Olhao to the Guadiana

After a couple of days chilling off Culatra, we headed across the lagoon to Olhao for supplies. It is a practical, fishy place, but has very little room for visiting yachts. Nonetheless I have never failed to squeeze into the little anchorage off the markets, even if only in a rather uncomfortably tight berth that one can only chance for a while in favourable conditions.

There's a big long rather dilapidated pontoon there, but they won't let you tie up to it. Well, at least it costs nothing to anchor, and the value and the produce in the markets are excellent.

This is how the John Dory (or something like) which I bought came home!

It seems that the Portuguese haven't gone overboard with big new boats, but there still are plenty of men fishing in their good old wooden ones.

 That's a big boat by the standards of Culatra, which hums with outboards day and night; and of course the pier-heads are always manned!

                                                               We left them to it, early next morning,

and said goodbye to the Cabo de Santa Maria for another while.These photos by the way are Fiona's;

the old man has his hands pretty full with these light, variable winds, and a spot of fishing himself too. Caught another little bonito this day, and four very respectable horse mackerel; enough to feed us for another couple of days. Ended up with a fresh south-westerly that took us all the way up the river to the Foz do Odeleite, against the tide.

They've dredged the Foz (Mouth) do Guadiana by the way, which is now supposed to carry a minimum of 3.5m, so it means we don't have to worry about entering at low water any more. Didn't fancy their other idea of progress though; they're marking the channel up from the bridge with steel posts, mostly painted black so far, except for the last ones that they've put in around Laranjeiras, suitably resplendent in red and green. Many of them are practically in the middle of the river, and I narrowly avoided hitting one. Someone seems to have got through to them that they are dangerous, unpainted, and maybe even that it is easier to paint them before they put them up than after. No darn use for small craft anyway; just another thing to look out for. They're probably thinking of cruise ships or something. Dodgy affair, progress; sometimes I prefer  going backwards! Not however back down the river; we dropped anchor as the breeze and the daylight failed.