Dark Horse Schooner: Hello from Portimao

Good Morning! We’ve awoken to another beautiful sunrise on Dark Horse. This time we are in Portimao, Portugal and are planning to leave in a few short hours for Faro. There are supposed to be some lovely bird life rich dune islands to anchor by there.

I know that I have not been posting much detail on this blog, John seems to be better at keeping the FB page up to date, I am finding it hard to make the time to write. We started a ships log so I am going to copy and past much of it in to give you an idea of what we’ve been up to. I apologize for the poor sentence structure, etc. but at least it gets something up on the blog.

Sept 11 to 23

Overnight passage from La Coruna round Finisterre, flat to start with then force 5 - 6 on the nose. Fishing boats all over and very aggressive. First night picked up mooring buoy and bbq on deck with Kivu crew. Second day, late to rise (8:30). John and Jamieson, of Kivu, tried to fix the fridge, which seemed to work but after picnic on local beach the commutator appears to have failed again. While at the beach Adam took his first trial steps while being supported by Mom or Dad. Girls played and swam. We completed the day with another joint meal with Kivu of foraged mussels from local beach cooked on the Cob. We stayed up very late. Third day very late to rise (9:30), and then off to Roman Catholic church with Eloise, Alexia and Jamieson, Carel suffering from a migraine on Kivu. After church a wander around town and a drink at local cafe. Rest of the day spent resting, fishing and tidying on Dark Horse. NOTE sand is very difficult to get off the boat. Tried hovering, but I keep finding where I hoovered there is sand again after a few minutes. A damp cloth might work? On the fourth day we spent the morning doing school work, and it took quite a long-time do to poor attitudes from the girls, hopefully tomorrow will be better. In the afternoon we went on a long boat ride up to the top of the ria. The scenery changed a lot as we went, as did the smells. At first the air was very salty like the sea, but as we went further up the ria it smelt more and more like the forests that you find inland. Plenty of eucalyptus trees around and other non-native evergreens. Once at the top we tied the tender up and went for a walk along a track that we think was put in to allow for the hydro electrical plant to be built. The trail led us to a lamprey re-introduction site. We picked flowers for our friends, Eloise and Alexia. On the way back we tried to stop in at Kivu, but the family was already gone to town. The girls were very disappointed and threw their flowers to the sea. We had another late dinner and the girls and Adam went quickly to bed. On our fifth day here we went into Noia, walking over the bridge, the town was not that special, but we did find a very good supermarket and a playground. The weather turned while we were at the playground eating our ice-cream just purchased from the supermarket. We had to take shelter from the rain under the eaves of the grocery store. When the rain stopped we made a dash back to the boat laden with our groceries, thank goodness for Adam's pram, without it we would have struggled to have brought all the goodies back. When we got back to the beach Kivu crew had left us a message in the sand to come and visit them on their boat, which we did. Unfortunately we stayed too long and we had a very wet and choppy boat ride back as the low that we had been waiting for had started to kick in on our way home. We were all rather wet and poor Adam was just a wee-bit scared. Thankfully we had hot water to have showers in when we returned as John has figured out how to heat the water with the generator. Dinner of prawns and rice, then everyone to bed. It rained pretty much all night and this morning, the sixth day of being here, it continues to rain and blow. We had been planning a picnic with Kivu but it is really not the weather for it, so we are doing school and reading and playing for now. Hopefully this wind and rain will dissipate soon.

Sept 24 to 26

Arrived here, Porto, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Tied up to fuel berth and waited for the office to open. When it did we had three guys help us onto a pontoon, it was the easiest berthing we have had thus far.

Sept 26 to 29

Two nights in Cascais, anchored. Figured out how to use the wifi booster and had an excellent Skype video conference with my parents in Halifax. Though when we tried the connection later in the day it would not work and continued to not work until we left, not sure why, perhaps the bar we were connecting to changed their password, or they have a limit on how much customers can use per IP address. Afternoon on the beach with Kivu crew on the 27th. Unfortunately we were met with a squal in the late afternoon which kicked up a short swell. When things had calmed down we tried to head back to the boat, but timed it a bit wrong and got a knocked by a wave, poor Ruth and Adam took the brunt of it, but we carried on back to Dark Horse, leaving Kivu crew on the beach, waiting for a better time to leave. Thankfully we could have warm showers when we got back and a quick dinner of beans and hotdogs and hot chocolate made everyone very happy.

