Sue and Emma arrived today so we sailed to Alvor but this anchorage proved too windy and shallow for us to stay overnight. The clues were the hundreds of kite surfers and the boat in front running aground. We went on to Portimao where we anchored in the bay.

The saga of the diesel continues. After having motored for several hours to get to Lagos from Lisbon, I decided to check the fuel filter again, it was not as clear as would be expected so took off the fuel tank inspection tank and noticed the bottom of the tank covered in thin brown slime. Decided the best thing to do was remove this slime, however the tank showed just over a quarter full and so the best option was to suck off from the bottom. The question is how...

Having got to Lagos several days early we have had a boat maintenance and chill out day. The diesel is still dirty and spent time sucking out the dirt from the bottom of the tank which should hopefully sort out any future problems. The marina has many bars, restaurants and a hotel with pool which we spent this afternoon swimming in. Sue and I first visited Lagos in 1984, it was a small town with very few tourists but now is completely unrecognisable. Some of the...

We had intended to sail from Lisbon to Sesimbra on Saturday and Sines on Sunday before setting off for Lagos at midnight on Sunday. However after setting, we were enjoying the sailing so much with a gentle beam wind of 6-10 knots in a gentle sea giving us good boat speed, that we decided to sail straight to Lagos. The wind a conditions were also predicted to worsen later in the week and one of the lessons of the trip is carpe et diem. Out came the emergency meal ...

We decided to sail the 12 miles into the centre of Lisbon today. Before setting off did an engine check and discovered the diesel in the prefilter was a brown colour. I removed both the prefilter and the final filter and replaced with new, looked in the fuel tank and went through the slow process of hand priming the pumps. This takes about 30 minutes with a small finger pump on the side of the engine which you can reach but not see. Went to start the engine but i...