Yacht Pipit

      

Read All About It, 24th November 2011

Meia Praia beach.


Our first article for which we'll be paid appears in the January 2012 edition of Sailing Today, which is out today. We're really pleased with how it looks, and the text is almost verbatim what we submitted, with only a slight bit of editing for space reasons. There's even a mention of our article on the front cover! So rush on down to your local newsagent and pick up a copy today! Or you can buy a digital copy here. If we hadn't done so already we wouldn't be able to retire on the proceeds, but they will keep us in wine for quite some time...

We also have an article about our experience of over-wintering in La Roche-Bernard in the next edition of the Bavaria Owners' Association magazine, due out any day now.

Meanwhile, we've been enjoying the social events in and around the marina. Last week's walk was very popular, with 57 Strollers and one dog (who gained a canine friend en-route) enjoying the absolutely perfect weather conditions - light wind, clear blue skies, warm but not too hot for walking. We caught a train east from Lagos to Mexilhoeria Grande, and then walked the 16km back to Lagos via the Alvor estuary and Meia Praia beach. We saw some flamingos in the estuary, you can just about make them out in the photo below:

Egrets and flamingos, honest!


Lunch stop.


The shifting sandbanks at the entrance to Alvor - possibly our first anchorage when we leave Lagos in the Spring.


Mussel rafts (we think) in the Alvor estuary.


Our GPS route.


The Friday suppers are proving very popular, with about 25 people attending last week. They are also having a deleterious effect on our ability to get to the farmers' market early enough on a Saturday morning... This Friday we are returning to a traditional Portuguese restaurant that we went to a fortnight ago as the food there was superb. The walks and the suppers are a great way of getting to meet liveaboards other than those on 'our' pontoon. There is also a nautical quiz night on Thursday which we may attend, although I suspect drink may be involved there too...

Talking of food, we've been sampling more unusual produce, including these:

Exotic carrots. More carrot information at The World Carrot Museum!


And of course these little beauties, fried in a bit of olive oil & seasoned with spices or herbs, make a healthy snack to accompany a not quite so healthy beer:



We've also updated our Nosh Nibbles & Nightcaps page with information about some of the wonderful food we've eaten and/or cooked in Spain and Portugal.

And (never start a sentence with a preposition...) we've added a page summarising our experience of Spain and Portugal so far.

The ARC has started now, and we're following the progress of a number of yachts we know with a mixture of envy, admiration, and relief that we're not at sea for 3 weeks! We still intend to turn left when we get to Gibraltar...

Although the weather has been pretty good, we've had a number of rainy days, plus thunder & lightning. After heavy rain the runoff from the land further upstream turns the water in the marina very brown:


We're looking forward to Andy's mother coming out to visit next week, and will be hiring a car to discover a little bit of inland Portugal.


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