Are we there yet?

"What do you think - should we stay here for the winter or press on for another 200 miles up a boring muddy river to a place where we don't know if we have a berth?"

We've finally made it to the Algarve - around the corner of Cabo Sao Vicente and into Lagos. This was one of our two key options for leaving the boat over the winter, the other being Seville. After severe agonising we have decided that we will leave the boat here, the advantages being:

• The marina is well known for being efficient and the staff almost all speak English
• There is a good boatyard and excellent chandlery
• The town is attractive and has good transport connections to Faro for the airport
• Our experience so far leads us to believe that it will be easier to sort out any problems in Portugal than in Spain
• We can take a bit of extra time to explore the Algarve before returning here, and won't have to struggle so much with tides which are an issue in some anchorages
  
• We didn't have a confirmed place in Seville and might have had to return to a different marina anyway
  

The downside is:

• We won't get to Seville this year (but we could go in the spring)
• We won't get to use our amazing 50-cent Ryanair flights from Seville - instead we've booked new flights from Faro, on the same day

It's very odd here. The feeling is as though you spent days and days climbing a mountain, with ropes and oxygen and iceaxes, and when you finally make it to the top you find there's a motorway up the other side and all your friends have already arrived. The marina is full of people who have made the same trip as us, at various times, and at the top of the ramp is a Pizza Hut and a place serving full English breakfasts and fish and chips...