On the southern coast of Portugal, one of the vacation havens for Europeans with long sandy beaches sheltered from the North Atlantic swells, Vilamoura is a planned resort community with the only full service yacht marina on this coast. Now only a few people wander the walkways, many of the boutiques are closed, high rise hotels, time share rentals and rental apartments are largely empty. In some ways it is more pleasant than during the summer when it was nicely warm, quite crowded, with the beaches full of young and old sunbathing, splashing in the water and playing games. One found a few topless ladies, some young and pretty, others not. Now only a few hardy souls on the beach, perhaps lightly dressed and braving the cold, pretending it was warm.
Repairs are underway, almost as usual.
Steve, a good ship's carpenter who owns and lives on a sailboat here, has removed the main hatch to repair the leaks. Kialoa has developed a number of leaks in the deck this last year, they are a terrible nuisance and difficult to repair. The varnish has been stripped and redone in an oil type finish which looks like varnish but should be easier to maintain. And some painting. At the moment three people are doing maintenance on Kialoa, not counting me.