5.5. Lagos. A familiar harbor with all services and a good affordable laundry which we used. The day before when we were approaching Lagos we saw a 50-foot boat with a big genoa/genaker up. As we came close they started yelling for help. We came alongside and they told us that they didn’t know how to jibe with the genaker up. We tried to tell them how to do it and I even tried to board the boat but finally they managed to get a skipper from ashore on a Zodiac to help them out. All kinds of sailors I tell you. We went out to a very good Chinese restaurant for lunch. This part of Lagos is very nice with narrow streets only for pedestrians. There’s a good supermarket close to the marina and the service at the marina office was excellent. The girls at the office  are fluent with English and aren’t that bad looking either. The day was very warm reaching +29 in the afternoon. It would have been too hot without a nice breeze. We moved the boat to the waiting pontoon on the other side of the lifting bridge in the afternoon because we planned to leave early in the next morning. As Nina was going to the shower she was stopped by a local man who was working here, his home was actually in Porto. He had seen our boat and flag and finally he came to the boat and we took a bunch of pictures which he wanted to show to his seven year old daughter. A very nice young man and, once again, Portugal vs. Spain 1-0.

6.5. We left Lagos for Sines at 6:30. A beautiful day but not a good day for sailing. Almost calm most of the day, in the afternoon the northwest breeze picked up but that didn’t help us any so we ended up motoring the whole way to Sines and anchored there outside the marina. On the way we had a delightful experience. A man on a zodiac approached us and asked if he could come alongside. We stopped the boat and attached the zodiac to our boat. The guy spoke very good English and told us that he had been spearfishing and wanted us to take pictures of his catch. The story was like from those old count Munschausen stories where the count caught 9 birds with one shot. This guy was real, though. He had seen a big sea bass lurking behind a rock and another one closing in. He had waited and finally had the both basses in line so he fired and got them both with a single shot. He was so happy. Once in a lifetime experience, he said and we believe him. So we took the pictures and off he went. The basses weighed about 10 kg each. Once again, Portugal vs. Spain 1-0.  So after 13 hours we anchored here. The log stated 79 miles which was 5 miles more than on our outward journey because of the constant current here on the coast. They promised a southerly wind for tomorrow and the next morning so we try to make the best of that because usually the dominant winds are from the north at this time of the year, especially in the afternoons. Now there’s a low in the Atlantic that causes this southerly wind. At the moment the wind is very light, we took a shower and now it’s bedtime.

7.-8.5. Sines – Figueira do Fox. We left sines shortly after eight. The wind was very light and we headed for Cascais to anchor there. As we were coming to Cascais the new weather reports showed increasing winds from the north as from 9.5. so we decided to carry on tp Figueira do Fox where we arrived the next morning after 25 hours at sea. Mostly we had a light wind but for hours the sea was dead calm and no possibility to sail at all. We saw dolphins several times and the last encounter was the most spectacular. A big pack of dolphins had apparently surrounded a school of small fish, sardelles apparently and were feasting on them. Quite a sight! We had to do what shouldn’t be done here which I to motor through the night across these waters which are infested with nets. We didn’t catch any to our propeller and the night went without incidents with us taking turns to catch some sleep. The morning was gray and rainy but the cleared up some during the day. The atlantic swell was 3-4 meters high but very long so it didn’t cause much trouble. We made a very short stop here on our way south and after that they had built a very nice service building with very nice showers and other facilities. The guy at the reception was very nice with fluent English and told u to pick up any place we wanted. There’s a big sister in the harbor, a French owned Nauticat 40, one year older than ours. They are stuck here with engine problems on their way south. Now it seems that we are stuck here as well because the weather charts show increasing winds from the north for several days.