Day Three in Albufeira

Me on the Foredeck.

Just returned from Sundowners with Peter, Steff and Anita. Today was the first day of temperatures that were not uncomfortably hot; indeed our drinks were finished in somewhat of a hurry in order to get back into the warmth of the boat. 

Night time in Albufeira

Of course, compared with UK temperatures we have been very spoilt - the high today being 28° and it was 2200 before shirt sleaves were no longer suitable attire.

Mick on the Foredeck

The last three days have been spent working slowly through the jobs required to prepare Bonny for her forthcoming ocean passage to the Azores. 

Chaos in the Cockpit

Of course, despite carting three heavy bags of boaty spares and tools from home to boat there were numerous items that we did not have that were required, so one of my first jobs was a trip to the Hardware store in town. I was able to find about 50% of the stuff required and so we're faced with the dilemma of what jobs to complete with the limited and often not quite right  bits. We hit on the solution today. We'll put in to Lagos en route to the Azores. Lagos apparently has the biggest Boat Chandlery in Portugal so we should be able to find everything we need there. There's also a supermarket very close to the marina so we'll provision for the passage  to the Azores there as well.

First Dinner cooked on board - Chicken Pesto!

We're paid up here until the 15th - the last day of the low season prices. After that the prices treble! So the plan is to stay until then and then head West towards Lagos and - weather permitting - put in to the Anchorage at Portomaio for a few days (which is free) and continue working through our jobs. Then once we run out of the bits we need to finish off, we'll go to Lagos to buy essential chandlery and provisions and complete the essential jobs as quickly as possible before heading off.

New VHF installed

The focus so far has been on securing various bits of equipment and furniture so that in the event of rough weather we don't end up with heavy things like anchors, tables and gas cylinders flying around the boat. Oh and we, (that is Mick) installed the new VHF radio and Epirb (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon).

New EPIRB

Tomorrow we'll have a change in the morning  - Peter and Steff are taking us to the local Iceland store where we can buy essential British groceries (imported from Ireland 🤣).