Cruising Portugal
Bayona was our last stop in Spain; the next would be in Portugal. We know from when Pat did the trip that the marinas would be expensive and would charge us double, even if on a hammerhead.
Not everyone is as honest as those in the UK, Isle of Mann and Ireland where they would purposely put us on the end of a hammerhead or in a marina where they could put another boat next to us, we went round all of the UK, IOM and Ireland on monohull fees, some here would be the same as were the Marina in Camarinas and in Bayona but it was the exception rather than the rule.
We decided to do an overnight and the wind picked up in the afternoon we were dodging the fishing buoys and so decided to head out deep to avoid them, by now we had the Genaker up and were doing 6 to 8 knots, picking one of them up at that speed would do our poor boat a severe injury, if not a mortal one.
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Gennaker up, running to the sun |
We reached the 100 meter line as it was getting dark at 1900, there was a shallower point to seaward, 91 meters and sure enough, there was a buoy on that one too, Mike saw it whizzing past in the dark. The best part was the Dolphins, they came and stayed and played for most of the trip making it very special. How can anyone harm such gentle creatures?
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Dolphins playing at the bow. |
It was such a beautiful starlit night and the water was chortling along the hull, the sail was full pulling us effortlessly along with help from the undulating swells. The dolphins shot past, startling me with the first “hello” blow nest to the helm seat; to let you know they had come to play. They looked like meteorites in the water, lit by the phosphorescence, then shooting star of some fish trying to get away, a truly fantastic underwater display. They played with us for most of the night, on and off, always announcing their return with a blow near the helm seat. The night was warmer than it had been crossing Biscay, it was good to be alive on such a beautiful night. All the storms of life are worth just on night like this.
The wind died at midnight and the Genniker came down. The water calmed to a glassy calm with the stars reflected so that it looked like you were part of he milky way. The meteorite dolphins and shooting star fish completing the illusion.
We kept deep and hoped to reach an anchorage at Peniche before dark but it was not to be, the wind failed us. Once more we had a choice, dodge the buoys in the dark or bypass and go to Cascais. We drifted for 5 hours off of the Berlenga islands which have a ship exclusions zone round them as the waters are too deep for buoys. There is supposed to be a S flowing current down the coast but every time we drifted we drifted N.
At 0520 the Dolphins came again, time to get going they seemed to say “get on your way again”, no wind once more, on to Cascais which is at the mouth of the Tagus river and not far from Lisbon.
Rounding the point to Cascais, the breakers on the marina wall are spectacular, you wonder how there can be an anchorage round the other side. There is a bit of a surge but we were there in calm weather, a storm must be something else.
We anchored and got internet, nothing happening so we decided to stay for a rest, get a bit of fuel and water and some victuals, we still had a couple of days left but who knows what is available further down the line, besides I had spotted a Jumbo supermarket,(using binoculars) good prices compared to the smaller supermarkets, and within walking distance.
We went ashore; it was either the beach with a long dinghy haul up beyond the high tide mark, or two pontoons we saw on the shore. We went to the one, saw it was used by the fishermen who promptly ignored us and refused to greet us, what a difference from the friendly Spanish. We went to the yacht club dock, it was being cleaned of the guano, so we went to their slipway, and youngsters were rigging their boats so we hauled it clear but near the crane. I went to ask permission to use their slip on the strength of our RNYC membership. The lady behind reception was from Durban and she asked the manager and he very kindly let us tie to their dock, being Saturday, the slipway was too busy as was he crane.
Cascais is a pretty town with the patterned cobbled stones so reminiscent of the old LM. The fuel station was a 20 minute walk so Mike went off there while I reconnoitred the shopping facilities. Everyone we asked directions of spoke English, some people would not speak to us and just walked away. I guess they did not speak English but as opposed to the Spanish where they would at least reply to your greeting here they were positively rude.
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Streets of Cascais |
I met Mike coming down the road with the fuel trolly as I was returning. We filled our two water containers at the Yacht Club and went back to the boat for lunch and to fetch the trolley bag for the shopping. We do not like to get Gorilla arms and so use our travel bags with the trolley wheels for shopping.
Back to the dock and off to the shop. I had found a health shop in the one shopping centre so I showed Mike, next door was a place that give you a pedicure using fish, apparently they have digestive enzymes that eat away the hard skin. It was interesting, but not at the moment, nor at the price. The pet shop had a British Bulldog puppy, only € 2,000. Some chinchillas that looked very cute and a kitten, beautiful and fluffy sleeping curled up. It nearly stole our hearts.
The supermarket was good, more costly than England, especially the organic produce.
We stocked up the case with all the heavy stuff, packed the rucksack and still had to carry a couple of packets of the lighter and more squishy stuff.
We had to find some more gram flour, Mike loved my Pizzas, bread and Baji’s too much. We had discovered a small supermarket run by Indians that had internet on the way back to the boat, sure enough, they had some. I got chatting to the owner and mentioned not being able to take hot food. He had the same problem and we got onto the food intolerance problem. I told him briefly how it worked and what to do, he was most grateful to find someone who understood the problem and could help.
