Monday 15th to Thursday 18th July

We weighed anchor mid morning and motored out of the lagoon. A sail of 33 miles brought us to the mouth of the river Guadiana which marks the border between Portugal and Spain. We stopped in the marina in Ayamonte on the Spanish side. It was almost deserted. We looked round the town that evening and also explored the following morning. Nothing to get too excited about. We left to go up river in the afternoon of the 16th July. We had to wait to get the flood up the river. One other factor was we had to pass under a bridge. The marina said it was 20m high, the pilot book said 20.5m and the chart said 18m. As we know our mast is more or less 20m high I thought it a good idea to go under at low tide. The mast looked as though it would hit the bridge, it always does. Safely through we sailed nearly 20 miles up the river to the twin towns of Alcoutin (Portuguese) and Sanlucar de Guadiana (Spanish). An extraordinary community of live aboard yachties resides here. Most are Brits who came up the river and stayed, some for weeks, others for months or years or decades. Alcoutin was the livelier of the villages with bars, a couple of restaurants, a Chinese shop, a beach with sand and swimming, and a ATM. I can't envisage wanting anything more. We managed to find a slot on the pontoon on the Spanish side.wewere the talk of the town as this space is occupied permanently by a local bigwig. Our chance only came because he had ran his boat aground and holed it down the river. On Thursday we headed back down the river with the tide and this time went to the marina on the Portuguese side in Vila Real de Santo Antonio (VRSA). Calling the marina on the VHF was more of mouthful but they found us space. In contrast to Ayamonte this marina was crowded, not surprisingly as it was much cheaper. VRSA was also livelier. We've been told that Portugal was all about fish whereas in Spain meat is the main dish on the menu. That seems to be the case and I'm happy to be on the pork after all that fish.