Are we there yet?

"What do you think - should we stay here for the winter or press on for another 200 miles up a boring muddy river to a place where we don't know if we have a berth?"

We've finally made it to the Algarve - around the corner of Cabo Sao Vicente and into Lagos. This was one of our two key options for leaving the boat over the winter, the other being Seville. After severe agonising we have decided that we will leave the boat here, the advantages being:

• The marina is well known for being efficient and the staff almost all speak English
• There is a good boatyard and excellent chandlery
• The town is attractive and has good transport connections to Faro for the airport
• Our experience so far leads us to believe that it will be easier to sort out any problems in Portugal than in Spain
• We can take a bit of extra time to explore the Algarve before returning here, and won't have to struggle so much with tides which are an issue in some anchorages
  
• We didn't have a confirmed place in Seville and might have had to return to a different marina anyway
  

The downside is:

• We won't get to Seville this year (but we could go in the spring)
• We won't get to use our amazing 50-cent Ryanair flights from Seville - instead we've booked new flights from Faro, on the same day

It's very odd here. The feeling is as though you spent days and days climbing a mountain, with ropes and oxygen and iceaxes, and when you finally make it to the top you find there's a motorway up the other side and all your friends have already arrived. The marina is full of people who have made the same trip as us, at various times, and at the top of the ramp is a Pizza Hut and a place serving full English breakfasts and fish and chips...

Underwater camera

Sadly, the little camera still isn't working, but we've retrieved the pictures. I'm having some problems uploading pictures on this connection, but here's a few for a start...

Junior crew of Khepri, Moondance and Kalessin on their way back from the playground in Viana do Castelo - note four wet bottoms...


The fabulous cloisters at Belem (in the Manueline style)


The royal palace at Sintra


The adventure begins - entrance to the secret tunnels at Quinta da Regaleira

Industrial Sines

After eight great but very expensive days in Cascais (36 euros a night, by far the most we have paid anywhere) we finally plucked up courage yesterday to head out into the Atlantic again. The forecast was for the swell to reduce and for a decent sailing wind. Both were accurate but initially I found I'd lost my sea legs, and felt quite sick and very miserable for the first few hours. Then things improved, and we had a really good sail - hours and hours of a steady westerly 10-12 knot breeze, just on the beam. So it was worth the effort. But coming into Sines yesterday evening was really quite unpleasant - the swell always gets bigger as you reach the shore, and we were looking for a crucial red buoy which didn't seem to be there.

Sines is an industrial town and huge port, with smoking chimneys and flare stacks visible from 20 miles away. The Rough Guide barely gives it a mention, but from a sailing point of view it's very well placed, as the only easy-access port between Lisbon and the Algarve. The pilot book points out accurately that once you're in the marina you can't see the chimneys, or indeed the docks, and apart from the sound of the surf on the nearby beach it's very peaceful. Our plan was to head on around Cabo Sao Vicente today, but it's over 70 miles which is a very long day, and when we got in last night after a mere 57 miles we felt we needed a day's rest before pressing on. It's costing us 29 euros for two nights, and the showers, which are brand new, are possibly the best we've had. Also, it has free, fast, wi-fi internet access. Hence the blog update.

Our last few days in Cascais were excellent. We had another trip into Lisbon, this time to Belem to see the church of the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, the huge maritime museum, and the amazing Torre de Belem. We also ate the famous pasteis de Belem (delicious little custard tarts).

Sadly I can't publish the pictures yet... our little camera was left in a carrier bag on the chart table in an unexpected downpour of rain one evening, and sadly it no longer works. The memory card is fine but I don't have a card reader on this laptop, so to get the pictures Ben will have to put them on his PC, transfer them to a memory stick and then I can upload them. Watch this space. Our big SLR is fine, but the little camera, a Canon Ixus 30, has proved hugely convenient for taking wherever we go and taking decent shots. It might still dry out [crossed fingers...]

