July 9 – 10, 2014 –
By early afternoon we were sailing south in steep rolling seas. Waves at 5 seconds apart are significantly less comfortable then at 9 seconds apart. These were close together and very uncomfortable. Twenty four hours of this gets really old really fast. In addition we had a lot of boat traffic. We went back to our old watch schedule for the night. Fortunately about midnight the seas began to calm as did the traffic. Our plan was to sail overnight so we would make the turn at Cape St Vincent, the southwest corner of Portugal in the early morning. After about 10 am the winds get whipped up from the heat build up over the land and we wanted to be well past it by then.
Thursday morning we were far enough off Cape St. Vincent to see only the shadow of the cliffs. The winds were light and the seas calm. We were having such a beautiful sail and were so happy to be back at sea that we took our time to enjoy the day and not rush into Lagos.
We arrived at the marina in Lagos about 5 pm. It is a much protected marina. Many people from northern Europe spend the winter there, with our without boats.
Lagos was a surprise. Somehow we expected to see a quainter seaside village filled with history. It does have an old city, surrounded by high stone walls, with extremely narrow cobbled streets. The development in the past fifteen years, however, has eliminated much of the charm throughout the center of town and waterfront.