Lagos ... not Nigeria!

I see it's 6 days since my last post. Have been enjoying ourselves so much (and doing work on board) that the days have just slipped past. As can be assumed from the title of this post, we did arrive in Lagos, yes, the one in Portugal on the beautiful Algarve Coast. The passage took 5 hours longer than the anticipated 24 hours, partly due to the lack of wind for most of the time but also because unbeknownst to us, we were carrying some unwelcome passengers, of which more below. Boredom was eased by the sight of the splendid ship Esmerelda, a sail training vessel belonging to the Spanish navy.

Lagos is flanked on the west side by a peninsular full of grottos and caves - a mecca for tourists and a goldmine for local fisherman and small boat owners alike. Atop the peninsular there is a lighthouse distinguished by the presence of a few surrounding palm trees. You can see just a very few of the tourist boats in the photo below; their numbers increased tenfold as we drew nearer to the port.

After catching up on sleep, we met up for a meal with old friends from Whittlesford, Linda and Michael, whom we have known for over 30 years - our children went to toddler group together! We were joined by one of their oldest friends, John (the one with only slightly less hair) and all came aboard Follyfin the next day.

They kindly invited us to their house for a swim and 'cataplana' which is a traditional Portuguese dish consisting of fish, shellfish, pork in various forms, all cooked in white wine. Delicious! Their house is the one on the hill in centre of photo.

This photo was taken on Thursday as we made our way 2.7 miles east along the coast to Alvor, situated just inside a large lagoon formed by the river estuary. The purpose of this trip was to investigate Follyfin's undersurface, having suspected something to be amiss on our slow passage south from Lisbon. At low tide most of the Alvor lagoon dries leaving hard sand, perfect for Follyfin to dry out on, allowing inspection of her hull. As it turned out, it was the propeller 

and its shaft 

that had played host to our unwelcome passengers who had jumped aboard during Folłyfin's 6-week stay in the water in Lisbon. I got to work with the palette knife to remove the encrustations. Two hours later ... move over Barnacle Bill! Meanwhile the Skipper did his bit by cleaning the rest of the hull which had acquired a little weed but because of the anti-foul applied at the beginning of the season (referred to in early May post) the build-up of growth was not too bad.

Now back in Lagos Marina and concentrating on preparing for the 5-day crossing to Madeira whilst taking time out to enjoy some of the local sights and flavours courtesy of John who really knows his way around here!