We had a bit of a lie in and left a 0830 to go to Sesimbra, 25 miles away around the far headland of the Tagus River. Rounding the high pointI heard what sounded like a cannon shot. Looking towards the shore, I noticed a rock with a cave nearby then saw a wave blow through the rock up into the cave with the sound of cannon.
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Blow hole just starting |
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Blow hole rocketing into cave |
Sesimbra was a bad anchorage, the anchor would not hold, Rock, and flat too by the feel of it and anchored between two pipelines, if you drag and damage one of them, it could be a problem. We continued as there were 2 marked anchorages further up. The first one was right against a cliff in a sea plane landing area so we continued to Arrabida. Beautiful anchorage and the water was so clear we could see the bottom for the first time since the Caribbean. We dropped anchor and went ashore, on the way we saw the anchor was well dug in. We had a quick walk ashore, not much to see, a couple of restaurants, a dive school, just come ashore and hanging up gear and some closed holiday homes.
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Arrabida |
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The Calm before the storm., we are the furthest white dot. |
We had just got back to the boat when the Katabactic wind started. Gusting through, at least 25 knots. Were we glad we had seen the anchor had dug in. we checked our marks and she did not move but we still took the hand held GPS to bed with us with the anchor alarm switched on.
By morning it was calm, the temperature gauge was in double figures for the first time since the previous summer about August. That was a good feeling.
The high tide was at 0544 so we got going when it was light enough to see those fishing buoys at 0630. We motored to Sines, Vasco Da Gama’s birthplace, with no wind an anchored in the bay by the marina. Took the Dinghy to the beach and found someone to direct us the nearest place that had internet. It was the library again, up the hill, past the fort, up the roads which they were digging up to the monolithic marble block that was the library. The free half hour allowed us the check the weather and catch up with news from home, and of course to let them know we were still floating.
Sad to see them destroying the old part of the town and replacing the interesting old houses with featureless blocks of marble.
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Anchored at Sines |
The weather was going to change for the worse on Thursday, it was now Monday, but he weather round Cabo Sao Vincente was changing against us on Wednesday, with no wind on Tuesday. Our choice was to motor to Cape de San Vincente and find an anchorage for when the E wind blew from Wednesday lunchtime or to stay in Sines until Friday when the wind turned back to the W and the N. Sines in a S wind was not a good place to be at anchor which meant going into the marina. The cost of motoring to the next anchorage would be about the same.
We left at 0540 the next morning as there would be no fishing floats in the harbour or big ship anchorage and by the time we were through those it would be light enough to see the buoys.
We had to take avoiding action for a fishing boat on the way out and putting our motors on the upper economical rev mark we could round Cabo de San Vincente and be in the anchorage still in the light.
We passed fishing buoys in 110 meters of water. No wonder there are no fish.
On the way Mike got stuck in and make a cover for the galley extraction fan and then watched a movie on watch while I decided to bake some bread.
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Mike’s sea workshop |
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Mike’s sea movie house |
I line the bread pan with grease proof paper to make it easier to get the bread out and so Mike does not have to struggle with washing it up. To hold the paper there I peg it to the side of the pan while I pour the mix in, having already had a mishap with the mix getting on the wrong side of the paper.
I thought I smelt something strange, like hot plastic. When I went to check on the bread and hour later I thought it had risen so much it had come over the side then I realised I had left the plastic pegs in place, we now had peg flavoured bread.
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Meme’s Plastic bread |
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Meme’s plastic free, gluten free, dairy free and egg free bread. |
Fortunately the plastic peeled off of the bread but it took some work getting out of the oven. Talk about the brain of a gnat in a buffalo skull.
We rounded the Cape St Vincent in a calm with a bit of a swell running, to see the blow holes is spectacular I can only imagine what they must be like in a storm. The whole cliff must reverberate with the impact.
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Cape St Vincent |
Guess what, no buoys, well just a couple once we had rounded and were going into the bay, tiny ones, barely visible.
Sagres Bay was a bit rolly but looked like a nice quite anchorage for us away from the fishing boats of the next anchorage at Baleeira. We dropped anchor in 6 Meters off the beach and made sure the anchor had dug in. The weather report was right, no wind for the night so it was a peaceful night.
We left at 0630 for Alvor, what looked like a nice place in the almanac, it was that or Portemao, big city with a river anchorage. The weather had said the wind would be turning east so we would possibly have to hole up for a couple of days and we would rather have the peace and quiet of a quiet bay off a river that a commercial one.
We managed to sail a bit in the offshore breeze, albeit a bit off course, it was still good to get all the sails up again. Of course it then decided to die on us as they are prone to do.
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Sailing to the sunrise |
We entered an hour before low and saw the sand banks clearly and a poor Monohull that was careened over, scrubbing his hull as we all do when caught and pretend we intended it.
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Sandbank of the Alvor river, entrance in the background |
There was no anchorage where the almanac said it was, just plenty of boats on moorings, so we had to anchor in the river, never a favourite as with tide over wind Theraputix can do some real fancy dancing but as it was neaps and only a 1 m tidal range, She did not dance at all and behaved herself.
