Gee Bee Jay Winters in Portugal

As another summer draws to a close the hunt for a suitable marina berth has brought us to the fine town of Lagos in the Algarve. Unless I get a sudden urge to cross the Atlantic this will be most probably be the most westerly point of our adventure. Lagos ticks most of the boxes for a winter stopover with a very sheltered position and secure marina. The town is very interesting with a good selection of supermarkets, restaurants and bars. The beaches along this stretch are beautiful so there will be no complaints from Bob when we go off on our daily rambles. The marina complex is lined with many lively bars & restaurants where the many liveaboarders can meet daily and talk a load of nonsense to each other. We are already members of the Lagos Navigators club which organise lots of activities including walks, language classes, sailing rallies, evening meals etc. (check them out on www.lagosnavigators.net ) The only downside of the marina is the price at which everybody winces, but also agree its a 1st class marina so we just put up and shut up.

It was a good sailing summer and we covered just over 750 miles from last years winter berth at Torrevieja. We clocked up a total of 124 hours on the engine so very pleased with our fuel bill. Apart from our scary experience in the fog in the straits of Gibraltar all else seemed just plain sailing. We had our share of strong winds a few times but fortunately most were on the rear quarter which suited Gee Bee Jay just fine. Being singlehanded there is always a fear of injury and I did sustain a very bad sprain to my arm (possible torn muscle) when a rope slipped whilst lowering the dingy from the rear gantry frame. At first i thought I had broken it as the pain was unbearable. It slowly got better as i took a seven week break from sailing in the delightful Spanish port of Roquettas. Being headstrong I refused all guidance by friends to see a doctor as I knew his advice would be to rest it and that was what I was doing and i let mother nature do the mending for me.

Gee Bee Jay is still looking after us well despite being desperately overweight with all our clobber on board. But the sunlight (UV) is taking its toll on the paintwork and all fabrics, so while I'm taking on a darker shade of brown the poor old boat is fading fast. I now have the usual list of jobs for our winter break and high on the list is an electric anchor winch. I'm not getting any younger and next year will see me spending a lot more time on the hook. If all goes to plan next year I hope to return back into the Mediterranean and after the trip up the coast of 'Costa Lot' I will be making my way across to Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca, Sardinia, Corsica, then overwintering in Sicily or Italy. Well that's the outline plan anyway so we will wait and see what happens next spring.

Sorry to hear the weather was not to kind to you over in the UK during the summer but look on the bright side at least your boats haven't faded - lol.

I hope you enjoy the photos of Lagos.

Kind regards to you all from Les and Bob the dog.

Date Published 19th Oct 2012