After an overwhelming goodbye from our friends at the marina, we cast off the lines and eased our way out of the slip. (With an old heavy boat and small engine, we hate navigating around marinas, but Trip was master of the wheel.).

We had cleared out earlier in the day with Immigration, so we have a stamp in our passport that shows we’ve officially left Portugal. This is important to note, as Americans can only spend 90 days (in a rolling 180 day period) in most of Europe. We are allowed to transit, which is what we’re doing now. We’re just 7 miles east of Lagos in Portimao. We’re at anchor, and will not go ashore. We’ll hop down the coast this way, till the weather is good enough for us to cross the Strait of Gibraltar and enter Morocco via Tangiers. The time we spend in transit, and the time we spend in Africa will not count against our Schengen days (named after the city where the border treaty was signed). And thus begins the 2023 Schengen Shuffle!

Update: there are only 12 boats or so in this anchorage and 3 of them are Tayana 37’s! I posted this entertaining fact on Bob Perry’s FaceBook fan page (he’s the designer of the T37) and he nominated me as an ambassador to boost his fan page membership….😁