Hello Gordon

The edge of Hurricane Gordon passed us about four o'clock this morning. After horrendous forecasts, the worst winds we saw in Cascais marina were only 26 knots, although we did have buckets of rain. The swell is now building again and looks as though it will peak here tomorrow (Friday) at something just over four metres. So we'll be here for another day or two at least. I was most concerned about a Norwegian family with four small children who set off to Madeira on Tuesday. Wherever they were when the storm passed (and they would have cut across the corner of forecast area Josephine, due for Force 9-11 and 10-metre swell) they must have had a most unpleasant time. I guess we'll never know*.

Anyway I gather Gordon is now on his way to end the heatwave you guys have been having in the UK. It is quite nice here but I don't think it's quite as hot as you have been having.

Yesterday we went to Sintra which is an absolutely gorgeous hill town above Lisbon. On the recommendation of the Intemperances we went to Quinta da Regaleira, a romantic garden full of ruins constructed around 1910. It's all impeccably maintained and you can explore these amazing tunnels which all joint each other and various follies via spiral staircases, caves, waterfalls and grottoes. Harry Potter would be right at home.

* Edit: we heard later that they made it Ok but spent something like 36 hours hove to in horrendous conditions

Cascais

Cascais is an attractive resort about 15 miles out of Lisbon, with a big, new and expensive marina. We were reliably informed that the river Tejo in Lisbon is an “open sewer” and it’s hard to squeeze into any of the city marinas – none of which are actually in the city centre anyway. So most passing yachts end up here.

Our 170-mile trip from Leixoes was extremely bumpy. The forecast swell was three to four metres and it felt huge. In fact, it’s very like being on a roller-coaster and as I hate roller-coasters and close my eyes on the biggest swoops, I spent a fair amount of time with my eyes tight shut. Fortunately, although Kalessin’s motion was fairly awful, none of us were sick – both the wind and the waves were coming from behind us, thank goodness.

At about 4.30 in the morning we were motor-sailing somewhere off the Ilha da Berlenga and I was making some adjustments to the mainsail when there was a small bang and the sail suddenly shot out on to the starboard side. The mainsheet had been held in place at the stern with a wire strop which had corroded and broken in half. According to the crew below (Sam and Ben), I cried “Oh f***, oh Jesus Christ”. Whatever it was they were on deck in about 15 seconds. We got the boom in and the mainsail down and continued motoring with just the jib, which was much easier to manage in the conditions. The funny thing was that up until then I’d been really nervous, but having coped with an actual problem I felt much better for the rest of the trip.

We were very lucky with the weather, with excellent visibility, modest but adequate winds and beautiful blue skies almost all the way. In Lisbon for the first time it feels like we reaching Mediterranean climes – the gardens are full of palm trees, hibiscus and bougainvillea, and the sun is really hot for the first time since Vilagarcia. By the time we reached Cascais the swell was also less and it has continued to reduce since we got here.

On Sunday we explored Cascais, walking out to the Boca da Inferno, the Mouth of Hell (pictured) a cave which looks spectacular when the waves break into it. Yesterday we headed into Lisbon on the convenient and very cheap train and spent the day exploring. Ben was a bit low to start off with, which was hard work for all of us, but he cheered up when we watched a man making amazing constructions out of used drinks cans, and we acquired a small dish for a donation of €1. We spent most of the afternoon at the castle of Sao Jorge which is a splendid spot and has fabulous views out over Lisbon and the river.

Ben & Camilla recovering from a day in Lisbon at the excellent castle cafe

We arrived in Cascais to see Intemperance moored across the way from us. By Sunday Moon Dance was on the next pontoon and last night Ben was first back from the train station and was delighted to find Khepri right next to us. So there’s no getting away from all of these boats! We’ve also been hearing about Terry, a single-hander in a Twister who was next to us in Baiona and popped up suddenly to ask “Do you put mushrooms into chilli con carne?” Dreadful things do seem to happen to Terry – not just forgetting to put the beans into the chilli, he also anchored just off Gijon in a forbidden area and got towed in, and more recently lost reverse gear and crashed into a hand-built Norwegian yacht - and apparently he was very close to being smashed to bits on Cabo Mondego, just outside Figuera da Foz. Even at midnight I can’t imagine any conditions which would make me go close in to a rocky cape – Kalessin is always the yacht out two or three miles off!

