Tony had his baptism of fire rounding Cabo de Sao Vincent. He experienced F7 winds gusting off the south west tip of Portugal while I was down bellow sleeping. He decided then and there to quit. I remember thinking as we motored into port I was destined to be a solo sailor. No matter how hard I tried I could not hang on to or find suitable crew. I was faced with a dilemma. Do I keep trying to make long passages in my quest for the Eastern part of the Med. or do I slow down and start to look after my crewmate. Well I took the later option and a whole new world opened up.
We managed to arrive in Villamoura on the Algarve coast of Portugal with three days left on their off season rate, €10 a night. The place was unreal. St. Catherine’s Dock x 5. Complete with boutiques, good marine facilities and workshops, plus tons of tourists. We arrived on Sunday and the pedestrian traffic was like Oxford Street’s. I even managed to get my sail repaired which had lost a reefing point on the number 2 reef on passage round Cabo de Sao Vincent. I liked Villamoura. It satisfied both the sailor in me and the social voyeur. The sail repaired, we were back on track for Gibraltar but first to Faro . . .