Lagos, Portugal is located about mid-way sailing from Gibraltar to Lisbon. It’s a lovely town with a very busy marina, Marina de Lagos, which is used by most of the vessels plying between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. We could not get dockage there for more than a night!
Crossing Golf of Cádiz on our way to Lagos
The marina is accessible through a long and narrow channel with a limited draft.
Marina de Lagos access channel
To get checked in, you have to dock on the side of the channel where the marina office is located. There’s a dock, but it is usually crowded with waiting boats, and there’s no crew of ‘marineros’ to help you out with your docking lines. Luckily, fellow sailors from other waiting vessels were on hand to get my docking lines and secure them.
It took a while to get my paperwork processed and then off the marina proper. On that day, there was quite a wind blowing down the channel with gusts in excess of 20 knots and casting off got tricky. With a boat at my bow and another at my stern while being docked alongside the quay, once my lines got cast off, the wind threw my bow to the port right away, and I found myself across the channel with a bunch of other vessels in my way. By some sheer luck, I was able to point my bow toward the channel exit without hitting any other boats! However, I had to exit the channel all the way back to the bay to turn my vessel around as the channel is too narrow for that.
Once we re-entered the channel, we motored carefully towards the marina basins. To access, we had to pass under a pedestrian drawbridge. You have to call on VHF channel 9 and request it to be opened and then you still have to wait for more boats as it will not open for just one vessel!
Marina de Lagos pedestrian drawbridge
Lagos town as seen from the marina drawbridge
Marina de Lagos main basin
Once we reached our designated docking place, there were some ‘marineros’ to help us with our lines. Still, it did not happen without some hiccups. One of the bow lines thrown incorrectly ended up in the water and got tangled with our bow thruster, shearing its propeller. And so it was gone! Still, we were able to dock without further damage to our neighboring vessels.
After docking and washing down the boat with fresh water, we were ready to hit the town.
Walking the quaint streets of Lagos
We decided on the ‘Real Portuguese Cuisine’ restaurant for our dinner. It turned out to be a great choice!
‘Real Portuguese Cuisine’
We got a selection of petiscos, Portugese style tapas, washed down with a local red wine. For our main, the beef cheeks were unbeatable!
The next day we had to leave as we only had a one night stay granted by the marina. We headed out to the Baia de Lagos anchorage. We needed to stay there in order to fix our broken bow thruster. Luckily, the weather was nice and it took me no time to get the prop replaced!
Bow thruster minus its prop, out of water
New prop ready to install
The next morning October 5th, with our bowthruster like new, we set sail for Lisbon!