“37:06.4N 8:40.44W”

1,424 Miles since leaving Sandwich

Sines to Lagos – A bumpy night at anchor of Cape St Vincent 8-9-October 2022

We had to wait for the marina office in Sines to open in order to hand our marina entry cards back, and collect our €40 deposits of course. This delayed the start until 0830 but that was of no great concern as we only planned to go south for 40 miles and then anchor in Arrifane bay under an old castle which all sounded very romantic.

Spectra in Sines marina

No wind at all left us no option but to plod along under engine. Due to the continuing Orca attacks we were hugging the coast and keeping below 50 meters as this seems to be the safety mark at the moment. There have been a few attacks at 50 and even 30 meters but following my last actions if we start below 50 meters then a sharp right-angle turn would bring us into very shallow water quickly and hopefully safety. As the morning progressed and the fish steadfastly refused to bite my trailing lure a 2-meter swell began to build behind us. It was no real concern and Spectra plodded along in a convoy of 5 yachts gently rolling from side to side. We approached Arrifane to find a very shallow bay and surf breaking along the entire beach as the swell was working around the headland. It was a very easy decision to make, “No way I’m going in there” I said and pointed the nose south again.

Now it was a study of the pilot book and decide where we would head for the night. The next possible anchorage was just around the corner of Cape St Vincent which was another 20 miles down the coast. As it turned out we bypassed that one as well as it was close in under very high cliffs which I didn’t fancy at all. No great drama though as the next bay was only a couple of miles further along and we were soon anchored in 6 meters under another castle, actually, if you squinted a bit at the chart, you could still claim that most of plan A did actually happen.

Cape St Vincent from afar

Cape St Vincent from not so afar

I say no drama, but the anchor chain did decide not to come out of the locker when we started to drop it. The problem was that with all of the rocking and rolling that we have done since last time we used the anchor the chain had rolled over itself in the locker and got all tangled up. As Norma was busy up at the front end working the windlass, I asked Tommy to take Spectra in a wide circle while I squeezed myself into the fore cabin and right up to the pointy end at the bows and pulled 30 meters of chain out of the locker access door before carefully packing it back in again. Second attempt at anchoring and 30 meters of chain rattled out of the locker as sweetly as you would like. After leaving the anchor on the bottom for 15 minutes or so to settle in I gently reversed then dropped another 10 meters to make Spectra all snug for the night. We had homemade meatballs for dinner sitting under the stars as Spectra rolled like a drunken dog.

Looking across the anchorage as the sun goes down

Our gallant crew were looking a bit worse for wear the next morning as none of us had a very good night’s sleep. It wasn’t rough or particularly windy, but the steady roll had everything creaking, clanking, banging, and clanking all night which is definitely not conducive to a good night’s sleep.

Before raising the anchor, I dropped another 30 meters which left us with 70 meters of chain laid out on the seabed. We slowly pulled this back in with Tommy at the wheel Norma up front and me wedged in the forepeak again flaking all of the chain out neatly in the locker. I’m hoping that this will prevent it tumbling again and the next time that we have to use it in anger it will flow out of the locker as smooth as silk. Well, that’s the hope anyway.   

It was only 15 miles from the anchorage to Lagos and wonder of wonders we even managed to sail for an hour before the wind died. Two small points of interest for this hop was a pod of large dolphins which passed us by. These were bigger than the two-tone ones that we have been used to and did make us jump for a moment as the, is it an Orca question popped into our collective minds. The second was a very strange looking yacht with a Chinese Junk rig. The foremast was smaller than the main and leaning forward at about 30 degrees making it look like it was sailing backwards from a distance. That rig was no better than ours at capturing the wind and they were soon motoring as well.

In a vain attempt to capture the wind we even gave the spinnaker an airing.

By 1230 we were sitting on the arrivals pontoon in Lagos while Norma did the necessary at the marina office. By 1400 we were drinking a well-deserved beer on the aft deck congratulating ourselves on being intrepid adventurers.

Tonight, we eat ashore and tomorrow I go on a freezer spare parts search at the big repair yard over the road.

Adios for now……………………………..