Heading South

3 October 2023 – Ria Formosa, Portugal

For the past few days, we have been sailing all day and heading south towards the Straits of Gibraltar. We typically went fifty to sixty-five miles per day and motored more than we would have liked to, as there wasn’t a lot of wind. We were able to do some downwind sailing with the spinnaker a lot of the time, though.

On the way to Cascais, we accidentally caught a fishmark around the rudder. We couldn’t see it ahead of us because it was already half-submerged in the water, but we heard a thunk and ran to the stern to see a buoy trailing behind us. My dad quickly cut the line and we thought that we had gotten rid of it, but then he noticed that the steering was off and the wheel was struggling to turn to starboard. After a short while, the steering eased and we figured that whatever was still caught had cleared, but there was still a small line attached to Festina Lente that we could see at the stern. Luckily it didn’t seem to be affecting us much and we even got the boat up to ten knots. Once we arrived and anchored in Cascais, Jonas dived down to see what was still caught and came up with another fish mark and line that had been jammed behind the rudder. We figured that we must have accidentally ran between the two. It was really stuck in there because my dad had to tie another line to the one on the rudder and pull on it with the winch before it came free.

Jonas going snorkelling to see what was stuck on the rudder – Cascais, Portugal

The fish mark that was caught on our rudder – Cascais, Portugal

We dropped off Emily in Cascais, then sailed to the towns of Sines and Portimão over the next two days as overnight stops. Our goal was to get to Ria Formosa on the south coast of Portugal, where we could wait for the weather to be favourable when entering the Straits of Gibraltar.

Due to the pressure difference between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, there are high winds whipping through the entrance and the Levanter is currently blowing, meaning that the wind is from the east (the direction we want to go). As this can sometimes take weeks to flip around, we are going to spend that time in Ria Formosa, which is beautiful and has multiple towns and a little beach village to keep us occupied.

We had a bit of trouble with the sails on the way to the ria, as we accidentally put too much pressure on the old main sail when we were pulling it out and there were a few holes in the foot, which my dad repaired with sail tape. Then the leech of the sail started to luff and we realized the leech line had snapped, but luckily it was still retrievable so my dad was able to fix that as well. A little while later, my dad and I noticed that the spinnaker had a few weird puckers along the seams so he and Jonas took it down and repaired the few stitches that had ripped.

My dad fixing the leech line – off the coast of Portugal

Ria Formosa, as I said before, is a great place to stay. On Saturday, we took the dinghy into the town of Olhão and went to a big market where my mom and I bought lots of fruit and I got a romper.

Yesterday we spent all day at the beach in Culatra and I had a great time reading, then we got so relaxed that we lost track of time and went out for lunch before realizing it was actually dinner. I hope to spend a lot more time reading on the beach while we stay here.

Hanging Out in Ria Formosa

Portugal

Festina Lente