Portimao

Hi everyone,

Portimao is a top spot.  It has several anchorages within the harbour.  The anchorage just inside the breakwaters is popular, with 8 - 12 boats anchored overnight.  There's a marina too but we haven't been there apart from filling a few jerries of water via our tender.  Tonight will be our fifth night here.

The town of Portimao is about 1.5nm away from our anchorage.  We haven't been there since everyone says the village of Ferragudo on the east side of the harbour is much nicer.  It's also a lot closer.   Certainly Ferragudo is very nice with narrow lanes, nice buildings and many quiet bars and cafes.  The Portimao (west) side is apparently much rowdier and this was clear last Sunday when their sound systems were booming across the anchorage during the afternoon.

View from waterside cafe in Ferragudo ("the village")

Being on the Algarve there are lots of British residents and tourists.  So most bar/cafe staff speak English, and some shopkeepers too.  Many of the Ferragudo cafes offer very reasonably priced multi-course meals for 10 - 15 Euros.

Great Food

The cheaper eateries are in the village square.

Ferragudo village square

The more expensive eateries offer a view over the harbour.

Ferragudo waterfront

There's constant activity along the wharf with many small fishing craft based in Ferragudo.  The bigger craft go up the harbour to Portimao.

Ferragudo fishing wharf

Away from the waterfront the village is quite hilly.  Atop the hill is the village church which is conspic from the harbour.  There are nice beaches along the eastern side of the harbour.  I'm confident one could dinghy ashore and walk along to the village.  We didn't since were shopping and are also establishing out the endurance of our Torqueedo electric outboard.

The Church on the Hill

It's nice to walk around the village.  It's very well-kept with the buildings in the lanes all nicely painted.  Some have impressive flower displays.  The lanes are cobblestoned and on steep patches they're very slippery - to the extent that some are painted red.

Steep lanes and pretty buildings

There are a few smallish shops in Ferragudo which were sufficient for us.  There are much larger shops in Portimao for serious provisioning.

Bakery and Supermarket

Tile Mosaics

Aside from visiting Ferragudo we've been kept busy with three sundowners in a row.  It was great to meet the crews of UK yacht Alice May, Jersey yacht Selkie and Cook Islands yacht Voila (with Aussie and US crew).

Zen Again in the anchorage

While here in Portimao we've had a mixture of sunny and cloudy days.  There's often a decent breeze in the afternoon which can make the anchorage a little bumpy.  It calmed down every night.

Boat jobs have kept us busy while neither exploring nor socialising.  We're working on a mount for the hydro-generator, and we've been inspecting and cleaning the hull.  On cleaning the AutoProp we found its anode loose and somewhat eroded.  The AutoProp is new and has been in the water for 10 months.  So I worked on rebuilding my swimming skills (dormant for 5 years) to retighten the nylon bolts which secure the anode.  Meanwhile Nicki worked on cleaning around the waterline.  The water was 'refreshing', and clean on an incoming tide.

We now have 50 of our 90 Schengen days to go.  By half way we hope to be in the Med!

Trust all's well where you are!