Last stop
All good things come to an end and here we were, on the last day of our cruise, arriving in Portimão, Portugal.
Here we were, almost at the corner of the Iberian peninsula and our plan for the day was to visit the south westernmost tip of Europe at Cabo de São Vicente, just another of those landmark places that are fun to “collect”.
It’s not quite the southernmost tip of the area, but that was on our itinerary for the day as well 😉
We took the air on our verandah as usual before deciding what to wear, noting the stiff breeze and blue skies. Since this is a tendered port, I was also interested to see where they could possibly be taking us, since from here it seemed to be just a long sandy beach. I soon spotted one of the ship’s tenders on its way back to the ship, coming from the river estuary. Looks like we’d have a rather longer journey than we thought. Of course, such things don’t usually matter, but our group was to meet on the pier and we wanted to allow enough time to get there, for we didn’t want to be left behind!
We went to the coffee shop for a snack and decided to head over there sooner rather than later, but as we sat enjoying the beautifully made hot drinks that Justus had prepared for us, the Captain’s voice was heard. He didn’t want to create anxiety, but he wanted to remind us of safety precautions to be taken when using the tenders this morning.
Now, we’d commented on the safety advice in the Passages newsletter last evening, because we couldn’t recall seeing such details previously, especially the last bit about “forearm to forearm”. It appeared that the sea conditions were causing some concern today.
As we went to board the tender, we understood immediately, for the ship and the tender were not moving in sync and sometimes a large gap was created between them. In addition to a safety officer at the top of the stairs allowing a single person to board at one time, there were five seamen working to ensure each of us made a safe step onto the tender. We stopped, waited for two capable pairs of hands to grasp our forearms and listened for the instruction “big step - go!”, greeted by another seaman on board the tender guiding us to the closest seat. Wow. This was taking time and we were glad we’d left when we did - but it also meant I had time to take a picture!
I was very glad to see Safety Officer Giacomo captaining the vessel and knew we were in safe hands indeed. One by one, eventually all fifty of us had been safely brought on board and off we set to the jetty.
It was a rocky ride and occasionally a wet one for those of us sitting close to the open doorway, so my camera was placed safely back in my bag!
Portimão itself - or at least, the part we drove through - seemed to be the kind of beach resort we imagined to find in the Algarve, which is a popular destination for holidays from the UK. On a sunny Saturday afternoon the gardens and pools were full of people enjoying the warm weather.
As we drove out into the country, we first passed by a large vineyard with rows of vines looking healthy and in full growth, though we’d have imagined this was around harvest time?
Next came the orange groves, for most of Portugal’s orange harvest comes from this region.
Then, a rather less cultivated scene, populated with villages and small towns. People here looked to one regional town, Lagos, and another smaller one, Sagres. We’d visit both before the afternoon was out, but for now, we had one main destination in mind.
Cabo de São Vicente, that “corner” of Europe was not far ahead and just like other, similar Capes we’ve visited, there was a car park, a lighthouse and quite a lot of people about. This Cabo had a little less personality than Fisterra however though the food truck with the sign “Letzte Bratwurst vor Amerika” made us smile!
The lighthouse here is fully automatic and behind a strong fence, through which I took my photograph.
I was happy to wander around well away from the edge, using my zoom lens to capture the shot rather than try to get closer.
I feel anxious when I see how close to the edge some people appear to be.
From here, we could see our next stop - the small town of Sagres whose main claim to fame is that it was the port where Prince Henry the Navigator planned his voyages down the west coast of Africa.
There’s a small monument to the Prince here and a fine harbour too.
This rocky coastline must have been - and still be! - tricky to navigate however.
Larger and altogether more imposing was Lagos, where we made the final stop of the afternoon and maybe it was from here where Henry the Navigator set sail? Perhaps that seems more likely? Here in the square was another, rather grander bronze of him as well.
Lagos was a rather busier and more popular destination, with an historic centre to explore.
A glance at the pavement was a great reminder that we’re in Portugal!
As we drove out of the city, on our way back to Portimão, we passed a replica of the caravel used by Bartolomeu Dias when he made the first journey around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. Surprisingly small, the thought of spending around a year on board this wooden ship seemed particularly relevant this afternoon, because we were about to board a rather more robust and slightly larger boat to return to our comparatively enormous ship.
It’s now when I realise that I took no photographs during the rest of the journey. We arrived back at the jetty in Portimão to find a long queue for the tender back to the ship and soon realised that we were most likely going to have to wait for the next one. We watched as the Regent staff packed up all the tables, chairs, drink dispensers and everything else and realised we were going to be on the last tender ride of the day.
When it came into view, there was a sense of relief! Giacomo was tender captain once again and welcomed the 21 of us on board, requesting our patience as things were loaded and checked. A conversation with the ship made it clear that we could not leave until everyone had got off the previous tender and had been checked and accounted for. Because of the ongoing sea conditions, the disembarkation process from the tender was taking much longer than usual and our patience was appreciated. Maybe fifteen minutes later, he was advised that there were 21 passengers unaccounted for and four staff and he confirmed that he had each of those people on board his tender and we were ok to leave. I found it somewhat reassuring that such checks are done and that we wouldn’t leave until we were all accounted for.
We had another rocky ride back and finally were secured to Voyager’s tender dock, feeling thankful for those seamen who have the training and the confidence to climb out and throw ropes whilst balancing on the narrow deck! We were asked to remain seated until invited, one at a time, to stand and move towards the door, guided by the arm of one of the crew - the first time I have experienced such tricky conditions. We were amongst the first few to move - my Hero first and then I was called forward a couple of places after him. With a seaman on either side holding my arms and another standing in front of me on the platform, ready to catch me, the tender moved up and down and as the wave reached the right spot, one of them called “go” and I had a firm push across the gap. Phew! I made it…as did everyone else of course, not all as young or as mobile as we were.
One by one we checked ourselves back onto the ship, were welcomed by the security team on board who, I suspect, had worked a rather stressful shift that day. A quick glance at our watches, we realised that our pre-dinner drink plans with our Trivia team friends were scuppered, for it was already gone 7pm.
We ran upstairs for a quick freshen up - no time to change - and dashed down for dinner à deux, during which time we enjoyed the passing company of our Trivia friends who had similar tales to tell. From there, it was time to return to finish the packing and prepare for the journey home.
