The "Live-Anywhere" Boat - Cruise 2015, Part XVII, Lagos, Tenerife, the BVI
Updated April, 2016
We left La Coruņa at about noon on Nov 2nd, on a pleasant day, with 10-15 knots of northerly wind, headed for Lagos, in Portugal. Our course ran southwest at first, then south after we passed Finisterre at midnight. Conditions were pleasant, as the green hills receded into the gray haze.

Our third night out, as Barbara was on watch, she was surprised by a line of naval vessels headed north. Very big, they looked in the dark, and later I discovered that they were the ships of the NATO Standing Mine Countermeasures Group 2, an international force based in Southern Europe.


Sunset at Sea

Barbara Alongside at the Marina de Lagos

The wind was rising a little, but the sea was still very moderate, and the conditions were good enough that I forgot for the moment that the forecast had only showed good conditions near the coast, and we thought we might head directly for Tenerife instead. This was a bad decision, as conditions deteriorated and we were soon banging hard into it. The wind rose to 40 knots, and we decided that enough was enough.
Decorated Party Fishing Boats - Lagos


Path at the Marina Edge - The Way to the Bridge to Town

We did not exactly turn back, but changed to a course that would bring us closer to the coast and would meanwhile give us an easier ride.

At noon on Thursday, Nov. 5th, we were abeam of Cabo Saõ Vincente, the southwest corner of Portugal, and of Europe. We turned and headed just south of east, along the Algarve coast. This is a bold coast with cliffs of reddish rock, but wherever there is a river mouth there is a village, a cluster of blindingly white houses.

About 4 hours after rounding the cape, we ran between the breakwaters into the river harbor of Lagos and stopped at the reception float just outside the pedestrian drawbridge leading to the marina.


Lagos is a City of White Streets


Farmers' Market, Lagos

Spain and Portugal are different from the other European countries as far as cruisers are concerned. They still require entry and exit formalities, for example, but these are not onerous. We got through them quickly and were given a T-head berth, which pleased us because of its easy access. The drawbridge opened for us, and we were secured alongside just 76 hours after leaving La Coruņa.

We did not know this, but Lagos is really the home port for a great number of British yachts, and the bars along the marina sea wall tend to specialize in curry and fish- and-chips, and to resound with British accented English.


A Piece of the Medieval City Wall, Lagos

This is handy when one knows no Portuguese, but was not really what we traveled this far to see. So instead we found the farmers' market and walked around the city, enjoying the blinding whiteness of the buildings

Our good friend Carl was all set to help us bring the boat back across the Atlantic, and on Tuesday, the 10th, he was supposed to arrive. We had originally arranged for him to fly to Tenerife, but when it became clear that we would not be there in time, we changed the flight to arrive in Faro, the nearest town to Lagos with an airport. His flight from San Juan was late, however, and every- thing went downhill from there.


The Streets in Lagos Are All Up- and Downhill


Square in Front of the Police Station

We rented a car, with the idea of picking him up in Faro, whenever he got there, and in the meantime used it to stock up on wine and beer, and other heavy stores from the Pingo Doce, the big supermarket near the marina.

While we waited for information, we visited the 17th-century Forte da Ponta da Bandeira, the fort at the mouth of the river, and later, as I was walking through the main square, I heard a voice call "Porter!" -- and turned to see Carl, smiling. He had taken a bus from Faro and had really enjoyed the ride. He had been wondering how he would find us, once he arrived in Lagos, but the bus station is just across the river from the marina, and as the


Living Backed Up Against the City Wall

bus drove into town, he saw Barbara out the window.

So all was well, and it was very good having Carl back on the boat again. Since we had the car anyway, we decided to go the next day to Sagres, the site of a fort associated with Prince Henry the Navigator, who spent most of his time in Lagos.

We stopped on the way at the small town Vila do Bispo, a small place that is very old, certainly dating from the 15th century, although authorities differ as to how much older it really is. It has a very nice church, but that was closed, so we could not see the interior. The town is a tourist attraction, but the only tourists we saw were a group of happy German surfers in a VW bus.

