Rota to Lagos and stinky bodies

We left Rota quite early after paying up and going to post little girls letters and postcards.  The swell that was left over from the westerly winds was fairly substantial and made both girls feel sick within an hour or so and Kaylee as always succumbed completely and was hanging over the guard rails emptying her breakfast to the fish within another hour. 

Sunset

Nearly full moon.

It was a very boring day and we tried to sail at times when there was a little wind but it was light and coming fromt he wrong direction so we gave up by tea time and stuck the engine on.  We were thinking of heading to Portimao and anchoring there the next night and checking the forecast for going around Cabo Sao Vincente the SW tip of Portugal.  Oh how we wish we had....

The wind picked up a little in the morning so we decided just to carry on and try to get to the Lisbon area for Kaylee’s birthday so we could do something special.  Then the wind picked up a little more and our predicitions of how far we might get got less and less until it was well we will try to go around the point and if we can’t make it we will turn back and anchor just around the corner and try again the next morning.  As we cleared the land and saw a few other boats turning back we plodded on into rough seas our GPS stopped working so I had to use the back up system and plot our position every five minutes.  I soon noticed we were heading slightly South instead of North and so we decided to tack and see if we could make any Northerly headway at all and if not we would turn back.  We didn’t quite make the tack and Ali switched on the engine to keep our headway until I had sorted the gib.  Which went OK and this tack proved to be much more comfortable and as our GPs started working again Ali went below and confirmed we were going Northish and we would carry on to Sines. 

It was then I noticed the burning smell and Ali said yes he thought he could smell something too(!)  I tracked it down to the engine compartment which was now pouring out a burnt plastic smell.  Ali went up tried to stop the engine and found out that the key fob float had somehow managed to keep the key jammed on the ‘Start’ position rather than just ‘on’ and even worse the engine wouldn’t switch off.  The next step is to find the engine emergency stop and switch it off that way but somehow that didn’t work either and the burning smell was getting worse.  Ali tried a few things and I was starting to think about fire extinguishers when we tried the key one last time and thankfully the engine stopped.  The next thing we wanted to do was to start it again and this was the worst bit as it wouldn’t start at all and Ali guessed the starter motor had burned out. 

Although we were on a better tack we knew it was another 68 miles to the next port up the coast which wouldn’t be easy to sail into (in the likely dark) and it would be a very hard plod in the Northerly winds so we resigned ourselves to sailing back to Lagos and anchoring off the harbour there until Ali could check out what had happened.  It was just typical that once we got out of the rough seas around the point we had probably one of the best sails ever we were fully reefed and going at about 8 – 9 knots the whole way.  Normally we would be celebrating with speeds like that other smooth seas but it almost seemed like a slap in the face when we were heading away from home rather than towards it!

The next obstical was anchoring under sail which we had never done before as we have never needed to.  We took the jib down for easier tacking and tacked back and forth and back and forth slowly making our way into the shallower water.  Thankfully there were only about 4 boats anchored and we managed not to hit any of them – especially the very large shiny super yacht.  We had to time the taking down of the sail with the dropping of the anchor well and it was difficult to hear Ali shout from the bow in about 25 to 30 knot winds but we did it and thankfully the anchor bedded in first time as it was really a one chance operation!  

The burned out starter motor - completely fried!

The Guardia Civil leaving after checking our passports etc

Kaylee and Alisha sewed things for their dolls whilst marooned at anchor.

Ali took the starter motor to bits and found out as he suspected that it was completely burnt out and needed a replacement one of the few spares we don’t carry.....  And here we have been ever since, about a week now!  We did try to order the bit from the local boat yard but they wanted 600 Euros for it and we could get it from England for 200 including carriage so we are waiting patiently for the part to come - and hoping it gets here soon as we are running very low on water which isn’t life threatening as we can get more to drink form the shops but we are bathing in the sea and it’s bloody freezing! (Or just not bathing at all and it’s getting pretty stinky around here)  It is a shame that the local guys try it on so much as we would have happily bought it here even if it was justa little bit of a higher price but 400 pounds is some difference and they couldn’t even guarantee delivery within a week – simple choice really. 

the view of Lagos from the boat nice but not for a whole week!

Lagos has proved pretty disastrous for us on the whole really, Ali lost another pair of glasses overboard and when the girls and I baked Kaylee’s birthday cake then there was another smell of burning that filled the boat.  I took the cake out and found that it wasn’t actually burning but it was leaking out through the bottom of the cake tin and the leakage was burning!

Skinny dipping to save water....

At first we thought we were completely marooned as the outboard wasn’t working and it is too windy all the time here to row ashore.  Ali took the outboard apart and cleaned it all up so after two days he got a shore and we all finally got ashore on the Friday thankfully as that was Kaylee’s birthday!  We went to a science park in Lagos town, put in a load of laundry, had a quick lunch, and nipped into the supermarket to get some fresh food so we could get back tot he boat before the wind picked up too much and made it a dangerous trip back.  We had planned to go ashore in the evening for Kaylee’s birthday meal when it died down but we have soon realised that unlike most other places the wind doesn’t actually die down at night here and it was is too risky in our little dinghy to make the trip in the dark.  The wind only dies down (if at all) from about 6am to maybe 10amish then it rises and rises to a peak at about ten pm and stays up all night which means I am bobbing up and down all night checking our position just in case we have dragged.  We did enquire about getting a tow into the marina but they basically say it is too windy so they won’t come and the only time the wind has really died down was Sunday morning when none of them would have been working anyway.  There is also some financial skullduggery going on as the marina won’t come and tow us but the yard will but then the yard can’t take you past the waiting pontoon so you have to pay the marina extra for another tow into your berth!  When we think of all the Turkish, Spanish and Italian marinas where they come out into the bay and try to get you into their marina and try to tow you around without any need for it you realise it is just a different culture again. 

The girls sewed whilst Iread them the Hobbit on the kindle

Birthday breakfast pancakes!

Saying all that Lagos town is a very nice little place and we have had a few soggy but nice runs ashore now.  It has everything that a holiday town could wish for a big beach, lots of shops, restaurants,  stalls etc with a bit of history thrown in for good measure and of course the ubiquitous ‘real English pub selling real English breakfasts.’  The locals all seem very friendly and it is nice and small to walk around if only we could get ashore more often and without having to walk around with wet bottoms for the first hour or so too!

Going ashore finally!

Islay Mist out in the bay

In the science centre

Science garden you could adjust the see saw to make yourself heavier or lighter.

We had to dodge alot of sailing schools some days.