Algarve

The Algarve is the southern Portuguese setting of the surf trip during which Adele conceives her child. Its winter waves and the shelter of Cabo de São Vicente draw surfers from across Europe, making the region both a specific landscape and the backdrop to the unconventional choice that Marco Carrera struggles to accept.

Setting and Seasonal Gathering

The episode places the trip in the Algarve, in southern Portugal, between Faro and Sagres. Each winter, surfers from across Europe gather there, drawn by the combination of giant Atlantic storm waves and the protection Cabo de São Vicente affords the beaches. The account thus locates Adele’s pregnancy not in an isolated private encounter but within a recurring journey undertaken by a wider community.

The Surf Trip and the Child’s Paternity

Adele’s pregnancy resulted from an encounter during one of those surf trips the previous January. Marco wonders whether one of the young men in her circle could be the father, but the narrative rules out the group as a source of certainty: the young people’s ease around Adele suggests that they know the father’s identity is immaterial to her and do not discuss it. The passage gives no name for the father, and its emphasis is instead on the group’s shared acceptance of Adele’s decision to have a child without making paternity central.

Meaning for Marco

At twenty-one, Adele regards having a child this way as natural. Marco tries to adopt the philosophy of her friends, although it conflicts with his own understanding of the situation; he continues to feel that the matter is more complicated. The Algarve episode therefore marks a divide between Adele’s confidence in a future whose terms need not be fully known and her father’s lingering need to understand its circumstances. The surf-trip setting binds that divide to a place defined by powerful Atlantic waves and by the community that repeatedly gathers to meet them.