The guy disappears. We think we have won the game. Later, after lunch we will go
to the office, find no one there (it is Saturday) and resolve the matter next Monday.
Half way our lunch, the uniform makes angry gestures at his watch and seems to order us out. Forget it.
We go into town, find the office closed indeed, and take our time to have a look around.
Upon arrival back on board, we see our friend again, waving angrily from the other pontoon across the harbour. He now even shouts "police".
That triggers my mood: "You call police, right now" I shout back, across the water, feeling totally confident that
a. He would not call the police at all
b. Even if he would, the police would agree
with us.
Too much confidence in the justice of the Portuguese law and order system.
10 minutes later a speedboat from the Police Maritime arrives. Two fully armed and impressive officers get out of there boat. Still confident I shake the hand of the one in charge. The officers try to explain the situation:
1. The man in uniform is not authorised to
let us in the harbour
2. We can anchor just out of the harbour
and come back on Monday, go to the
harbour office and get permission.
We argue about 10 minutes about this unbelievable situation. The police officers are clearly uncomfortable with the situation; they sympathise with us, but nevertheless are firm in their decision: we have to go.
We anchor app. 30 meters away from the half empty marina. A ridiculous situation.
Next Monday we return to the harbour and manage to get access for 2 days. Definitely not longer!
We hear from other yachtsmen several explanations for this obscure behaviour.
The most likely being as follows:
The marina has been build with European Community aid, as a lot of infrastructure in Portugal is. However, the necessary services like water, sewage, toilets and showers are not in place, hence an official permission to use the Marina for its intended purposes is not there. Therefore the harbour is in operation illegally.
Still very strange: how could the 60 % of users be there?
River Guadiana.
Tuesday January 23rd we leave this unwelcoming place, and sail to the river that forms the border between Portugal and Spain: the Guadiana. It has been a border even since Roman times. We tie up in the marina Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where more normal conditions apply: we were welcome to stay!
And have water and electricity on the pontoons as well! From our berth we can se the opposite river bank: Spain!
Close to the border, there is a bird reservoir. We take our bikes in there, and see hundreds of water birds, including Flamingo (!) Spoonbill, Shoveler, Stilt, Pied Avocet, Plover and many more!
Monday January 29th we fly home for 2 weeks with family and friends. We look forward to that!