The Algarve is the southern coastal region of Portugal and is a place that most people have never visited and probably never will. That is both a huge shame and a blessing. A shame because people are missing out on perhaps the most scenic coastline in the world, and a blessing because it could easily become spoiled if too many tourists found out about it. When tourists take over a place, what follows is always the same: crowed beaches, impossible parking, colorful souvenir shops selling worthless trinkets, and excessive amounts of English breakfasts and German beer gardens, none of which are problems in the Algarve. We’ve also noticed a fairly direct relationship between the number of tourists in a place and the number of rules that exist to protect those tourists and keep things organized. Here you can park anywhere, climb on the rocks, swim wherever you want, hike around on the stunning cliffs… all without breaking a single law, rule, or ordinance. We highly suggest you come here to check it out for yourself… wait… no, actually maybe we don’t.

We’re now in Faro because that’s where the Algarve’s airport is located. We’re doing a crew change here as we get ready to launch off the European continent and head south towards the Canary islands, via Morocco, which is where our Atlantic crossing will start from. In Faro we gain my uncle Chris for the trip to the Canaries, and my father Richard from Los Angeles is joining for the ride all the way to the Caribbean. The penalty for this is that we lose Piers for a few weeks, who needs to return to San Diego for business reasons.

The distances we’re about to sail will now get bigger, as our focus shifts away from seeing things ashore to moving the ship westward and southward. It is not a coincidence that this is also where the Summer is now heading, which clearly has already made its departure from Europe for 2012. We’re looking at the weather forecast now because conditions here vary greatly at this time of year, and the seas can get hairy without any protection from land like you get inside the Med. We need about 30 hours of decent weather to get to Rabat in Morocco and it looks like our window will open on Monday evening…. but like everything else in sailing, there are no guarantees.

We are in Lisbon now, where we’ve come by rental car from southern Spain. Lisbon is another city that is easy to fall in love with with because it has everything – ultra modern infrastructure, creative architecture, historical old towns and castles, a stunning coastline, and gorgeous mountains – all of it well preserved and not spoiled by excessive tourism. We’re lucky to have close friends here, Marc and Natalie, who have kindly opened up their home to us and made us feel like locals – there’s nothing we enjoy more than these types of experiences. Marc and Natalie are entrepreneurs and very active across Europe (and beyond), so we’ve been comparing notes on the economic problems in this part of the world.

The majority of our time this year has been spent in the crisis stricken PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain). On the surface we’ve often commented that the crisis is difficult to notice and all appears to be well. But whenever we venture further from the resort towns and yacht marinas, and interact with locals, the truth emerges, which is that these countries are in very deep shit. We see empty restaurants, closed retail shops, we speak to young people giving up hope for the future and wanting to leave, we’ve seen countless small protests in front of government buildings, the list goes on. When we look at the fundamental problems these countries face, particularly with respect to their indebtedness and the employment prospects here, the situation looks bleak, particularly for the jobless youth. The debt is obviously unpayable, there are no decent jobs here, and these countries are bankrupt. From what we can tell, the kids here may be right to abandon hope, it may be a good time to pack up and leave.

It’s also time for us to pack up and leave because we need to get down to the Algarve region of Portugal on the southern coast this afternoon. We should have reserved more time for this country because its beautiful here and there’s just too much to see and do in the short time we have here. Oh well.