LinoCat

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.