Ria Formosa and North Winds
21 May 2024 – Cascais, Portugal
We anchored off of the island Culatra in Ria Formosa for a week, though every time we go to that place it feels like time stops. I thought we had only been there three days at the most when I realized that it was Sunday again and I had done nothing except enjoy the sun and read my book for a week.
Ria Formosa, Portugal
Though Culatra is beautiful and super relaxed and friendly, we are eager to head north, so we only stayed there to wait for a south wind. The problem is that there is no south wind and probably never will be. What we didn’t realize before planning this leg of the journey was that in the summer, the prevailing wind of the Portuguese coast is north, and because it looks like the summer weather patterns have come early this year, the north wind never stops. What we ended up doing was waiting for a day when the wind was fairly light and then sailing as far as we could before it got strong again.
On our last day in Ria Formosa, we realized that we had done none of the things we planned to do there and sprang into action. We took the dinghy across the bay to the city of Olhão and went to the fruit market, then went back to Culatra and spent the afternoon on the beach, and finally went out for dinner.
At the beach – Culatra, Portugal
Due to thermal winds caused by the heating of the land, the wind gets quite strong pretty much every afternoon. To avoid having to struggle upwind into twenty knots of wind, we left early, at five in the morning, and only struggled upwind into ten knots. The first day of heading up the coast was actually pretty pleasant, as the wind was offshore and more on the beam than expected, so we were able to sail for a bit. We arrived in Paleeira around mid-afternoon and went for a walk and emergency trip to the grocery store to buy pizza ingredients for dinner.
Paleeira, Portugal
Paleeira, Portugal
The wind was forecasted to be lighter than usual for the next two days, so we repeated the schedule of leaving super early and motor sailing upwind for about fifty nautical miles twice more. On the second day, we anchored in Sines and went for a walk around the coast.
Sines, Portugal
Sines, Portugal
Today, the third and final leg of our journey, we headed to the town of Cascais, where we will stay for the foreseeable future until the north wind gets lighter again. Today’s journey was more difficult, as the wind and waves were directly on the nose and we were unable to motor sail, but once we came into the lee of Cabo Rasso the waves calmed down and we enjoyed a pleasant sail for the last hour or two.
