior planning we were pretty much in sight of each other, being about 10 minutes walk away from each other. On the final evening we dined near Peter and Sharon's apartment block in a strange shack like place called the "Ponderosa" which turned out to be cheap as chips and utterly brilliant.

We had a wonderful few days which we will always remember. A fitting birthday for Lynne who I know was chuffed to buttons that her baby brother had gone to all the effort to join us. It was certainly an alcohol fuelled few days but ones that we will remember for a very long time,

We were sad when they had to leave and rejoin the real world......

Alvor to Portimão

We had anchored close to a catamaran ( a big heavenly twins ) called Silver Girl. We had helped them get back to the boat the previous day as their tender outboard had seized and we had sort of arranged to meet up at a bar in town that did pints of beer for a frankly ridiculous 90 cents. Needless to say this led to a thoroughly enjoyable night . After fish and chips in a local restaurant we both retired to our respective boats having become firm friends. Both being firmly at the budget end of the yachting fraternity we agreed to meet up at some anchorage further down the way.



In the morning I was looking through the window of the heads when I spotted a seabird floating past upside down, webbed feet akimbo, flapping  and desperately trying to right itself. I had already decided to give one of our cards to our new friends on Silver Girl so after alerting Lynne to the unusual sight I launched our dinghy and had a quick chat with Nadine and Nigel before rowing over to the distressed bird and very gently righting the soggy gull who then flapped his webbed feet in water rather than air and proceeded to paddle over to the other bank much to Lynnes consternation as the sodden and bedraggled bird very slowly crossed the main channel, which we now know to be very busy.



There were a couple of beautiful traditional boats working out of the rio, no longer fishing but catching tourists, but under sail they were a grand sight.



We got the anchor about an hour before high water and made our way down the channel, as we were leaving a nice white hulled yacht was  entering. It was Brillig , who we had last met in Ria Arousa. The wind was a gentle force 2 and we let out the genoa as we glided at 4-5 knots across the calm sea to Portimão.




Once entering the breakwaters we proceeded upriver to the marina entrance, there is a long reception pontoon that we moored to before seeing the girls in the office and retrieving our new batteries. We then made our way to our berth.

The weather had taken a decided turn for the better, Just across the river is the small town of Ferraguda which has a small castle, not unfortunately open to the public.

Once we had been allocated a berth we sorted Dark Tarn back into Marina mode, and set off to explore the town. Their is a fort overlooking the entrance The Fortaleza de Caterina de Ribamar which gives great commanding views over the harbour and river.




We were happy to have finally reached our rendezvous with Peter and Sharon, Lynnes brother and sister in law. they would land in a day or so late at night and in the meantime we could do a recce.




We discovered this fellow on one of the battlements of the fort, the north basin of the marina is in the background.



We were in the south basin, furthest away in the photo below.




Portimau is actually the town behind the marina and is a bit upriver of the holiday spot Praia Da Rocha



The following day after fitting our new house batteries and leaving them on charge we walked into Portimau to explore, on one of the roundabouts approaching town is this rather nice sculpture of some fisher women.



Sculpture seemed to be everywhere in Portimau, there is a lovely sculpture trail that follows the river bank .




Another feature that became apparent is the amount of storks nesting around and about.



Some on unconventional spots, how they use the crane is anyone's guess!



More conventionally they are to be found on abandoned chimneys that used to belong  fish processing plants long gone but the chimneys were left in fact for the storks.



This is my favourite sculpture out of the many. its backside is highly polished from the number of strokes it has had, its irresistible.



There is even a small pirate vessel doing trips down river.



All in all we were pleasantly surprised by Portimau and decided to return to have lunch in the many sardine restaurants along the quay.




Later that evening we dined in a small resraurant close to the marina, the only one we would find that was in any way disappointing.



Walking down to look at the beaches of Praia Da Rocha, it was obvious why it appealed to holidaymakers. Although it was early in the season things were obviously gearing up for the tourists with beach umbrellas and sun loungers, only about two thirds of the beach restaurants were open and it didn't feel crowded but it was getting warm!