Sailing from Porto to Portimão (#7)

We finally found a weather window to leave Porto and continue our trip to the South. There was little wind but we didn’t want to wait any longer. The waves were 2-3 meters at the moment, which was already more than enough for me. In a few days the wind would pick up but the waves would be higher too, so no thank you.

Day 1 …

We left early in the morning on October 31. The kids weren’t too happy about it, but I promised we would do a Halloween party later when we arrived in Portimão. The waves were about 2 meters when we sailed into the ocean. The wind was about 9 knots upwind, so we had to motor. After spending the entire morning dodging fishing flags we decided to sail further away from the coast. The rest of the day was pretty boring; there was not much we could do because we were rocking on the waves.

In the afternoon we noticed another sailing boat catching up on us, we were surprised to find out that it was our friend’s boat Ystafell. After speaking with them over the radio we followed their advice and opened our mainsail even though there was still not enough wind for us to turn down the engine. A little later we were able to open the genoa for a little while until the wind direction changed.

In the evening the waves became very choppy, even the kids felt sick and had to take a pill. So they went to bed very early, around 7 p.m.

During the night the circumstances remained pretty much the same. We were happy that it wasn’t as pitch black during the night as it was on our trip in the Bay of Biscay. Even though it was clouded you could still see the light of the moon.

Day 2: November 1 ...

In the morning the waves were still 2 meters high but a lot smoother than yesterday. The wind was around 6-8 knots, still upwind.

We saw a lot of birds in the morning, beautiful white birds with black, pointy wings. They flew along wit us, with the tips of their wings touching the water. Around noon we spotted 1 dolphin swimming by.

We had been sailing all day with land in sight, and we passed Lisbon in the afternoon. We thought about stopping in this beautiful city but decided not to eventually. We didn't want to be stuck here for weeks because of the weather, after all it was November already. It had been cloudy the entire trip so far, the sun only managed to occasionally shine through a thin layer of clouds, but we could feel the temperature rising as we sailed further south.

In the late afternoon the waves became very smooth and Sven decided to try the code zero, turned out the wind angle wasn’t ideal but we got to enjoy a lovely moment on the front of the boat.

Just as we went inside to make dinner, Sven spotted a large pod of dolphins... amazing!! There were so many dolphins jumping and swimming around the boat. We could even hear their sounds.

After dinner we got to watch the most extraordinary sunset. One of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.

We tried one more time to unfurl the code zero, which worked well this time but I wasn’t very keen on the idea of having to furl it in at night when the wind became stronger so we furled it back in before dark just to be safe at night.

Another pod of dolphins joined us when it was already dark at 20:50. Because the water was so calm we could hear the water splashing as they jumped and we could see them in the moonlight. We were surrounded by dolphins almost the entire night, it was wonderful.

Day 3: November 2 ...

After a mostly quiet night on a smooth sea we got welcomed to the South of Portugal with a beautiful sunrise. We had almost reached the southwestern-most point of Portugal: Ponta de Sagres.

(fun fact: this was once considered the end of the known world by many)

After the sunrise another pod of dolphins greeted us and swam along the boat. We caught up on Yestafell again, they sailed slow during the night to avoid arriving at their destination in the dark. We’ll meet them again later in the marina or somewhere in an anchorage, we’ll definitely stay in contact.

It’s beautiful to sail along the southern coast of Portugal. We recognized a lot of the places we visited before with our camper. The sea was super smooth until we reached the bay of Lagos. We opened the code zero and enjoyed a glass of champagne on the front of the boat, to celebrate a smooth crossing. And again we spotted dolphins swimming along with us. It’s incredible how many dolphins we have seen. I love it!!

We arrived in the Marina of Portimão around noon.

Turns out we would only be staying there for one night. We had planned to have the boat hauled out in Portimão to fix the sail drive. But we were now told to go to Lagos to have this done.

You’ll read all about the stressful haul-out in Lagos and life on the shipyard next week.

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