It seems strange to be sitting in the sunshine in Lagos at 9 o'clock in the morning writing you this letter. We are two months into our voyage and all we have done is sail South like Snowbirds and the Swallows. Not that Will is much of a snowbird at present because Susan cut his hair yesterday. It is considered a very suitable length for the weather!

We visited the maritime museum in Lisbon since posting last on the website. The museum is extensive and rightly praises the efforts of the Portugese explorers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There is a book recently published, which we hope to read, titled 1421, explaining how the Chinese explored the world before the Europeans. No doubt they did, and so did the Indigenous poeple inhabiting each land, but the Europeans, and Portugese in particular, were first to publish the maps for all in our known world to use. This is what makes them great. In any event, we think Will's anscestors, the Vikings, were there first! (where ever it may be!).

The Maritime museum houses many real vessels as well as models. We were surprised to see a Tumlaren in the exhibition as well as Dugout Canoes and 80 oar Royal Barges (last used on the Targus for Queen Elizabeth II in the 1950's).

The Tumlaren was exactly the same as Steve Jones Father's Boat 'Saki', which was the first keel boat that Margaret ever sailed on in the early 70's and in which Steve, Margaret and Will won their class and the oldest/fastest boat prize in the 'Round the Island Race'. It was also the boat which lost it's mast off Portland Bill in the middle of the night in the late 60's with Steve and Will sailing it. No radio, no engine, changed days!

The weather changed in Lisbon for our sail down the coast, in a light Westerly, to the most dramatic anchorage in Portugal at Portinho de Arrabida.

The anchorage is totally exposed to the South, except at low tide, when it is protected by drying sandbanks. A bit like the Essex Swin or Ray. The landwardside has a beautiful sandy beach, which is very popular with the citizens of the adjacent city of Setubal. The cliffs rise up almost like the Cuillins at Scavaig, but they have trees and houses planted on them. A very pretty place, although we were glad to follow a Swiss Oyster 56 into the anchorage with no bouyage. It was a bit hair raising with only 300mm under the keel on one occasion. They followed us out the following day, a bit nearer high water and a much deeper channel. Sandbanks shift!

We arrived at Sines just as the Seine net boats were leaving. They are about 80 feet long and tow a small skiff of 20 feet behind them, tight up to the transom. There were even some fishermen in the skiffs sorting out the nets! Sines is a beautiful little town with a very hospitable and cheap (18 euros a night) marina. Vasco de Gamma, the great explorer and first Viceroy of India was born here in 1469.

The beach is named after him and is raked everyday, as well as sporting a bar and a lifeguard.

We all went swimming, even Will exposing his white topsides to the ridicule of the natives! (there is not so much of it now he's stopped buisness lunches!).

Although a bit hazy, we had a highly successful sail down to Cabo Sao de Vincente ( Cape St. Vincent). We used the twin genoas poled out either side and the Sayes rig, self steering. The Sayes rig is a small sail attached by a servo paddle to the rudder and is highly successful in keeping the boat before the wind, even in a swell. You have to be careful of the spokes on the wheel as it moves all by itself! Regrettably off the cape the wind disapeared so we had to pack it all up and motor. Four boats seemed to converge at the cape and all of a sudden it was Piccadily Circus. Not only that but a Long Finned Pilot Whale surfaced and then dived not more than 10 feet from the boat!! It's tail was huge! (unlike the Fin Whales of the Bay of Biscay, which don't show their tails when they dive). In addition to all this excitement the wind started to blow at 25 knots from the North and we hoisted the mizzen and staysail to sail into Lagos.

We berthed in the dark due to the paper work taking an hour to complete at the registration pontoon just outside the lifting bridge to the marina. We got a 5% discount due to being a memeber of Transocean (a German Crusing Club). The charges here however still seem to be excessive at 55 euros a night when we only paid 28 euros in Lisbon, which we thought was reasonable.

We are glad to be here primarily because we have spent two nights staying on dry land! Margaret's sister Alison and her Husband Andy have a beautifully restored farmhouse about an hours drive from the marina. Their friends Tim and Kate are presently renting the cottage and very kindly entertained us to two days of shore leave. At a barbeque hosted by them we discovered that we are related (very distantly) to David Cowper, the single handed round the world sailor who is presently trying to traverse the North East passage in a purpose built motor vessel, Polar Bound., which we were allowed to look over in January 2002 at Rhu Marina. (Alison's husband Andy's step mother's (Diana) sister's (Caroline) husband is David Cowper!).

The cottage gateway and courtyard is covered with a deep pink Bourgonvillia and there is a beautiful Amarylis adjacent to the back door. We picked figs for breakfast from the tree in the garden and collected almonds from another tree to eat with our aperitifs. We still have a whole bag of almonds to take down the coast with us. The limes will be ready for the gin and tonics next week!

Our trip to the zoo was exciting, including the bus on the way there, which supplied its own airconditioning. Whenever the bus went over 30mph the floor boards lifted and blasted us with air. The zoo was home to many animals around the world, including flamingos, toucans, gibbons and pelicans. Each enclosure was well thought out with natural habitats. Susan found a dried but squashed snake by the roadside on the way to the bus stop, which Will wishes to keep as a souvenir!

Graham Roxburgh is down here with his new boat, a Hylas 46, which he bought from another friend of ours, Bill Thomson, earlier this year. Graham has been very hospitable, replacing our ensign holder. The previous fitting had allowed our ensign to unintentionally salute the Great British Admirals who had plied these waters in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Fortunately our bit of rope had held the ensign dangling from the davits! We are repaying the hospitality tonight by having sundowners on our boat whilst waiting for Murray Nelson to arrive to launch his own boat.

We are going to try and persuade Murray to join us in Gibraltar for our cruise down the Morrocan Coast to the Canaries during October. It will probably depend on how good a flight he has had from Edinburgh, and of course dates! We are fortunate that at present the only dates we have to worry about are those hanging from the palm trees surrounding the marina!

Tim and Kate are coming sailing at the weekend when we hope to visit Albufeira and Faro before going onto Cadiz and Gibraltar, from where we hope we shall blog again. We hope you like the photographs.

Love to all, Will, Margaret and Susan