Algarve Situation Report Wednesday 30th April 2025
by Mike Evans
Good day to you all and the big talking point is obviously the power outage we all experienced on Monday of this week. No doubt you have all been reading as much as there is to read about what actually happened and why it happened but from a personal point of view I would like to bring into the conversation the feeling of isolation which this sort of event brings to people. As someone who lives in a more rural part of the Algarve with very few immediate neighbours this feeling of isolation became quite intense as the day progressed and with no sign of the power returning. The lack of information as well as the mobile network not working did start to make me wonder what a prolonged outage would be like.
As a member of Safe Communities, I obviously had the basic essentials to hand but one thing which I have now seen as important is a transistor radio in order to hear what the rest of the world is doing. In doing some research I have found an inexpensive solar- windup radio is available for not too many euros. Which brings me onto the subject of Solar energy. Last July we took the plunge into the world of solar energy to take advantage of the 300 plus days of sunshine the Algarve offers. The system has been fantastic, cutting my electric bills by more than half. However, and this I have found is normal practice unless you stipulate beforehand with the installers, that if the grid goes down as it did on Monday the power that is stored in the solar battery does not come on automatically. As a result we ended up with a 12 hour wait without electricity when all the time I had a full battery which could have run the house for a minimum of 12 hours! So if you are in the same situation as me I would suggest you look into having a Back up Box fitted, so that for the future, and we can expect this issue to happen again, you will not be left in the dark!
Now a look at what else has been happening across the region in the past week.
Woman Missing in Monchique Found
A 79-year-old woman who had been missing since Sunday night in Monchique was found on Monday “with minor injuries”, a source from the GNR told Lusa .
According to a source from the Territorial Command of the National Republican Guard ( GNR ) in Faro, the elderly woman was found by soldiers from a binomial dog team (man-dog) at 11:45 on Monday, “fallen in a rural area, covered by brambles, in a state of shock and with minor bruises”.
“The lady was found in good health, although she was weak and had bruises, and required assistance at the scene, and was later transported to Portimão hospital for medical evaluation,” he specified.
The alert for the disappearance of the woman, of Italian nationality and resident in the town of Portela Baixa in that Algarve municipality, was given at around 6:25 pm on Sunday.
The searches began “immediately after” the disappearance was reported, with elements of the GNR and the municipal civil protection service of Monchique, with the support of ‘drones’ (remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicle).
AMN Advises the Population on Good Safety Behaviour
The National Maritime Authority (AMN), with the weather forecast predicting good weather for the long weekend, advises the population to adopt safe behaviours when going to the beach or coastal areas, avoiding exposing themselves unnecessarily to risk.
Despite the good temperatures, the authority reports that the sea conditions at this time of year still present a high risk due to rough seas. The morphology creates areas of shallow water, steep slopes, whirlpools and pools of water on the beaches that are not properly signposted at this time of year.
Another point to bear in mind is the lack of surveillance on most Portuguese beaches at this time of year, which makes it slower to respond to a rescue situation.
Therefore, the National Maritime Authority recommends:
Always supervise children and do not allow them to stray, always keeping them close to an adult;
Avoid risky behaviour, do not turn your back on the sea and always maintain a safe distance from the waterline, to avoid being surprised by a wave;
Respect beach signage and the instructions given by lifeguards, law enforcement officers and those who reinforce surveillance on the beaches;
If you witness a dangerous situation in the water, do not enter and call 112 for help.
Pleasure Craft Sinks Near the Culatra Harbour
A pleasure boat sank last night, April 27, after allegedly hitting a submerged object when leaving the Porto de Abrigo da Culatra, with two crew members on board. Following an alert received at 9 pm, through the Lisbon Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC Lisboa), elements of the Local Command of the Olhão Maritime Police , crew members of the Olhão Lifeguard Station and elements of the Olhão Municipal Fire Department were activated to the location.
“Upon arrival at the scene, it was found that the two crew members of the vessel had already been rescued by an auxiliary vessel that was nearby, and were physically well, without needing medical assistance,” reports AMN .
The crew of the Lifeboat Station, in collaboration with the firefighters and a boat that was on site, carried out manoeuvres to remove the water from the partially submerged vessel. “With the rising tide it was not possible to reverse the situation and the vessel ended up sinking, and the Captain of the Port of Olhão issued a Notice to Local Navigation”, he explains.
The owner of the vessel has been notified that he must submit a plan for the removal of the vessel. The Local Command of the Maritime Police of Olhão took charge of the incident.
Sea Brigade Decontaminates Beaches in the Algarve
The Sea Brigade was in the Algarve between the 24th and 28th of April and removed 2500 kilos of waste from the sand, between Barrinha and Almargem beach. Although the rising tide made the decontamination operation difficult, “the operation went as planned and we managed to remove a large amount of waste,” says Simão Acciaioli, who is responsible for the organization. “In January, we were on the Algarve coast and found a lot of rubbish in Barrinha and Ancão, so we came here now to decontaminate the area,” he explains.
