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.