Reaching the Algarve

With two overnight passages, we sailed 650km! We're over half of the delivery to Barcelona and I'm really getting the hang of this!

Since leaving Baiona, we've now already reached Portimao on the south coast of Portugal. It's pretty amazing the distance you can travel with good wind. While the first night passages were a bit nerve wracking, I can now relax much more and enjoy the beauty of a moon lit ocean, all to yourself.

We passed Cabo de Roca, the most westerly point of mainland Europe. A location I remember visiting during my last vacation with my parents. Who would have thought I would be passing by some day with my own boat.

This picture was taken with my mobile phone, thru the binoculars.

A few miles further was Cascais, our next stop. With a beautiful sun setting behind us we had a nice puff of wind, Howdoo loved it and so did we! A beautiful ending of another 225 mile (400km) trip.

We arrived in the harbour after dark and parking the boat in an unfamiliar harbour with a berth max 1,5m wider that the boat was a little stressfully. Luckily the Howdoo can be operated like driving a tank, locking the steering wheel and putting the two engines in forward or reverse, independant of eachother. You can turn 360 degrees in an area not much larger than the boat. Only challenge is the visibility. Standing on de starboard helm station (where the throttles are) is difficult to guess/know how much space you have in the front on the port side. Luckily I have a crew that can assist, and everything went well. My professional skipper was so impressed by me handeling the situation and even offered me a whisky “borrel” to celebrate! Not my choice of beverage, but I'll take it 😁

The next morning we had some “engine wellness” planned. The brand new engines had worked so hard that they deserved a professional treatment, the mandatory 50 hour-check. This was done in about half an hour by a 5 man team, on both engines at the same time.

We also noticed that next to us was a very similar Nautitech 40, “Moonah”. She’s hull #247! We already met #248 in La Rochelle, and can now add another member to the family. Howdoo is hull #249…

After some more grocery shopping (and a quick run around the main touristic attractions) we left just after lunch. Heading to Portimao, which is around the corner. Kind off, it 135 miles (250km) away. We have great wind and speed, so we only started the engine to charge the batteries. We arrive early the next morning (Thursday, April 25th), welcomed by another delivery skipper who is boat-sitting a nice boat the owner has allowed him to live on. Aperently the owner only uses the boat for one or two weeks a year. What a great job! 😀 After more grocery shopping we had lunch together with his wife. This skipper will deliver Howdoo from Barcelona to Pula after the work in Barcelona is done. So it's nice to meet the man who will be taking care of our beloved boat.

Just as we were heading out, my wife informs me that friends of us are in Portimao at this same moment! We decide to turn back, but unfortunately we can't find a spot to dock and let them come onboard. But we’re able to show off the boat and I finally have pictures of Howdoo on the water:

The weather window is perfect so we’re quickly proceeding to Tarifa, the last harbour before the street of Gibraltar. There we’ll time our departure carefully, so that we have a favorable current guiding us into the Mediterranean. Fun fact: The current is mainly west to east as water evaporates from the Mediterranean and is repleted by water from the Atlantic.