Sept 29 to Oct 01

Arrived here, Sines, about 7pm after having cruised in company with Kivu. Excellent sail! Flew the cruising shute, with the great big Lloyds stalion on it, turned out to be in fairly good nick and combined with the staysil, another excellent discovery, we were cruising 8knts most of the time. Caught two great big makerel aswell and had them for dinner. Second day after a visit from the Marine Police telling us we need to pay a 2Euro light fee, we went ashore after school, found a wooden xylophone and chimes on the beach, set up as a sort of outdoor play thing for people. The town beach area called Vasco de Gama Playa appears to have been rejuvenated, but the planned terraced gardens have not been put in, or money has dried up. We never found the harbour office for the fee, we did find the Fishing Office and the fishermen were all tucking into their grilled sardines for lunch. Smelt yummy. We eventually had a BBQ on the beach with Kivu crew and the kids were in and out of the water until the sun was setting. A lovely day for all.

Oct 01 to 05 to Portimao

We set off from Sines at 830 with Kivu. Not much breeze but we had the sails up anyway to help keep the pace up. Neither John or I were really into the motoring, but we did end up seeing basking shark, lots of dolphins, including some swimming just off our stern for a while. We were planning of stopping just around Cape St Vincent, but the anchorages were untenable due to swell, the wind had picked up at this point and we ended up having to sail and then motor here. Got to the anchorage about 2200, not too bad. Girls went to bed then and we soon followed. 2 Oct woke to a beautiful sunny day and lovely beached just off our port side. Did school and John tried to fix the loo, Ruth having taken all the toilet roll paper off the roll and put it down the loo so she could use the roll for something. John also explored the starter engine battery, as last night it was boiling and giving off a very strong melting plastic smell. Not sure why this has happened though could have something to do with the alternator. Girls, Adam and I played on the beach with Kivu girls and I even went for a swim, water is surprisingly warm here, or maybe I am just getting used to it. Kivu girls came over to the boat after the beach to make Karele her birthday cake, as it is her birthday tomorrow We plan to stay one more night and then we will see what happens. After a bit of a disturbed night, Adam was awake and crying for about an hour, we awoke to another lovely sunny day. A Thomas Cook cruise liner sounded its' horn as it entered the river, making sure that if you were not already awake you would be. Completed school in record time, girls were eager to do some writing, which was nice. Adam is now able to climb the two steps from the hallway to the saloon and he is in and out of all the cabins easily. Nothing is safe now. After school was finished we headed into town and found a grocery store. Then went to a museum about the sardine industry here. For 80 years Portimao was the center of sardine production in Portugal. It was actually quite a nice museum and interesting to see, even though most of the exhibit was in Portuguese. Other than the sardines there was also information about the largest stone age settlement in the area and the influences of the Romans and Moors. All in all we quite enjoyed ourselves, especially since we were the only ones there. There is something comforting about an empty museum. After returning to the boat we cleaned and awaited the arrival of the Kivu crew for pre-birthday dinner drinks. The girls, Eloise and Alexia, stayed with us while Jamieson and Karele went for a meal. It was nice, the girls watched a movie and the parents were back before it was over. Lucy and Ruth particularly liked that they got to stay up way past their bedtime. I believe we will be staying here one more night then we are off to Faro. I really want to get some jobs done on the boat, I am tired of looking at the messy port and starboard cabins and unfinished jobs. Today, Oct 4th, was filled with odd jobs, school and a goodbye drink with Kivu crew. While Adam did very well last night, waking at 2AM but after a bottle falling straight back to sleep, he was not cooperating this evening so unfortunately he was not the smiley, cuddly bundle of Adam he normally is. But at least we got to say goodbye to everyone and who knows, we may see them again. I am looking forward to the next part of our trip though. In some ways it feels like we are starting a new, a second chapter and I suppose it will feel like that each time you leave the company of a crew that you have spent a lot of time with.