Idle Time

Portimao, Portugal

Our next house... Not the fishing boat, silly!  The one on the cove...

The end of our sailing season is fast approaching and Portimao seems just the right place to get in a few idle hours before haul out.  Renown for its endless beaches, clear blue waters, brash tourist strip and mellow old town, we kicked back for a little (more) self-indulgence. 

WJ3 is on the hook in the Arade River with quite a few fellow cruisers (over 22) intent on ignoring the posh marina just opposite.  So posh indeed, we can’t even pay to leave Bruce tied up to a “welcome” dock.  So, we scoured the waterfront for a decent, non-gated pontoon.  Luckily, the Museum has one – and best of all, it’s located close to a large supermarket (Pingo Doce – can you boogie to that?).  We eventually found another pontoon (beyond the blue car bridge said to be built from Eiffel Tower leftovers) in front of some out of the way eateries.  Only, it’s covered in bird poop and fishermen’s debris. Hardly a civic welcome for boaties! 

Rivole on the Rio Arade

Luckily for us the friendly owner of dockside floating restaurant, the Rivole, let us use his dock. A few days later we returned and lunched on the best swordfish and grilled prawns (huge, like mini lobsters) we’ve ever eaten.  All washed down with some excellent Portuguese wine.  Yes – we feel an addiction coming on!

Over our days here we’ve managed to walk the quiet 18^th c town, have gelato in a shady waterfront park, imagine what it would be like to have a stork nesting in your chimney (no jokes please), chug past high cliffs, palatial villas and secluded beaches and tour the interesting museum/cultural centre. We feel like real tourists, at last!

A delightful pottery piece in the Portimao Museum

The Portimao Museum occupies industrial buildings from the old days of sardine canning and its main display naturally features this topic. You can even walk through the old fresh water cistern where rainwater (does it really rain here?) was collected for canning.  All this is put into perspective with local finds from pre-historic settlements, Roman communities and Islamic cultures who occupied this area a bit before our time.  An upstairs exhibition room held wildly odd ceramic pieces that even the Cap’n liked…  Must have been their connection to an “underwater” theme!   Another room showcased winners of a challenging photographic exhibition, also themed to Portimao and its watery, even under-watery, associations.