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Tuesday, August 22nd, Olhao, Portugal
This morning, we sat and watched a 25 foot monohull
blasting out of the marina in Olhao (Oh-le-ow).
The bigger city of Faro and the "fishing village" of
Olhao lie behind a crescent-shaped expanse of marshland
about 9 miles long and 3 miles at its widest A
series of barrier islands, unique to this part of the
Algarve coast, protects the whole area from the ocean
swell. The terrain throughout is a waffled pattern of
land and sea that covers and uncovers with each tide.
The channels into both towns, Faro to the west and Olhao
to the east, are long and narrow, with wicked currents
and, at least for us, strong winds. Luckily, they
are well marked and easy to find, especially if you have
traveled them once. At least that is what we
thought as we watched the little sloop take off around
11am. They charged along with such confidence that
we were sure they knew where they were going.
"That thing must have a
centerboard," Joe says hopefully, as they head well
outside the channel.
"That sandbar can't be
deeper than a foot or two, even at high tide," I state
fearfully.
Sure enough, skipper,
wife and boat went barreling into the sandbar at full
steam. The whole stern of the boat came flying out
of the water as they stopped dead. The poor woman
was flung forward, right onto her back. They had
cut straight across the sandbar between town and the
channel, totally unaware of the danger. We watched
the lady get up, sit, and then go down below, so we were
hopefully that she was just badly bruised. The
skipper backed right up and headed out the RIGHT way,
but I imagine he was a bit bruised as well, if only in
his ego. It was a frightening drama to watch
unfold.
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Spare Fisher family
members safely departed, Zia took off towards Faro on
Thursday, a few hours after a spell of
driving rain hit the area in the early morning. It
was a 45 mile trip, with 25 knot winds, building off the
stern. We looked forward to moving on to our next
destination, but our hearts were tinged with sadness at
the newly re-established absence of our family.
We went through the
information we had on our next destination more thoroughly along the
way. We opted for Olhao over Faro based on the
fact that the anchorage was right downtown and the town
itself was much smaller and, we hoped, less
tourist-filled. The anchorage proved to be one of
our most challenging yet, starting from trying to find
it. The narrow channel ends at the ferry dock,
with a marina to the west and the anchorage just beyond
it. No more than 40 feet off the 250 yard pier of
the marina, at either end of it, are a couple of red
buoys marking the channel into the anchorage (red being
on the LEFT!). With the wind pushing us into the
pier, a sportfisher tying up along the outside of it,
and a wicked sandbar just to the south, we made our way
west to the small anchorage area right off market
square.
Our next challenge was
getting our anchor to hold in the mud. We tried
twice to set it, with the wind gusting up to 25 knots
and blowing us all over the place. We would hold
for a little bit but as soon as Joe backed down with the
engines over 2500 rpm, we'd start to slide. There
really weren't too many choices in terms of spots to
try, so we decided to haul out our spare Danforth
anchor, supposedly excellent for mud, and shackle it to
our anchor chain just inboard of our Spade. It
worked like a charm and we didn't budge even up to 3000
rpms. We felt much better a few days later as we
watched another, smaller catamaran come in and try to
find holding at least a dozen times before they finally
hauled out their Danforth and found the secret!
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Olhao is billed as an
authentic Portuguese fishing town. The sprawling
development that mars the coast to the east has
seemingly halted at Faro. Long a favorite vacation
destination for Portuguese from all over the country,
and hordes of British in search of the sun, the Algarve
started regulating development along the coast after it
was much too late for most of the western portion, but
there is hope for the area west of Faro. Given the
geographic challenge of getting to the beaches here,
which has to be done by boat over the marshlands, your
average tourist on holiday opts for the much more
accessible beaches further west.
The attraction of Olhao
goes much further for the Zia crew. We have hooked
up with some friends of friends who happen to be
vacationing here. We had been in email contact
with Carlos and Sandra Amaro for a few months, and
planned on visiting with them in their native city of
Lisbon. We managed to spend a wonderful evening
with them in Cascais, and were thrilled that they were
also spending their August holiday at their house just
outside of Olhao. Although we just met them
recently, we have been enjoying their company
tremendously. They are showing us the best beaches
and restaurants, and filling us in on all sorts of
history and cultural insights.
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Aside from authenticity
and friends, Olhao offers another huge bonus. For
the first time in a month and a half, we have found a
great wireless internet connection on the boat! It
struck us as very funny in this authentic Portuguese
fishing village but we have happily put up with the VERY
BAD karaoke emanating from the cafes for five nights in
a row in order to enjoy the limitless connection time.
It is amazing what you forget to do when you are sitting
in front of your computer at an internet cafe.
Having it right here on the boat is such a treat,
although we might have to resort to working out a
timetable for computer usage!
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After a last rendezvous
with the Amaro family tomorrow for a daysail on Zia, we
are planning to head to Chipiona, Spain. Chipiona
is at the base of the Guadalquivir River that leads to
Seville. We contacted the Yacht Club and
supposedly they have enough room for us so we are hoping
to brave the heat and spend a few days checking out that
city. We have heard many wonderful things about
it.
It is hard to believe
we have spent nearly a month in Portugal. What a
treat it is to have the luxury of time to explore the
country without a deadline driving us away. It's a
tough life, but someone has to do it!
Next entry
>>>>>>>
Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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