'Winning' wars.

Portugal is getting the rain it needs so badly, so the blue sky is gone and there have been heavy downpours and blasts of wind. Still it’s not so bad, giving everyone a chance to slow down and catch up with themselves. I took a spin down to the Algarve to see if I could track down copper nails there, and catch up with Ger Kavanagh, who took this week’s photos. His flight home was cancelled and he came up to Nazaré with me instead. I nearly lost my cap in Faro, and soon after we left, I see there was a mini tornado there that did a lot of damage round the dock. Sailors have to be very grateful if their boat is in a safe place this weather, and they can relax.

Still to do so is difficult, if for example one stops to read about explosives being rained down on Syrian civilians, and even hospitals targeted. One is grateful when one gets to sea, and all such stuff is driven from the mind by one’s immediate concerns. However the least we owe those unfortunate people is to be aware of them, not shutting them out of our minds. That such things go on happening on Europe’s doorstep brings shame on all of us. There may seem to be little we can do about it, but a start would be to get behind those politicians that look as if they might try to do something effective. That means, for a start, behind committed Europeans, for obviously, if anything effective is to be done, it will have to be on a European basis.

If Britain, instead of wasting all that energy on Brexit fantasies, were to be concentrating on working with France and Germany and the rest, something sensible could surely be done. For a start, it should be possible to put manners on that dodgy Russian bear, in nonviolent ways such as setting seriously to work to find

In Leroy Merlin, Loulé.

alternatives to Russian gas, which would be good also on the climate front. It's looking as if the Russians will be lucky if they don't end up with an Assad of their very own! Now that remark will wake up the bots in St Petersburg; it’s amazing how many hits suddenly come from there when I hit their spot!

Which goes to highlight, in cyber warfare, another way in which the Russians have to be stood up to, besides their military bullying, and of course the same thing goes for the Duckie with his ‘easily won trade war’ and ‘bigger nuclear button’; both of them delighted to have the EU in disarray, which is proof itself of its value. In spite of everything, the world still looks to Europe for leadership, mainly because they know, as every sailor knows, that to get a good position fix, you have to triangulate; the more bearings the better, and that is just what the unwieldy combination of different nations provides, especially considering that they were slaughtering each other not so long ago, and just might still remember how foolish it is to even think about winning wars of any kind!

Portuguese lesson with my landlord, Luis.