A short plane hop to Philly, an overnight flight to Lisbon, taxi to the train station, 2.5 hour train ride and there I was in Loulle Portugal. Brit and Axel have a rental car for the winter since they are staying put there, and they picked me up and took me down to the boat at the marina in Villamoura. This is a gorgeous Lagoon 45 catamaran they have named La Ola.
The guest cabin is spacious – you’ll never find this much room on a monohull in guest quarters. I’m hoping this is not a one and done for visits to this comfy space.
Even the lucky shy cat named Lucky gets his own cabin on La Ola. I did get a few pets in, but didn’t intrude on his safe space here and left him to watch us. Having a shy girl at home, I get how she needs her place to be hers. She, however, does not get her own cabin when she visits our boat.
After a yummy pizza dinner and night at the dock, we set off for a trip up the Portugese coast. Sadly there was no wind that week, but who complains about a ride on a boat
We anchored off the beach at Ferragudo for the night. It was nicely protected and mostly quiet.
A dink into the dock and walk before dinner took us around town. This little town could use a bit of love in many places, but it was quiet and flowers were blooming and kids were out playing, so what’s not to enjoy.
We shared a fresh snapper for three for dinner. The food was good. It was an unusually early dinner by European stadards, but plenty delicious.
Sunset was beautiful on anchor that night. Portugal receives nice warm weather from Africa in the winter when the southerly winds blow. That gives them Sahara dust on the boat, but also beautiful sunsets like this.
Sadly the next day went by quickly. We motored back to Villamoura and enjoyed another delicious meal there. Then it was 4 am and time to meet the Uber to take me to the airport in Faro. A flight back to Lisbon then a second flight to Tenerife brought me to the Canary Islands. It was so excellent to catch up with Brit and Axel and certainly hope it’s not another 15 years before we see them again. They happen to be planning to sail La Ola across the Atlantic next winter, so who knows, maybe another crossing is on our calendar!
Pix from Portugal are here.
