We arrived back in Lagos yesterday to take up our winter berth after and enjoyable couple of weeks in Portimao. We left here just over 2 Weeks ago to travel the 8 miles to the marina at Portimao. It is a comfortable and spacious marina situated in a delightfully laid out area surrounded by 2 storey apartments which are part of a 4 star hotel complex. It is about half an hours walk from the town of Portimao and about 15 minutes to the holiday resort (camp) of Praia de Rocha.

On our 2nd day here we met up with Bruce and Janette from Tarbert for a splendidly alcoholic seafood lunch . The meal, accompanied by local wines, brandys and almond liqueurs was great fun and gave us the chance to catch up on local gossip. In addition Bruce brought me a bottle of cask strength Macallan from our mutual friends Ian and Somjit in Thailand. Thus a bottle of Scotch whisky, from friends in Thailand was delivered to us, in Portugal, by friends from Tarbert - thats my kind of globalisation folks!!

Monty continues to thrive and is really enjoying his walking at the moment. He even finishes his walks with a couple of laps round the deck before coming inside. On one occasion we left him to have his stroll on deck when we heard a splash, he had fallen overboard! I went round the boat and hoicked him out and he seemed to have rather enjoyed the whole experience!

While here we took a boat trip to the town of SIlves, the old Moorish capital of the Algarve region. The trip took us through the marshes, past caves and a myriad of birds, particularly storks. The 13th century cathedral and castle were interesting. The other guests on the boat included a number of Brits and a Portuguese travel writer who was a fund of amusing anecdotes.

We left Portimao yesterday and have already started work on the long list of jobs top get the boat ready for Greece and Turkey next year. The social life here looks pretty good with a range of activities for us live-aboards.

Actually we really don't qualify for the title 'live aboard' because we will be moving into a flat on the beachfront at Meia Praia on Sunday.