The previous afternoon we’d moved to near the entrance to the lagoon with a view to landing on the west side and visting Lagos, but there was nowhere we were comfortable with leaving the boat. So, in the morning we put to sea, planning just to cover the 5 miles or so to Portimao. However, we found a nice SW3/4, and decided to make for Faro. If the worst came to the worst, we could anchor off the beach in these conditions, or enter Vilamoura or Albufeira and give them a pot of gold. Although this bit of coast is probably the most developed of the Algarve, it is still attractive from a few miles offshore, with its cliffs and hills inland.
In the event, the wind carried us 30 miles by 1900, leaving us to motor 8 miles to the Faro entrance, where we succeeded in breasting the ebb tide to anchor about a mile inside.