DOWN RIVER AT LAST 30/5/11 DAY 6 MONDAY

Well, today I will leave the loverly little villages at the top of the Guidiana and head downstream to Villa Real where I will anchor for the night, I had a shave this morning and am feeling refreshed and ready for the challenge अहेअद

On Tuesday i hope to sail west to Faro and Olhiow where I will stock up with food for the trip, water toilet rolls snickers bars etc etc


My gaz bottle ran out last night so i will replace this morning , so i will have two full bottles ,.
My guess is that i should finally leave the hard stuff ( land ) in about a week I am checking the gribs weather daily to try and get a pattern and will use my spot GPS from today so you can get a bit of a handle on it

DAY TWO THURSDAY

DAY TWO THURSDAY 26/5/11 0900

WOW WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT
Firstly the only bus of the day from villa real goes at 1400 and not 1700 hrs so i got to the boat a little early, which was nice,I got a lift down to my mooring with the local taxi boat and climbed aboard Simo looked great , the paint job I had done over the winter was gleaming and it looked as though my owl ( bird scarer ) had done his job keeping the bird shit away and not on my covers, before I even went below i got all the covers off and folded neatly ready to be stowed , I dont think they will be needed for a while. I unlocked and went below and firstly lifted a sole board and was pleased to see a dry bilge , Simo only takes a bit of water when she is driven hard in a rough sea , but when it rains she takes a bit more , and apparently Portugal has had a lot of rain this spring, In fact as I sit here writing this at nine am it is pissing down , but also nice and warm .
Last night I started to prepare the cabin door's for varnish and as long as the rain stops i will finish all the prep on the coachroof and cockpit to give her a coat of varnish before the weekend, I have got to say the varnish is looking very good anyway but i know my chances of doing it in the UK will be limited.
Before I started the the work last night I foung a perfect birds nest with eggs in , how i never noticed it before I dont know , it was made up in the ropes stowed just aft of the mast step , how he escaped the vigilant owl I will not know but the nest was under the covers , and so snug , such a shame I had to offload it all but i took a pic for you all to see .
Anyway I will also goe up to the dock at Alcoutim for a two or three days , I need to get provisions and sort out all sorts of stuff , write list so I dont forget, and my plan will be to head down river on the sunday afternoon tide, spend the night in the entrance and then sail to Faro on nthe monday to stock up with food from the markets, and also the champions leage final is on the Saturday night Man U v Barca.

Sunday 29/5/11 day 5
well my Friends arrived from Sancti Petri down Cadiz way and we all went out for a meal in a resturant and watched the champions league final into the bargain Barca won 3.1 so we were happy, today we shall waatch the Grand prix and will be rooting for Button to win and Vettal to sulk ..
The varnish is all done and Simo is looking pretty smart , and the plan is to leave Alcoutim tomorow ( Monday ) with the tide and anchor at the bottom of the river. then on tuesday sail out and up to Faro and anchor in culatra, i want to get provisioned up by the end of the week, so i am ready for departure,
Forgot to tell you I went to a bit of a jump up on friday night at a little finca just dowwn the river , we had curry that was fab and I had far to much wine just like everybody else, the party wqs put on by a guy called Robert Black and he is part of a band called The Journey men , great bloke great mate , Robin and Sue who I had dinner with on Friday ( yes it's just a round of partie's down here)have promised me a dozen fresh eggs fo my trip and i met another couple who made a fab carrot cake , and she promised to make me one for my trip, I gave her old man the carrots yesterday, lovely couple.
Every bdy keeps saying I am mad to go back to the UK and i have to agree ,,, but i am still going and if the weather is good, in a weeks time
all for now

24th May 2010 1400

24th May 2010 1400
Well today is the day I fly out to Portugal to pick up Simo and bring her back to the UK well Ipswich and the Orwell actually, I suppose the task ahead is beginning to dawn on me and whilst I know ther will be some great sailing there are undoutably going to be moments when I would rather be somewhere else.
My bag is packed right on the weight limit set by ryanairoflot, I am having to wear three shirts just to keep the वेइघ्त,, down plus cam corder and loads of other bits are in the pockets of my big sailing jacket, so it weighs pretty heavy,