The waste was left outside the sand by the Sea Brigade team so that it could be collected by the municipal council services and sent for treatment. In terms of volume, most of the waste comes from fishing activities, with tangles of rope standing out. In terms of quantity, buckets (480), new ones (149) and fuel drums (102).
The cleaning action, made possible thanks to the collaboration of all entities involved in the authorization process, including local authorities, captaincies, ICNF and FAGAR, allowed the Sea Brigade to also reconnoitre the island of Armona, with the aim of carrying out decontamination after the summer. “The quantity and size of waste found in Armona is worrying and justifies our return to the Algarve”, concludes Simão Acciaioli.
The Sea Brigade is a non-governmental organization for development (NGOD) made up of volunteers. Since 2009, it has been developing actions to protect biodiversity and environmental intervention, with a special focus on decontamination and cleaning of beaches along the Portuguese coastline outside concession areas.
Under the motto “indignation with action”, the association has already cleaned more than 1,700 linear kilometers of coastline in Portugal and removed more than 1,000 tons of garbage from the sand.
Prosecutor Calls For 5 Year Sentence for Man who Killed His Father
Yesterday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked the court to apply a five year prison sentence to the young man, accused of stabbing his father to death in a village in Tavira, in an alleged context of domestic violence. During the closing arguments, the MP prosecutor said he considered that Maurício Cavaco should be convicted of simple homicide with special mitigation, taking into account the special regime for young people, the absence of a criminal record, the fact that he confessed to the crime and that he sought psychological treatment.
Maurício Cavaco was 19 years old when the crime took place in December 2023 at the family home, in the village of Várzea do Vinagre, Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo, in the district of Faro. The young man allegedly intervened to defend his mother from an episode of domestic violence, stabbing his 63 year old father to death.
The judge said he understood that it was not proven at trial that the crime was committed in self-defense, also ruling out the possibility that the defendant was not responsible, as suggested by the first psychiatric assessment, carried out one month after the crime, having stated that he considered the second assessment to be more valid.
After this examination, the specialist at Faro Hospital diagnosed the accused with “post-traumatic stress, depressive disorder and anxiety disorder”, based on “a series” of emotional and affective instabilities. According to the expert, at the time of the crime, the “self-defense situation” implied “the reduction in the assessment of the consequences of an aggression of such caliber” and “the complete nullification of the assessment of the unlawfulness” of the act.
However, the MP prosecutor stated that he understood that the young man was capable of distinguishing what was right from what was wrong, having acted of “free will” and consciously, and argued that there were “contradictions” in the conclusions of that expert report, whose scientific validity he questioned.
The judge also ruled out the possibility of this being a privileged homicide, supported by the Defense and which, according to the Penal Code, occurs when someone kills “dominated by an understandable violent emotion, compassion, despair or a reason of relevant social or moral value, which significantly diminishes their guilt”
Stating that it was proven that the young man acted in an “unequivocal context” of violence, the prosecutor considered, however, that “there are no signs to consider that at the time of the crime Maurício acted to defend his mother from an imminent and violent attack that could cause her death”.
Defense attorney Elisabete Romão had a different opinion, as she harshly criticized the way the Judiciary Police conducted the investigation and, in an emotional speech, questioned the jurors and the audience about what they would do in a similar situation, after years of “humiliating daily behaviour” and a lack of affection. “It is such a desperate act that we would all commit that crime in those circumstances,” she argued, adding that she believes the victim managed to convict his own son twice, doing everything to “turn a good child into a murderer.” The lawyer recalled that the young man still speaks of his father in the present tense and feels persecuted by him, “such is the disturbance” to which he was subjected.
According to Elisabete Romão, Maurício’s father “managed to manipulate a family”, to the point that, in court, the young man’s mother practically “excused” her husband, even after having been subjected to humiliating and violent behaviour for several years and frequently receiving death threats.
“In order to know if there was violent emotion, we would have to hear every day ‘he’s going to kill me’, ‘I’m going to kill myself’, ‘he’s going to kill us’. Until we are able to feel these words every day, only then will we be able to know what Maurício would have felt that day”, she claimed.
The reading of the ruling to the young man, who is under house arrest at his aunt’s house, was scheduled for May 14th at 4:00 pm, at the Faro Court.
Four Injured as Car Overturns on Algarve’s A22 motorway
Four people – including a 12-year-old child – were injured when a car overturned on the Algarve’s A22 motorway in Albufeira on Sunday morning (April 27).
The car was travelling in the Albufeira-Faro direction when it overturned at around 11.30am before the slip road that provides access to the A2 motorway to Lisbon, reports national tabloid Correio da Manhã. This is usually a very busy stretch of the motorway, particularly on days like yesterday when waves of tourists visiting the Algarve return home after a long weekend. Three people suffered serious injuries, including the driver who had to be extricated from the vehicle, while the 12-year-old child sustained minor injuries. All four were taken to the hospital by Albufeira firefighters and INEM emergency services.
The accident formed huge queues for several kilometres in both directions, as traffic was diverted to the motorway’s shoulder before returning to normal about an hour later.
GNR police are investigating the cause of the accident, according to CM.
Until the next time, have a safe week.