Shortly after midnight on September 17, 2000, and after seven days on the Atlantic, we were close enough to the Portuguese coastline, so we could see the lights at Cabo de Sao Vicente. We had to go around that southwestern point of Portugal in order to head for the Algarve coastline, and in particular to the port at Lagos! We had crossed the last 1000 miles from the Azores, endured the harrowing experience in crossing the shipping lanes west of Portugal, and finally we could relax a bit. As we didn't want to arrive in Lagos during the night, Dan cut the motor and rolled out the genoa. It was hardly any wind, but that didn't matter in this stage of the game. I went below to catch a few winks, and towards morning Dan needed some sleep, so I took over the watch. The sails just luffed back and forth, and we were moving forward at a snails pace, but at the same time drifting closer to shore. As the horizon started showing signs of light, I woke Dan, and soon the genoa was rolled in and the main lowered. The motor was started, and we were powering towards the narrow channel, that leads into Lagos. After hearing so much about Lagos, the harbor didn't impress us at all. The channel was very narrow, and when we finally got up to the arrival dock, it was full of boats. Dan tried to turn around, but the current was too strong and it wasn't enough room for us to turn. We noticed that a local fishingboat was getting ready to leave, and after he was gone, we tied up in his spot. The marina wasn't open yet, but it sure felt good to be tied up to a dock and not be moving any longer. Little did I know that that wasn't going to last! As soon as Dan found out how much it was going to cost for our boat per night, $40.00, we decided to find anchorage somewhere else instead. It was easier said then done to turn around, but after tieing the bow to the dock and swinging the aft out in the channel, we managed, and soon we were heading out from Lagos. We had seen a few anchoring spots on our charts, and the first one was located in Alvor, so that's where we were headed. Alvor is a small town, quite a long way up a river, and this river we would have to manoeuvre without any channel markers. As we went into the mouth of the river, we noticed sandbars all over and people walking almost out where we were motoring, so we decided that it wasn't such a good place for us. Instead, we continued farther east to the bigger river that enters the Mediterranean at the city of Portimao, where we could anchor behind a big breakwater wall. After going up the river for awhile, in very strong current, we decided to go back down towards the mouth and anchor where other boats lay secured. Shortly after Dan had set our anchor, we got a call on our VHF radio from the American boat, "Reality". They had arrived in Lagos the day before us, and now they wondered where we were? After telling them our story, they decided to come over for a visit in their dinghy the next day, if the weather permitted, seeing we were only about six miles east of Lagos.

Monday, September 18 arrived with calm winds and lots of sunshine, so it was a good day for Ed and Diana from "Reality" to come over for a visit. We had a great time going up the river to the city of Portimao and looking around, but before we knew it, the time had slipped away and it was getting late in the afternoon. The wind had picked up considerable from southwest, so it was quite choppy going back down the river to our boat. Ed and Diana hurried along in their dinghy and soon disappeared outside the breakwater wall. We had hardly reached our boat before Ed and Diana returned. When they got outside the breakwater wall, the water was so rough and splashed into their dinghy, and the wind was strong, so it sure wouldn't be nice to go back to Lagos in those conditions. Instead, they ended up staying overnight in our boat with us, and the next morning, when the conditions had subsided somewhat, we towed them back to Lagos with our boat. The rest of the week we spent in Portimao, and by Thursday "Reality" had moved over to our anchorage. We were going to sail to Gibraltar together. We had been listening and talking to Southbound II for weather information in continuing towards Gibraltar, and it looked good to start out on Friday, September 22. It is best to head into the Strait of Gibraltar with westerly winds or at least pretty mild easterlies. By 1000 on Friday we had pulled up anchor and were heading out from Portimao and setting a course for southeast. Of course there wasn't much wind, so we ended up motoring the entire day. Because of no wind, we decided towards evening, to find a safe harbor for the night, and the anchorage at Olhao, along the Portuguese coast, looked good, if a bit tricky to find! We got help over the VHF in finding the anchorage at Olhao from another sailing vessel, and soon we had made it through the rough waters and very strong currents at the mouth of the river. Once again we were safe and secure for the night!

By 0800 on Saturday, September 23 we were on the way again. It was just as tricky to leave the river, as it was coming in, but soon we were clear of the traffic and confused waters around the entrance to the river. All day and most of the night we were under power, as the winds were very light and coming from south/southeast. We took turns sitting watch during the day and at night, and many more ships and fishing vessels were all around us compared to the Atlantic. We were always within eyesight of "Reality", as they had to wait for us. As it was getting daylight on Sunday, September 24, we could see a hazy coastline that was Spain, and somewhere off to our starboard was Africa, but it didn't want to reveal itself! By 1000 we rounded the closest point between Europe and Africa at Punta de Tarifa, where it is only 8 miles wide. We were hugging the Spanish coast, so this time we weren't so concerned over the big ships, that seemed to glide by as ghost ships in the haze. The current helped us going through the narrowest point, as the current is always stronger going into the Mediterranean. Officially we hadn't arrived in the Mediterranean until we were closer to Gibraltar, and that was still about 15 miles off. As we were getting closer to Gibraltar, we started seeing "The Rock" in the haze, and we took pictures of our boats with "The Rock" as background. The Gibraltar Bay is quite large and numerous ships lay anchored there all the time, and both slow and very fast moving ferries scurry across to Africa. As we were crossing The Bay, all of a sudden out of the haze, we saw the bow of a very big ship rise up in front of us. It scared both Dan and me to begin with, and we took evasive action, but then the ship didn't seem to get any closer. Seemed the ship lay anchored, but because the haze was so thick, we couldn't tell if the ship was moving or not to begin with. We were heading up to the northern part of Gibraltar by the airport, as we knew it was marinas there and our friend, Tom on his boat "XTC", was in one of them. By 1400 we lay anchored off the airport runway, and as soon as our dinghy was lowered into the water, we headed ashore to find out about the marinas and where to check in. The marinas didn't look very comfortable; not at all like the once back in the States, as the boats only go in with stern or bow to. No docks in between the boats, just fenders, and gangways or planks to get on and off. We decided that we didn't want to tie up at the marina, but instead we felt the anchorage was very good, so that's where we stayed. We checked in with the Customs officials and got our passports stamped, and we also found out that it was not a problem for Duke to go ashore! We located our friend Tom, and told him we had arrived and where we were staying. We had finally reached the entrance to the Mediterranean and here we ended up staying for another two months.