1630,
we get to the airport and Jackie say's her goodbyes I go through to check in and breeze through without getting weighed , at security I forgot to take the net book out of my bag for seperate screening and they never noticed it , but they were very keen on a half used tube of sensodyn toothpaste, I had to wait 10 minutes while they tested it on a little stick with some chemichals, I got the all clear , but gotta say these security staff seem to have lost sight of what a terriorist looks like,,, I mean a suicide bomber dont normally take his wife and two kids on the plane ( unless I am mistaken )and that was the family in front of me ,the flight was on time and had a piece of pizza on chiabatta bread with a cup of tea , the tea was great but the Pizza was perhaps the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten and the whole lot set me back 8 euro's when I finished it I was idl'y looking at the label of the packet that the pizza came in and the red mist descended when I saw the sell by date, it said 24/4 I complained as one does to the flight attendant and she very calmy asked me to look closer at the date it said 24/4/2012, A BLOODY YEAR AWAY , so they leave these made up pizza in the packets for over a year before serving, O'leary need to spend some of the 41 million profit on giving food fit to eat ( nuff gripes) At least I missed the ash cloud.
landed fine and got a moody taxi driver to the little hotel in Faro It was now 2230 so I grabbed a sandwich and coffee and went to bed .
as I write I am sitting in the bus station waiting for the bus to Villa Real it leaves at 1100 and takes about an hour , when I get there i will have some lunch because my bus up to Alcoutin does not leave till 1700 hrs so by the time i get on the boat tonight it will have been a long day in the algarve sun,

A few chores at home before departure

Well it is saturday the 21st May and I should be planning all sorts for the trip but here I am getting into the my new vegy patch , this is all new to me, before the spring I had never owned a pair of green wellies and could not tell the difference between a dock leaf and a carrott, but I have been learning and now have a vast knowledge, of the green industry , Jackie has of course helped, Today I have given everything a thorough soak and put up some carry bags as bird scarers, hope they work, later on this afternoon I will knuckle down and work out some menus and stuff like that and try and work out how much water to take ( My main tank only holds 40litres )so I will get some 10 litre bottles , Its funny really I am not overly excited about the trip, and whilst prevoius trips have involved loads of planning I think on this one most stuff is sorted ,I have been getting into the habit of checking the grib files for the weather, generally you can get a good forecast for 5 days, but as my trip could take up to seventeen days , I will just have to take what comes , the boat goes well to windward in all conditions under sail,In fact she love's it, it's me that's not to keen on bashing to windward, sitting on the toilet and cooking in a lot of wind cannot be likened to anything else I can think of ,,, I will also carry about 95 litres of diesel for when it is very light winds and bear in mind she uses less than one litre an hour and does five knots, that is quite a long range ( I'll let you work it out ), I should be on the boat by thursday and will give the spot gps thingy a go to make sure it works for you, jackie has just asked for a brief itinary and it looks as though the final departure from the great cape vicente may not be till about the 6th June ,we'll see, so all for now ,
take care


 

 

16thMay

Well its the 16th May already and my flight out is on the 24th May I have ordered some new charts of the English channel and western approaches also another small waterproof camcorder to do the daily blog , a few Led's to hang up should I need to hove to at night, there does not seem to be much in the planning at the moment The boat is all ready really, I will give her a another coat of varnish before I leave and will stock up with fresh food at Olhiow market the day before departure , I will also do two or three day hops to get me right up to Sagres ( the bottom corner of portugal ) and then leave at dawn so I get a good spirt ouit and across the shipping lanes at Vicente before dark, I had a little work out on the chart to see how long the trip to Falmouth would be , and came up with 14 to 17 days, lets hope it is more like 14,I will obviosly do this blog right up to when i leave and have a wifi Signal and then you can watch my progress on my shared page ( link on front page of blog ) and then when I get back and have caught my breath will write it all up for you and give you the opportunity of getting a copy of the dvd If you want it of course,
all for now as I have to go to the doctors to get the all clear and pick up some serious pain killers ( just in case ),,..

More soon