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...

This leg from Finnistere to Lisbon was meant to have northerly winds and a current of 0.5 to 0.75 helping us on our way. We have had current against us, winds all over the place and fog almost every day. Today we had all of these. We left Peniche later than planned due to the unavailability of the harbour master to give pontoon keys back to and me acting as a translator between Dutch and French boats who wanted to unraft and neither spoke each other's language. ...

This leg from Finnistere to Lisbon was meant to have northerly winds and a current of 0.5 to 0.75 helping us on our way. We have had current against us, winds all over the place and fog almost every day. Today we had all of these. We left Peniche later than planned due to the unavailability of the harbour master to give pontoon keys back to and me acting as a translator between Dutch and French boats who wanted to unraft and neither spoke each other's language. ...