The fort was built in the 15th century to protect the neighboring area and fishing fleets from the predations of pirates and privateers, notably among them Sir Francis Drake. There is a story, about which I am somewhat doubtful, that the fort was also the location of Prince Henry's Navigation School.

We did more shopping, at the Farmers' Market and at Pingo Doce, and we went to the gypsy market just north of the town center. We were promised proper horsedrawn gypsy caravans, but today's gypsies seem to operate from rvs, some in better shape than others. The market is large, however, and well attended by shoppers.


Santo Antonio Church


The Harbor Mouth andFort

Lagos is a very pleasant city, and one sees why it is so popular with tourists, particularly the British. The buildings are almost all very white, with a near-eastern busyness in the details and often with near eastern motifs. It is as though the Moors had only just left.

The fishermen's harbor is full of relatively small inshore fishing boats, and very fresh fish is a staple on the menus of local restaurants.

One great pleasure of our stay in Lagos was meeting Helen and Hansueli, a Swiss couple cruising in their retirement, just as we were. People of great accomplishment and intelligence, they were also


Carousel Figures, Lagos

great company, and the night before we left, we all went to an unassuming little restaurant where the fish was delicious. It is the way of the cruising life that one meets people and then leaves for the next port. Sometimes one sees them again, perhaps even several years later, and sometimes one does not.


The Red Cliffs of the Algarve

The Spare Interior of a 16th-Century Fort

On a sparkling Saturday, November 14th, we called the marina office for a bridge opening, turned around in the river, and headed out. We stopped briefly at the office float to check out, and then headed out into the Gulf of Cadiz. The wind was south-southeast, 10-15 knots, with a 6'-8' chop, but both wind and chop moderated as we moved off the shore. Just as we were running between the breakwaters, we ran into a fleet of small sailboats, a sailing school race. We had very limited room to maneuver, with the rocky breakwaters on both sides, and several times, just as we thought we had cleared all the llittle boats one would tack right across our course, or pass astern of us close enough to touch.

Our course led southwest in a straight line to the strait between Tenerife and Grand Canary, and it was in general a very easy run. The wind was mostly light and variable, rising occasionally to 10 to 15 knots, and the sea was correspondingly calm.

Of coutrse there is always something, and just at midnight, our second night out, a noise from the engine room alerted us to a belt about to break, so we stopped the engine and yet again replaced the alternator belts. It took only aout 45 minutes to replace them, but this is getting to be a nuisance. A pair of belts used to last beween seven and nine hundred hours, but these had only been in place for three hundred, and earlier in the year two pairs were only good for 150 hours each, in spite of attention to their tension. I think NAPA must have changed their specification or their supplier, and when we return to the U.S. I'll look into other brands.


Shrine in the Opposite Corner of the Fort


Chapel of the Fort, Lined with Tiles that Look Very Esatern

At 22:15 on Tuesday, we made up the lighthouse on the northeast end of Tenerife and changed course slightly to return to our original rhumb line and stay clear of the rocks off the point. By 06:00 we were off the entrance to the yacht harbor at Santa Cruz, but after a preliminary reconnaisance we decided to jog offshore untl daylight. For a little over an hour, we jogged back and forth, until we judged that we could see well enough to enter the harbor. At 07:40 we rounded the first breakwater and found our way to the marina Santa Cruz, at the head of the otherwise commercial harbor.
Church of Saint Anthony, Viewed from the Fort

In the marina, we had to "med moor," to lie stern to the quay with an anchor out forward, and the space assigned to us was between Seljm, an elegant sailing yacht with a large paid crew, and a smaller catamaran. We had about four feet on either side, so with Carl at the windlass paying out chain, and Barbara on the after deck ready to pass lines to the marina dockhands, we backed ourselves in. I recall being happy that we have substantial liability insurance, but Barbara has become quite adept at getting into tight places, and we
Looking Back at the City and its Walls, From the Fort


15th-Century Church, Vila do Bispo

slid peacefully into our slot. By 08:25 we were secured and stopped the engine.