Mike went ashore to see if he could get fuel and water and of course check the weather while I watched to see if the boat would behave in the incoming tide and the onshore wind that was now blowing.
No water, no one will even sell you water. Apparently the Gypsy’s had come to town and the public water tap had been shut down to encourage them to leave. Mike walked to the fuel station 2 km out of town and found the internet at a 50% higher cost, the locals ashore seem to have lost their smiles and are as miserable as they can possibly be.
After a peaceful night and listening to the cocks Crowing and birds on the banks singing, we were thinking of going but thought we would check the weather again before leaving. It was raining and we do not like to sail in the rain if we do not have to and besides there was no wind.
Going ashore we saw the poor feral cats and of course went to speak to them. The man at the Information bureau in town was most helpful and explained that it had not rained since October, not even a drop, they were in the midst of a drought. That coupled with the economic crisis is enough to make anyone miserable. There was free internet at the library, that was a bonus, a local fresh produce market and a large super market. It is a quaint town with its old narrow cobbled streets but has a modern buildings and roads in the new quarter. Property prices were good not that we were buying but it is still interesting.
On the way back to the boat a fish Kebab caught Mikes eye, too expensive we thought but the restaurateur at the place next door started chatting to us, they had a special on, €8.50 for either Sea Bass or Golden Bream with veg and potato. We weakened; we opted for the Golden Bream as Mike had caught Sea Bass in The Helford River. It was a good treat and a break from cooking for me and washing up for Mike and the cats of course got the skin and the heads. A good time was had by all.
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Our supper out, the cats were happy. |
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Our Peaceful Anchorage in the Alvor River |
It was still not quite light when we left the anchorage but by the time we reached the entrance the sun was up, I nearly hit the bank, I thought I would follow the channel on the chart rather than my course in, then I remembered that a bank had built up and that is why I deviated on the way in. We did not go aground thanks to our echo sounders but even if we had it would not have been a problem as there were still two hours of rising tide.
The wind came up from the N and we put up the screecher, off we frolicked, then we thought we would put up the genaker, well the wind took one look at this cat flying this coloured sail and ran away. Back to the iron topsl’s.
The wind came back from the W, up went the Genaker and off we were again, this time the wind did not get scared and lasted right through the night. The moon was in the first quarter and so only set at 0310, we had a beautiful moonlit light and 15 knots of wind, ideal sailing, even the wind was warmer than what it had been and although we wore our thermals and freezer suit, I did not need my Teddy bear suit and our hand did not freeze the moment we took our gloves off.
The Dolphins visited me in the moonlight, just a short one, to say hallo, but no meteorites this time as the Phosphorescence is not visible in the moon light. One came shortly after the moon had set, a brief meteorite giving a gentle puff next to my helm and then shooting off to the bow to play a little while the shooting off on its next adventure.
The wind dropped us off of Cape Trafalgar as the sun was rising, We had done well and covered a lot of ground. There was only 34 miles to go to Tarifa, the southern most tip of Spain where we had decided to anchor for the night and to get to Gibraltarthe next day, in daylight with time to sort our selves out. We only had another 17 miles to go to Gibraltar.
Once more we were the bulls eye in the dart board as metal leviathans thundered past all through the Straits of Gibraltar..
We motored and it was so warm we managed to get some vitamin D on some exposed flesh; it felt so good to feel the warm sun with out getting Goosebumps from the cold wind.
The anchor was dropped in the peaceful anchorage out side the harbour and behind the causeway to the Island. There was another Cat in the anchorage so we anchored a behind away from them and hoping we had given the Ferries enough room. They were happy and thundered passed us a couple of hundred meters away.
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Terifa with Rapunzil’s castle |
We had booked ourselves a berth at the new Marinaat La Linea, on the Spanish side of the boarder as it was a lot less expensive and we needed a good shower and our poor little kitten needed to get rid of the mould and algae that had grown on her while in England. All three of us needed a good Spring Clean..
We slept for 10 hours, must have been tired, woke up to a beautiful sunny day and peaceful anchorage, a leisurely breakfast, as it was Sunday, a sermon downloaded from
http://www.sermonindex.net.
We caught the east flowing tide, 1 knot with us, and the Rock of Gibraltar not yet in sight. The other Pillar of Hercules was clearly visible on the other side of the straight, with all the floating islands (ships) passing through in both directions.
The wind came up from the W and we put the Genaker up and screamed into Gibraltar bay doing 7.5 knots, So many vessels, ships and high speed ferries, thank goodness for AIS, tells you who is doing what and whether you are going to hit each other or not.
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The Rock |
The Marinais very new, not all the pontoons have been completed. The Showers are hot but you have to keep pushing the button to keep the water going, a real pain.
We were given a berth where the internet connection is too weak to pick up, will have to ask to change tomorrow or ask them to do something as Mike needs to look for a job.
The shops are quite a way a way but that will get us fit. We will walk to Gib tomorrow.
Having Roast leg of Nancarrow farm lamb for supper as a celebration, mmm, wonder if they will deliver here….