26th October 2011 Cascais

Well it is a wet and windy day in Cascais, after a wet and windy night, although the temperature gauge in the cockpit reads a hair over 20°C. The boats are all weaving about a bit and most people have managed to quieten their lines but the wind is still shrieking through the rigging, with winds of force 4-7 gusting 8.

From outside yesterday

Cascais this morning

From Snow White this afternoon

I was hoping to move on tomorrow but the forecasts are not hopeful so again we wait and see, hopefully Friday morning.

24th Oct Cascais

Tied up in Cascais marina, with a southerly gale expected, so glad I didn’t anchor off, at least the wind is warm.

We left Bayona first thing in the morning with a bit of faffing about when the wind caught the bow and refused to come about, but got away without any damage into a nice NW wind, right behind us, so shut off the motor when we were clear of the harbour and small fishing boats. The wind stayed fairly constant in direction until early morning when it came round to the SE, and started dying away by mid afternoon we were doing about one knot so started the motor for the rest of the leg (about a day) even though I had gone further offshore to the edge of the continental shelf to try and keep the wind as long as possible, so now altered to a more direct course. 

sunset at sea

A few dolphins came around to see me out of Spanish waters and a couple came around on the 22^nd at about 1am, playing around and jumping in the dark, with just a little fluorescence the looked like torpedoes. Traffic started building up close by on the evening of the 21^st and kept busy until we had passed Peniche early next morning. Bumbling along under motor I did not think we would get in before the office closed, but by taking a shortcut through the cargo boat anchorage and keeping a sharp lookout for pot markers we made it in with fifteen minutes to spare, there was even help to tie up after registration we were directed to a berth at the far end of the marina and with the help of the marinero  and another sailor got tied up, the fingers are a little short and space limited for turning, but we got in without damaging anybody, and I guess I am getting close quarters  manoeuvring experience.

This afternoon I helped an English couple move their boat to the local berth area as it is more protected, apparently a couple of years ago in a SE storm the waves cam over the wall and caused havoc, well the wind is getting up and it’s started raining but I am snug in here at 24°C, there is wi-fi in one of the bars so I will try to post this afternoon.

Coast North of Cascais

The difference between  Bayona and Cascais could not be more , with bayona being an old fishing port and Cascais a rich suberb of Lisbon everything big new and shiny.

Bayona 18th Oct

Well here we are in Bayona, another step further south; the trip down was disappointing in that again we were unable to move under sail power and only had the main up as when there was any wind it was on the nose and the main at least lessens the rolling on the cross waves, we did have some help from the currents flowing down the coast and the main wave direction from the north.

Just before turning the corner at the top of Spain the fog rolled in and stayed with us all the way to Bayona ( and is still about now) giving visibility of ten meters to a half a mile at best, so again we relied on GPS, AIS and radar (so maybe it was just as well the engine was running!)Interestingly it did show up one weakness of AIS, in the deeper swells the signals were lost and if another wasn’t picked up the contacts went off screen. Just around Finisterre I watched (using AIS) a French sailboat play chicken with a tanker and then aim for me! He overtook me on the landward side and immediately turned across my bow and proceeded on the same course, his speed of ten knots meant he pulled away fairly rapidly, we were doing between three and five, so no harm was done apart from to my nerves.

Dolphin playing

Dolphins under pulpit

Torre De Hercules leaving La Caruna

Just off Vigo a large pod of dolphins passed across my course and then came back to play for a while, also had a chaffinch which came from and went to I not where. On entering Bayona, in the gathering dark as well as fog, I radioed ahed having got a reply, which surprised me, I asked if he could speak English? To which the reply was simply ‘no’ ; after confirming the ships name there was silence and I went outside to helm us into port, no leading lights were visible and on entering the harbour trying to work out the marina lights was difficult all I had was an aerial photo in the guide book, but things became clearer as we approached, as they do, to be met by the marinero in a dinghy to guide me in and help secure, he told me the office would not open until 10am so I cooked some supper and cracked a bottle of local red (from La Caruna) and settled down.

Bayona is a beautiful town with winding narrow streets, might have a look round the castle tomorrow, also there is a replica of the ‘Pinta’ Columbus’s boat, this is where he made port after ‘discovering’ the New World.

La Caruna

Still here, the French couple (with a new baby) left last night after giving me half a bottle of local wine! and I am still enjoying a jar of blackberry jam (picked along the river Neb in Peel) from the French family on the boat moored next to me there, both families from Brittany.
This morning took a walk up to the Torre de Hercules, long walk but very interesting.

Another big man in a little boat?

Note the Three legs of man at 2 o'clock

As I am starting to think about mooving on I refuelled today needing 125l after being under motor for 72.7 hours giving aa usage rate of 1.72l/hr, not bad eh

La Caruna 13th Oct

La Caruna

Snow White in Marina Caruna

Sitting in La Caruna and although it is dark, I am in shorts, t-shirt and bare feet, oh bliss.

We left Kilmore Quay on the 7^th in glorious sunshine with a two day window to get South of the next low, the wind was 4-6 N to NW so I put up a double reefed main and 2/3 jib and we bowled along at 4-6 knots, the cross waves meant moving about was difficult and the autopilot was working hard, which in turn meant the batteries were taking a beating so I had to run the engine to recharge them every 8-12 hrs, for about 3 hrs. The autopilot has developed an annoying habit of setting off a shallow alarm which cannot be disabled unless I re-set it, especially since the depth and speed transducers are no longer connected (the display controlling them packed up in the Irish sea) it can work happily for ten hours then goes off every five minutes.

On the morning of the 8^th and 9^th dolphins played around the boat for a couple of hours, possibly seeing us safely out of Irish waters? The only other sea life was a sole Risso,s dolphin around midday on the 10^th which swam under the bowsprit turning on its side every now and again to check if I was still watching, otherwise just the odd sea bird for company one of which dodged under the bowsprit a few times like an avian dolphin.

About half way, inevitably at night (between 7pm and 10 am) came across batches of between 5 and 12 large boats going north and or south at between 10 and 30 knots which we had to weave through, again AIS is a great aid since it tells us not only what speed and direction they are doing but also if they are turning and which way! By this time the wind had died to a Southerly 1-2 so we were under motor with the main but still only making 2-5knots. The last 2 ½ days were spent under motor not stopping the donkey until safely tied up.

I knew we were nearing land when coastguard radio started coming in off France in French and off Spain in Spanish and English, getting close to Spain La Caruna port radio came on to say visibility in the port was zero and ships should exercise caution! I was in clear but overcast conditions so bumbled on and fates favoured us by clearing the mist as we approached (leaving it until we were less than a mile out), Marina Caruna had plenty of space and having been directed to pontoon 4 I picked an empty bay and tied up safely, and guess what it is a holiday today!

After the sunshine heralding our departure from Ireland we never saw it, apart from the odd flash, until tied up in Spain, it was on the horizon but we just couldn’t catch up with it! Just layers of cloud and the odd drizzle, although the nights were light with a full moon, which showed itself occasionally.

6th Oct

Kilmore Quay from S. breakwater

Harbour from town looking south

Rainbow over town from marina

Still safely tied up in Kilmore Quay with that wind whistling even harder, and the fishing boats tying up are getting bigger. Being able to access the internet from the boat has a number of benefits since I can get the latest forecasts at any time, the port office is only open during working hours,  wifi really works!!

Seeing other boats leave is hard, even if they are better crewed, bigger and heading for closer ports, but seeing expected wave heights in excess of four meters has kept me here; there is that high sitting over the Bay of Biscay about two hundred odd mils out with pleasant winds and small seas, just got to break out of here!