Ah, let a picture speak a thousand words
Sailing into England can be fun especially after you have spent 4 days at sea. Although weather was better further south, and now a person had to wear all their clothes, sailing into the harbour under full sails and doing about 8 knots is invigorating.
Just like little boys – excited!
The famous hotel in Torquay where Edward and Mrs. Simpson hung out in the 30s.
Both Dartmouth and Torquay afforded us opportunities to do just that. When I was on my Day Skipper training in Albufeira, it was a similar experience. In fact, when we got to Portimao, Mark, my instructor, had me sail into that harbour as well and up the river. Portimao’s harbour is actually a river ultimately. A wide river, and a busy river, but a river none the less.
No place does coastline like Britain does.
The castle in the Portimao harbour
That is a bit intimidating. The wind was behind us coming in so the boat was going pretty darn fast. As well there is a lot going on in that river. There is the navy, fishermen, anchoring areas, motor boats, water taxis etc. So for me, only just experience the control of the boat for the last couple of days, this was a little scary. But it was a good experience for navigation and boat control.
Colourful Portimao marina
When you turned around to head back towards the ocean, well actually to go to the marina, you had the wind coming at you more or less and you had to tack back and forth. As well, because of it being surrounded by land, you had significant wind gusts which I found a bit unnerving because they would suddenly blow over the boat and the boat’s sails would fill and make the boat keel right over. You have to have someone on the main sail prepared to release the track constantly. But I am proud to say that I successfully got the boat to the marina and docked.
Some of the hidden beaches of the Portuguese Algarve
Portimao was a pretty neat port but I was feeling a little tired and stressed from the sailing so really didn’t explore it the way I wanted to. I guess another time will be in order. Needless to say, the entire Algarve of Portugal is ideal for sailing. Winds, warmth and sun. Not much more you can ask for.
Wes looking cool on the boat