21st to 24th February and 6th to 7th March 2018
Dave’s favourite of the islands we visited. Unfortunately, apart from a small inlet which was crowded enough with boats (including one whose anchor had clearly dragged previously) there wasn’t anywhere we could anchor securely in the forecast weather, so our visits were fairly brief in the calmer periods.
The small town is gorgeous, peaceful, much like Culatra. Good playground (including some climbing challenging enough for Arthur, which is a rarity nowadays), astounding Atlantic beach a short walk away, a couple of mini-markets and restaurants with daily-changing menus.
Our first visit we anchored just off the sandbar on the Faro-side of the Island, so that we dried out for a portion of the day and could walk onto the island. Great holding in sand, relatively sheltered from E/SE winds. The second visit we anchored just behind the mooring field to the North of the Island for a night in order to catch the ferry to Olhão (which is at a more tolerable time than the one from Culatra). It was tight anchoring in there – we tried out a Bahamanian moor (anchors in front and behind the boat, both led back to the bow) which kept us in place but after the wind changed was awkward to remove. It’ll be easier next time now we’ve done it once, as we know to set the chain/rode connection up slightly differently.
