Hi Martin,

Looked at your website with much interest, agree with your views about the Algarve.

Last year we sailed to Portugal from uk and our boat is now ashore at Villa Real. we like the area so much we intend to stay longer to explore again this year.

Can you advise how to get hold of decent local charts, I know I could find out myself but its easier to ask someone who really knows. we used Atlantic Spain & Portugal pilot and got in & out of most places (in the case of Alvor more luck than judgement - another boat got stuck for 2 tides getting out).

We are in England planning going back in a few weeks and re-launching and thinking what to do this year, would be nice to hear from you.

Dave Thomas

Hello Dave,

Thank you for your email and thank you also very much for the photographs that you attached, I particularly enjoyed the one of you in Culatra’s main street.

With regard to charts, the charts that you need are published by the Portuguese Hydrographic Office.  The Algarve is covered by two charts, numbers 25R11 and 25R12. I only know 3 places where you can buy them, they are Sopromar (in the boatyard) in Lagos, Constamarine in Vilamoura (this is the chandlery on the 1st floor of the big white building in the north west corner of the marina and also the chandlery at Olhão (which is on the north side of the road that runs along the waterfront about halfway between the pier and the market buildings.  Sadly the chandlery in Vila Real St Antonio which is opposite the marina does not sell charts.

Incidentally, there is a new ‘Atlantic Spain and Portugal’ which is coming out sometime this year, but I don’t know when it is going to be on sale.

Yes, Alvor is very difficult to get in and out of; when I ran my sailing school from Lagos marina until 10 years ago there were no buoys there at all, and I used a series of bearings on various landmarks which of course became back bearings on the way out which was really testing for my coastal skipper clients. The pilot book wasn’t really much help at Alvor, except that I had my bearings  drawn on it in biro, sadly I lent that copy to someone and didn’t get it back as I told them that I didn’t need it as I already had the new edition. I will try to do it again this year on my new copy, which is no bad thing as I think the sandbanks have moved quite a lot anyway. Now that I am again offering sailing courses from Lagos I expect I will be in and out (hopefully) on a regular basis, although I must confess that I often  anchor just inside on the western side of the entrance and stay just for lunch to minimize the danger of going aground during a sailing or motor cruising course.

Please use me for advice about the Algarve any time or for that matter the west coast of Portugal and the south west coast of Spain all of which I know quite well.

My best wishes to you and Sally for a really enjoyable 2010 cruising in Portugal and Spain.  I will look out for you and your Westerley, what is her name?

Martin.

Hi Martin,

Her name is SUSIE she is an old Westerly Longbow, although much modified recently. We have had her about 6 years, in the second year one of the aft lower chainplates ( U bolt type) broke off at Orfordness and we lost the whole rig. So she is almost new from the deck up. I replaced the U bolts with hefty plates bolted through the topsides with backing plates, upped the standing rigging size and made a stainless bowsprit & bobstay to balance the rig better. I have since fitted new engine, prop & shaft, fuel tank, exhaust, wiring, bilge pumps etc, more or less stripped everything out and started again, plus internal woodwork mods.

We would like something a bit bigger eventually, but for now it makes sense to get some good use out her while so much is new -at least I know the boat inside out. Maybe in the future if you know anyone who wants a sturdy no-frills boat that sails really well you could point them this way.

It's good you like the pics, here are some more. Sally is a better photographer than me, I added her name to the ones that she took so if they go on the website it would be good if her name appeared with them.

When we are back in Portugal we are considering the possibilty of offering services to other British boat owners, for example routine maintenance, getting the boat ready for when they come over for holiday, get shopping & make the boat feel like home. I am a mechanical engineer of 40 yrs experience and can sort most things on sailing boats. I guess the hardest bit is getting known & recommended, which you can only do by being there and seen. What do you thnk? I asked Paul Kent, the fridge man at Lagos, he seemed to think it could be viable, as do people we have met at Vila.

Sally is officialy retired as a teacher and is doing some supply work at the moment. i left my job to do the Portugal trip last year and am earning my keep fixing the house.

I will pester you again but now i must read this dive manual, we are doing a PADI course in Ipswich, but hope to do the open water dives somewhere warmer.

regards, Dave Thomas.

Hello Dave,

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to explain all about your boat and future plans, I think that they are all a very good idea but it will mean staying in the same place for quite a long time to get known. Probably one of the best places to be based would be Lagos, because so many people arrive there every year in Rally Portugal and some of them go on to take part in the ARC but may be short of time to rectify any problems that have occurred on their way down to Portugal, particularly if they have to go back to work for 3 months before sailing down to the Canaries for the ARC.

Thank you and Sally so much for the photographs, they are excellent and give a very good idea of what cruising in the Algarve is like, plus the beautiful dawn that you experienced in the Bay of Biscay.

Best wishes, Martin.