37°57.04'N 008°51.9 W Sunday 27th September

Last stop on straight leg down - Sines

Another funny little stop - a good marina with all mod cons, stuck on the edge of a strange town that did not seem to know what it was. Birthplace of Vasco da Gama, with a wide seafront promenade, beautifully tiled and a very small old centre - everything uphill. This was surrounded by the bleakest high rise flats and urban like ghettos, albeit on a small scale.

We were looking at the optimum time to do the next leg - a longer one (about a channel crossing length 55+ nm) without any stopping possibilities. Explored on Saturday and sat out a bit of fog on Sunday with the aim of leaving tomorrow (Monday). It's straight south to the Cabo de Sao Vicente (feels like the end of the world), at which point you hang a sharp left to go along the bottom of Portugal and the Algarve.