A whole flotilla of boats left Sines early in the morning, most, like us, trying to make it south and east while we still had good northerly winds (the winds were scheduled to altogether die and then come from the east for a week). Of course we had a windless morning and motored for several hours. When the wind finally came we got up to about 8 knots, a fabulous finish to this season. Sigh, and then there were squalls.
The first couple of squalls were a little bit of rain or a little bit of extra wind, all coming from the west. Then I looked behind us. Ominous black clouds were coming from the north. And just like that the wind went from 12 to 28 knots……and we had full sail up….ugh. Trip was able to round up, head into the wind to slow down, and then fell off again to blanket the jib enough with the main so we could furl the jib. Unfortunately we were going to have to gybe the full main to come around the point to get to Sagres. With some screaming, a lot of cursing, and a lot of strained muscles, we managed the gybe without damaging the main or the boom, and headed east to Sagres.
Sagres was a beautiful anchorage with great holding in the 20 knots we were still getting. There’s room for 100+ boats, I can only imagine how crazy it gets in the summer. There were only 8 of us or so (many from the morning’s ’flotilla’ had pushed further east to Lagos or Portimao).
The next day we picked up Anna and Clyde (they had lost their dinghy in Cascais) and headed for the beach. We wandered up the beach a bit, and then found a spot for afternoon drinks and apps. After a while, eagle-eyed Trip suddenly jumped up – our dinghy was drifting out to sea! I yelled for Trip to pay the bill, and I ran after Clyde, who was already running down the beach. Luckily an old man walking the beach had caught our painter, and calmly handed it to Clyde before continuing his walk. Clyde and I caught our breaths, Anna and Trip arrived, and we decided it was time to head back.
Before we left for Lagos and the marina, Trip wanted to change the zinc on the propeller. Unfortunately, cold water + fins that would not cooperate going on + a lost dive weight + unexpected current meant Trip was in the water for almost 90 minutes and a bit hypothermic as he came up. He was able to get the job done, but took a hot shower, I made hot chocolate, and he dug out his warm clothes. Body temp came back to normal.
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