Portugal – part one – from Faro to Cascais

From the border between Spain and Portugal we sailed to Faro, to the bay of Culatra. It is inside the island of Culatra, and outside the town of Olhao. It is a very pleasant anchorage and there will be many boats together with you. There is taxiboats going between Olhao and Culatra all days and make this anchorage a bit noisy, but it is quiet through the night.

We took the dinghy into Culatra early in the morning to have a morning hike on the island. It is hard to find a place to put the dinghy, because the dinghydock was destroyed in bad weather. But we have a light dinghy so we could lift it up on the beach, high enough so the high tide didn`t take it.

Culatra is a beautiful island and we walked from Ilha de Culatra to Ilha de Farol. It was a calm morning and not many people around.

Most of this hike is along the beach. In the beginning it was a boardwalk.

But most of the hike was on sand. We walked without shoes and checked out the water temperature. (not high)

In the distance we could see the lighthouse in Ilha de Farol.

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It was a beautiful and warm day.

When we arrived in Ilha de Farol it was boardwalk again and we could clean our feet and put shoes on.

The lighthouse

Ilha de Farol was a beautiful place, and if I ever go back to Faro/Algarve for holiday I would spend some days here.

The policestation!

And there were so many nice flowers!

You will not find cars here.

Hawaiian Rose/Hibiscus

I don`t know the name of this, but it was amazing!

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Another Hawaiian Rose!

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Some drone photos:

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It is a narrow channel when you are sailing into the bay:

We walked along the beach on the right side.

The village in Ilha de Farol.

We walked around the village and went back to the dinghy the same way as we came. A few cafe`s in the harbour, not much else.

Here is a video from this amazing place:

We had a plan to see more around Faro, and maybe Faro itself, but we decided to sail further west.

Along Algarve coast there is many cliffs and beaches.

It is possible to anchor here on a calm day, but it was too many sightseeing boats, scooters and others. A lot of noise and waves.

We sailed to the bay of Portimao and anchored in a very sheltered anchorage. We took the dinghy into the beach across Ferragudo town to walk to Lidl and Continente Bom Dia to do some grosery shopping. I love shopping on the supermarkets when we arrive in new countries!!

The next day we anchored closer to Ferragudo, because it was a bit windy with waves, and it was too far to use our dinghy from the other anchorage.

This beach were we put our dinghy is not in use, only for dog walkers and some fishermens, so it was not any problem to leave our dinghy.

Just a short distance from the dinghy to Ferragudo.

Castela de Ferragudo

Taxiboats was crossing from Ferragudo to Portimao all day long.

The anchorage outside Ferragudo.

Ferragudo is a cozy small town. Not much shopping, but some restaurants at the square.

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Some touristshops.

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Outside the church. Unfortunately we couldn`t go inside.

Some narrow streets.

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We had tapas for dinner before we went back to the boat.

tacos with shrimps!

It was not that much so we shared a dessert.

We continue to the west and had a stop in Sagres, the last anchorage before turning around the southwest corner of Portugal.

Faro de Cabo de San Vicente. The lighthouse on the southwesternmost corner of Portugal. Now we are turning north.

Our next stop was in Sines, where we anchored right in front of the town.

Nice view from the boat. Many people on the beach.

We took the dinghy ashore to explore Sines and do some groceryshopping.

The difference between low tide and high tide is huge, so be aware you put your dinghy far enough from the water.

We wanted to visit the castle, mostly because of the view, but unfortunately they was preparing a musicfestival so we couldn`t come inside.

The story says that Vasco Da Gama grew up in the castle. He is known to be the commander of the first ship sailing to India.

We didn`t find Sines very interesting so the next day we continue our sail north.

In Sesimbra we met another Norwegian boat. We wanted to get ashore and hike up to the castle (in the middle of the photo), but we sailed further on the next morning.

The Norwegian guy had a German guest onboard. He lost his boat outside Bilbao when he crashed into a container… We have to watch out for orcas, and now also containers….

Our next stop was Cascais, a holiday resort west of Lisbon. We anchored in the bay which was a really good shelter. There is space for many boats and there was a lot of water activities, dinghysailing, foiling and windsurfing. Luckily there was not many scooters.

We took the dinghy into the marina where you can leave it at the fuelstation. The marina is huge and we walked through it to the western part of the city.

On the west side of the marina you will find a trail along the road, also for bicycling. And many nice places.

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Along the sea there are many viewpoints, like this arch. Search for Boca do Inferno on youtube and you will see how crazy this can be in bad weather.

We went to the market, which is every day, also on Sundays!! It is huge!

We found good fruits and vegetables.

On the way back to the boat we walked through the town. We thought it would be quiet…

But the shops were open and many people in the streets!

Cascais is a beautiful city!

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On the left side you will find the touristinformation and we went inside to see what it is to see here. We wanted to go to Sintra, that looks amazing, but that has to be next time. It will be on our “todolist”.

On the way back to the marina.

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In Cascais you will find many beaches.

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One important person for Cascais.

When we came back to the boat we saw a lot of smoke in the hill, it was a wildfire!!

We could read in the news it was not far away from Cascais, and over 300 firefighters was working against the fire. 8 planes was flying over our boat the whole day to pick up water.

Here is a short video from this day:

The next day was a beautiful day and already at 07.30 we were ashore, ready to go by train to Lisbon.

It was so quiet in the morning.

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Unfortunately we didn`t manage to go to Lisbon. The ticketoffice is closed on Mondays (how is that possible in July???) and when we tried to buy the ticket onboard, they said many trains were canceled this morning. Our plan was to arrive early in Lisbon, and we used one hour just to find out that it would be too late. So we skipped Lisbon and went back to the boat.

We decided to give up our plan to go to Lisbon (and Sintra) and sailed further north. But when we came outside the waves was too high, so we turned around and went back to the anchorage in Cascais and stayed there another day, just relaxing in the sun.