LinoCat

Many authorities like stamps :-) So if you have a rubber stamp for your boat you can make your documents like crewlists look much more official. Another advantage is that you can stamp logbooks of people sailing with you and even more you can stamp you own books so that if you swap them others can read to whom this book belonged. If you add the part of the journey where you have read it it is even more interesting. I decided to have our MMSI registration number and my german official boat radiocallsign on it.

2009 will be the year for LinoCat since from summer onwards LinoCat will be on the way from Portugal to the Canaries most likely via Madeira. From there LinoCat might go over the Atlantic to the Caribean. And then.... LET´S SEE We will keep you updated with the preparations. Regards Michael

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.