Yesterday the sink, today the water heater won't fire up. We check gas and the heater's fuses but no joy, and the delay means we don't leave until 11:30

We drive through Faro - very busy and Portuguese drivers are impatient and unpredictable - and go on to a motorhome accessory shop N+G know and want to visit. All along the roads are stalls with huge piles of oranges for sale.

After buying a few bits we go into Albuferia looking for somewhere to stop for lunch. We follow N+G around in circles, each of the places they know of from previous visits being closed to campers now. Each time we ask over the radio what the plan is we get vague answers. By the time we reach and park at the marina patience is running short. Anything we suggest for our stop tonight seems to be dismissed so we bite our tongues and follow on a few miles to a place called Salgados. Still there appears to be confusion with directions, but eventually we reach the aire in a beautiful location overlooking the Atlantic ocean.

Grete had had this stop in mind as a surprise and is both pleased to be here and relieved to find it open. Once we are parked all the tension disappears in seconds.

Along the long golden beach is a boardwalk, perfect for Nick's buggy. The surf is fantastic, great rollers building and curling, growing wider as they surge in with fine spray blowing back over their white crests. Ever present is the thundering noise as rocks on the shore line ore pounded and surrounded by white foam. We walk back through the town, with its palm gardens, to the vans.

In the evening there is an absolutely fabulous sunset as we are looking almost directly west.

When darkness falls we find the 12v sockets are dead. The fuse is blown so we replace it and then discover that the water heater works again.

So what started as a frustrating morning has turned out to be a very good day in the end.