Court Short

Freya of Wight set off from Portishead in June 2012 and have written a blog that has informed our passage on a number of occasions.   It's great to meet up with them in Rota and swap a few more stories.    They are heading into the Med rather than across the pond so we were in […]

Whenever we think we're definitely going somewhere the weather conspires against us!   We saw Chipiona from a distance ... an amazing lighthouse but we have heard that it wasn't a town that we really needed to visit so we're not upset.  In fact we had a cracking sail (although in the lumpiest most confused seas […]

Just had to blog this one ...... we left the comfort of the boat to try and pay an important bill.   We needed fast internet (not the slow coach variety provided at the marina!) so popped into town and ordered a small beer and glass of wine.     James' face was a picture!!

We had a rollicking sail from Faro to Rio Guadiana and enjoyed the challenge of the entry to the river - with the added hazard of a dozen Opi's (little dinghies) with children at the helm leaving the river in the huge swell with 25kts of wind!  Not sure their mothers would have been too […]

If you ever need fang treatment in Faro Claire can highly recommend Dr. Eunico Abneu who speaks excellent english and her staff  speak fluent german!   As for the foul-up that's another story - James had an unfortunate incident with a fishing boat and Puddle was punctured.  He managed to race home to Ocean Rainbow with […]

These photos were taken between 0830 and 0850 this morning heading in to Faro airport!   Our tranquil and idyllic anchorage has a small drawback but we think we might become immune to the roar of a jet engine before too long - it certainly didn't upset an excellent night's sleep.   However, the rain did!!  What […]

We had an idyllic anchorage last night - except for the one anti-social small people ferry that buzzed us and jolly nearly tipped the dinghy upside down with James inside!   The marshes are beautiful and very peaceful with Egrets and Curlews along the shoreline.   We sailed very gently up the channel today and are now […]

We moored up on a pontoon in the middle of Portimao after a bit of a disappointing sail.  We were promised wind (well the weather forecasts we had read all promised wind) but nothing much came along.  We flew Charlie, we then goosewinged with Charlie before hoisting Red Passion in an attempt to cut down […]

Our website took a bit of a holiday last week so apologies but you are now about to receive a burst of posts so that we can update the diary!   Just for information, if the website goes down in the future you can always track us by going to https://blog.mailasail.com/oceanrainbow. Now in Portimao for a […]

Three attempts to find a place to stay!   We anchored off Praia da Luz as a starting point.   Then the rollers built up, the tide receded and we found we had very little water below the keel so we weighed anchor and set sail for Lagos.  A bit of a rush to get there before […]