LinoCat

http://www.linocat.de/portugal16.htm

Today i had the oppurtunity to go out onboard one of the P1 powerboats for 20Minutes. IT WAS AWESOME!

a so called "Hornhecht" in german :-) caught on the way from Vilamoura to Portimao

This is the marina of Villa Real de Santo Antonio which is reached pretty close to the entrance of the Guidana river. This river is seperating spain and Portugal. Which courtesy flag to run :-)? It is cheap, clean and even has free WiFi due to the Algarve digital initiative. We paid 28Euro for a night. The current in this river can be strong but we had no problems at all entering the marina even with the currents running. Some cruising guides state this as dangerous but i rather think they are making a to big deal out of it. As you can see the marina is really in walking distance to the city center. There are nice restaurants nearby. It is higly recommended also to do a cruise upstream the river which is quite, relaxing and you will see many birds and other wildlife. There are ample opportunities to anchor or use moorings. Of course one needs to watch the depth-meter since it is also getting shallow. There is a bridge right at beginning but if you have less than 19m it is never a probl

Mazagon. Here we washed clothes. In spain the marinas were in much worse shape and the english language skills in Portugal are also much better. The bars here have WiFi. It is quite a walk to the next shop to buy food etc. Be aware that in front of Mazagon there is a military training area which is often active past the high season. We also had to change course due to that. It is highly advised that you really listen to Channel 16 in this area.

In Chipiona they gave us the most expensive berth on this trip, since it was for a 50ft boat and costs around 60EUR per night. The city is OK and it is nice to walk around.

The next day we were exploring Ceuta and really found it to be a nice place. Of course it is a bit touristy with all the daytime visitors who come for shopping but it has nice restaurants, cafes and shops and some beuatiful architecture and interesting history and political background. Together with good weather and a good mood, what more can you ask for? To the left you see the dragon house one of the most beautiful buildings in Ceuta. During Siesta hours (lunchtime and a bit afterwards) most shops are closed which was a pitty for us heavy shoppers :-) This snap was taken in the old castle where the medieval market was held. It was very nice with tasty food and some attractions for kids as for us more older kids. It was not to crowed and so we visited it also more than once. At each booth we were allowed to try the specialities they were selling. Looking at the rock in Gibraltar from the Ceuta coastline. You can actually see how narrow the strait of Gibraltar is. Also you can see the

We left Smir Marina in the morning. There was no wind (2knots) and so we were motoring our way to Ceuta. Ceuta is an enclave in Maroc which belongs to spain. Due to being a tax free zone many people come here for shopping with one of the high speed ferries from Spain or Gibraltar. The waterquality along this coast is amazing. Once we reached the entrace to the strait of Gibraltar i saw that the colour of the water surface changed in a distance. Since we had prepared the boat for "no wind leisure cruise", which means the hatches are open, stuff not stored away i decided to prepare for some more wind. So we locked away stuff and closed the hatches. Once we rounded the corner into the strait the wind picked up from 2knots to 24 as you can see on the picture. But since the harbour was now only a few miles away we decided not to set sail but motor into Ceuta which we did. There we had to go to the dock "roman-catholic" style, which means backwards and use a mooringline.

Because i kept most of the info at www.linocat.de in german. :-)

Linocat had to be hauled out for 6Months. He was in the water for almost 2 years now and had good growth below the waterline. So we went to the commercial marina in Portmiao and took the big crane. Here you see part of the growth. Even the speed under motor was affected. So she needes a serious cleaning and repainting. Bluewateralgrave has taken care of that and they did a good job. This was LinoCat out on the dry. Be aware that if there is huge boat behinf which they are spraypainting that your boat will partly be painted too :-) Here you can see very well that the paint IS blue under the green stuff and the growth around the blackwater outlet. YUCK Another picture showing the growth around the saildrive and also a missing coverpart. I have no clue for how long this was actually missing and also i do not know if i should replace it. The original antifouling coming out after using the high pressure washer. The old one was Zaragoza and the new will be a hard selfpolishing Jotun one. The

Today we sailed LinoCat to Portimao where he was supposed to be hauled out. (That will be another entry in this blog). It was very windy and the wind was damned cold, so today even though it was sunny everyone was wearing a cap and and a warm jacket. My brother Andy proofed that these are ideal conditions for a perfect sunburn, especially if you doze off in the sun. But to the left it is Thomas sleeping in the sun. Now i know hy pillowfenders are called pillowfenders :-) The Marina de Lagos from the drawbridge. It is a very nice, secure marina. 24h guards and due to the drawbridge noone can steal the boat at night anyway. Andi to the left and Thomas chilling on the net. Jan, Thomas and one of the chicks.

We decided to have a management meeting on the boat. We did a rough calculation about the flight costs and accomodation and since some people could sleep on the boat and we could get flights for 49Euro and decided to pay the food out of our own pocket it was actually not more expensive than having it in Germany. So we have had the discussions in the hotel and then in the afternoon we went on the boat to go for a short sail. Here we had a nice working breakfast. WELL, this was on the free day so that is why there is also Campari on the table :-) Thomas, Reinhard and big boss Andreas are enjoying themselves in April at the sunyn Algarve coast. We all had fun and still also discussed and decided a lot. We also prepared the action plan and other stuff needed in the near future. So besides Kornelias sea sickness it was a huge success. On the way out from the marina de Lagos in Portugal. I am explaining the controls and the E120 Raymarine plotter zu the "crew" :-) Chilling on the t