The quick phrase that best describes Santa Cruz de Tenerife is "Under Construction." Not since Provo, in Turks and Caicos, had we seen so much construction machinery in one place. To get to the city from the marina, one has to negotiate three parking lots and go through the big ferry terminal (shades of Travemunde!) to reach a bridge across the four-lane highway between the city and the harbor. One must admit, however, that it was fun to watch the ferries being unloaded and reloaded, with no time wasted.


Gatehouse of the Fort, Sagres

Acting on a tip from the captain of Seljm, we had an excellent dinner at a small restaurant where we sat at an outside table under the banyan trees of Plaza de San Francisco. Our waiter recommended a red wine from the other side of the island (not sold in stores, he told us), and it was delicious. In fact, we found all the local wines we tried to be very good, and we restocked our wine locker with the products of Tenerife.
Sagres Fort Chapel

Central Square, Lagos

Very soon after we arrived, I went in search of more alternator belts. Our knowledge of industrial suppliers in Santa Cruz is about what one might expect, and in desperation, I went to a marine store, taking a sample belt. The store owner, of course, did not stock these, but when I asked about industrial suppliers he said he was very sorry, but it could not be done today, there was too much other work. Just as I was thinking, "Now what?", he added that if I wanted to come back the next morning, I could pick them up.
Gate in the City Wall, Lagos

The Conde de Ferreira Schoolhouse, Lagos

The next morning I replaced the generator impeller, then went back to "Spinnaker," the marine store. True to his word, the owner had my belts (I think four), and at a quite reaonable price. For a store that basically sells marine hardware and electtronics, this was service beyond the call of duty, and we would happily recommend "Spinnaker" to anyone who needs help on Tenerife with about any kind of problem.

At "Spinnaker," I was delighted to run into our friend Cliff, the owner of Teragram, who had arrived that day and was looking for some kind of electronics widget.


House with Moorish Trim and Ishtar-Blue, Lagos

We had dinner that night on Teragram with Cliff and J-B, who were expecting a new crew member (or perhaps two) to join them for their trans-Atlantic passage.

We had heard that Diesel was relatively inexpensive in the Canary Islands, so we arranged with the marina for an oil delivery. The next day, two astonishingly small trucks appeared on the pier behind us and one of them passed us a hose. As we ran the oil into our tanks, the first truck was being refilled by the second, which then went back to the depot for another thousand liters and repeated the process. We took on 3,000 liters, and could have used a little more, but that was what I had estimated, and that is what they were ready to provide. So our tanks were not quite full, but we had more than enough to cross the Atlantic twice over.

Our intent was to have a little breather in Santa Cruz, to prepare the boat for the crossing, and to wait for a good chance with the weather. I did minor maintenance on the engine, checking her raw water circuit, impeller, and zincs. On Sunday, the future weather looked pretty good, so we invited the Teragram crew for goodbye drinks, and on Monday morning I went to the Marine Police Office to check us out of the EU.

There were no problems, and soon I was able to return to the boat with an imposingly-stamped Outward Clearance. We lowered our Spanish courtesy ensign and at 10:45 headed out around the inner breakwater and between the parked oil rigs to the ocean.


Street, Lagos

Gear in the Fishermen's Harbor

Carl, Barbara, Helen, Michael, Hansueli (Hansueli Photo)

Turning in the River to Head Out (Hansueli Photo)

We surfed downwind, southwest along the Tenerife coast, past Hierro, and then picked up the first leg of our Great Circle course for Sombrero Light, some 2,700 miles away.

The wind was light north-northeast, and the moderate sea on the quarter gave us a very comfortable corkscrew motion.

We picked up a few squalls on the radar our second day out, but I had email contact with Herb Hilgenberg by way of our InReach satellite communicator, and found that their cause was a weak "trof" lying across our course and that the wind would


Sunset at Sea

continue as it was until we were at about 30° West Longitude.

