PREAMBLE TO DEPARTURE

David arrived on the 8th June and I had a list of things we needed to sort out , The A.i.s was not working and it would probably need stripping down to sort out what was wrong , as an ex RAF flight engineer David was up to the task , we also felt the main bilge pump rubbers and seals needed replacing as i doubt they had been touched for ten years and an emergency at sea with the pump needed was not going to be the best time the rubbers perished , both jobs were completed successfully, as well as a number of other tasks before we left Olhao ,

the bilge pump renewing the rubbers

tricky soldering of the A.I.S and success

 On the Sunday we went for a sail and ventured out of the entrance, remember this was the first time David had sailed on the boat and he was committed to half crossing the Atlantic, all went very well and we anchored and decided to set sail at 10 am the next morning for Portimao , we had a nice evening meal on board glass of wine and retired to bed after a very good first day.
at 0930 we set of and out through the channel on starboard tack the wind was light but we knew it would build when the sea breeze kicked in , but 1300 we had full number one genoa and a few rolls in the main and were doing a steady 4 knots to weather , it was going to be a long day and we sailed untill around 8 pm when the wind died and we had to motor to Portimao arriving aroung 1am the next morning

Perfect sailing 3 sail reach on starboard

 Early the next morning we motored the 10 miles or so to lagos and moored up on the visitors pontoon after refueling and making sure we were chock a block with diesel, they allowed us to saty on the visitors pontoon as we would be setting out early the following morning, We recharged the Gaz bottle so we had two full bottles, filled the water tanks and then went shopping at Pingo Doce the local supermarket and got all the things we needed except some bacon style ham we got 4x 5lts of water that were to be stowed on the cabin floor , with things ready we went to Lazy Jacks bar and had a delicious steak

arrival in Lagos

Lazy jacks bar

So we were leaving the next morning on our adventure so a goods nights sleep were in order, Our thoughts ,,, not sure , it had all been a rush to get to this stage the weather although not perfect for the first few days was ok and we were ready , we estimated between ten and twelve days for the trip and were not going to starve as there was enough food on board for a year
more later