It is always good to have Herb aboard. We make our best judgment about the weather, but one can only see about three to four days ahead, and things can, and usually do, change. Herb no longer does weather support for hundreds of boats, as he used to, but will make an exception for friends, and we are grateful. Perhaps the asynchronous nature of text messaging, instead of schedule-bound radio, is easier to manage,as well, if less immediately rewarding.


Dolphins

Santa Cruz, Tenerife

One day we were visited by a huge group of dolphins, large and small, that frolicked around us, sometimes riding on our bow wave, sometimes circling wide and racing by with leaps. I try to photograph them, but they move very quickly, and it is hard to know which one to follow. They stayed with us for all of forty-five minutes then suddenly were gone.

The weather continued fine, with occasional interludes of rain cells, but no serious wind or sea. The log is full of entries like, "fine running," "sweet, long swell, sea like ironed silk," "ideal conditions."

Out in the middle of the ocean, at 50°30' West, we acquired a cattle egret as passenger. What he was doing out there, we do not know. He walked around the deck, sometimes taking shelter on the after deck, for two days. We put out some fresh water for him, but we do not know if he drank any. Carl christened him(?) Perdito, and two days later he flew around the boat for a while, then went off to seek his fortune. We were still hundreds of miles offshore, but there were many ships on or near this route, and perhaps he hitched another ride.

The sea was full of flying fish, and every night several would land on our deck. One, however, came through an open pilothouse window and ended up down in the after cabin. Barbara picked him up, still alive, and threw him back overboard.

On the night of December 7th, we could see the loom of lights from either St. Martin or St. Eustatius away off to the southward.


Pedestrian Shopping Street, Santa Cruz

Church of St. Francis of Assisi

We passed our Sombrero Light waypoint in a rainsquall and did not see the light, which perhaps does not really exist, but the next morning at daybreak we saw the hump of Virgin Gorda on the western horizon and we knew we had arrived. There is always something special about a landfall, even in these days of GPS. Even when we have no doubt as to where we are, it is still good to confirm it visually.

As we headed into Neckar Island Passage, we had to dodge some two dozen charter boats headed from Gorda Sound to Anegada, and a few boats bound southeast for St. Martin.


Circulo de Amistad, Santa Cruz

All around us was a cloud of white and yellow butterflies heading on their mysterious way. All morning there were always ten or fifteen right around the boat.


Tourist Considering a Rather Baroque Villa

Former Port Authority Headquarters, Santa Cruz

Stacked Oil Rigs in Santa Cruz Harbor

Last Look at the Santa Cruz Waterfront

We ran in between Neckar Island and the Anegada Reef, passed north of the Dogs, Great Camanoe, and Guana Islands, jogged southwest along Tortola until we were clear of Sandy Cay, and headed for a waypoint just off Great Harbour, on Jost van Dyke. With our "Q" flag flying, we anchored in Great Harbour at 14:30 on Decembar 8th, just fourteen days after we left Santa Cruz. We launched the dinghy, went ashore and cleared in, happy to see our friend Mark on duty in the Customs House, and sat down for lunch at our old haunt Ali Baba's.
Dolphins

It turned out that the high pressure ridge we had set out on, had simply followed us across the Atlantic,shielding us from the procession of lows further north and explaining our good weather.

Here, we were among friends, and there was much to catch up on, and a lot of stories to tell. It had been two years since we were last on Jost van Dyke, and in that time many things can happen. Happily, however, we found all our friends healthy and in good spirits.


The Forecast We Set Out On


Rainbow at Sea

Another Sunset

Landfall, Virgin Gorda

Herb Hilgenberg's Plot of Our Course

Great Harbour, Jost van Dyke




To see our track in Google Earth click:
here for La Coruna to Tenerife
here for Tenerife to the BVI
here for the Anegada Passage to Jost van Dyke


Cruise 2015
Part I


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