We may be here for a while as we were planning to leave on Thursday, when strong southerly winds (on the nose) are forecast, and after that huge swell - more than five metres - apparently as a result of ex-hurricane Gordon. We'll see what develops, but there are much worse places to be.

Wednesday 13 September
Any port...

Leixoes Marina is right in the middle of one of Portugal’s largest commercial ports, which is not a very lovely place to be – although interesting if you like watching shipping. On the other hand, it’s conveniently placed about 35 miles south of Viana and well sheltered, with huge outer sea walls and inner harbour walls with a very narrow entrance. In spite of all this, we’re rocking gently in the swell which as far as I can work out is forecast to get worse tomorrow.

The next two possible stops south of here are both inaccessible in heavy swell (how heavy is “heavy”?). The third is almost 100 miles away, which we can’t do in daylight, but our friends in Moon Dance have told us they were strongly warned against night navigation on this coast unless very well offshore (how far is “very well”?), because of the risk of getting entangled in nets or pot lines. Our original plan was to head from here to Cascais (effectively the marina for Lisbon) but that’s 167 miles and not to be undertaken lightly. Aaaargh!

We came down here yesterday in more fog, although for much of the time we were in sunshine and sometimes we had visibility out to sea, but we couldn’t see the coast. Hooray for radar. There’s a northern Irish boat, Roamer, which doesn’t have radar and was highly embarrassed yesterday to have three or four other yachts calling on VHF to say they were looking out for it… fortunately the sea was very empty, except for 14 zillion pot markers, until five miles from Leixoes when huge ships appeared out of nowhere.

As we came into the main port approach channel a French yacht cut right across our bows without warning. A few minutes before, the same yacht had crossed a prohibited zone around a supertanker buoy. As we came through the port they overtook us again, charged into the marina, ignored the reception pontoon and headed straight for a vacant berth. Sam was delighted to see that one of the crew flung a mooring warp ashore but sadly it was of no help in securing the yacht, as it wasn’t tied on at the boat end. The yacht then hit the pontoon. Ho, ho.

Bridges of Porto, above

We’ve spent the day in Porto which is a very splendid city, although it’s a pity that it rained almost all day. We got the brand-new Metro into town, and wandered from the station, via the cathedral, down to the river, where we took a river cruise to admire the splendid six bridges. Then we found a nice restaurant for lunch and behold! there was the crew of Moon Dance again. We walked back via an English language bookshop (where we bought some very weird, but cheap, children’s books for Ben) and went home again. It doesn’t sound much but as Porto is built on the sides of a steep gorge it was all rather hard work. Fortunately, it has now stopped raining.

Viva Portugal

Ben with amazing white chocolate drink in Baiona - five seconds after this he spilled it all over the table...


After nearly three months we’ve entered our third foreign country – Portugal. We came to Viana do Castelo only because it seemed like a convenient hop in possible fog, but in fact it’s a lovely, historic town. We were greeted on the pontoon by a marinero who spoke perfect English and welcomed us to Portugal. Last night we ate out at a place recommended in the Rough Guide and not only was the menu in English, our waiter also spoke excellent English (and German to the table next door). Ben has announced that he likes Portugal.

Amazingly, Portuguese is the world’s fifth most-spoken language. I guess most of those people are in Brazil, but here they clearly find it beneficial to speak other languages, and if one of them is English that’s great, as spoken Portuguese is said to be almost incomprehensible (written Portuguese is quite like Spanish and even more like Gallego).

We kept fairly well offshore on the way here to avoid breaking waves and fog, but as we hoisted the Portuguese courtesy flag at the border we almost ran into a lobster pot marker and there were hundreds more markers – many extremely hard to see - all down the coast. We are fairly used to this in the UK and there were a fair number of pots in France too, but they are much rarer in Spain. We’re planning a long, overnight passage in the next few days and we’ll probably need to get well out beyond 50 metres depth to get away from them. The deepest we’ve ever seen one is 109 metres – it needs a lot of string to set your pots that deep!

Yesterday we climbed to the top of the hill to the Basilica of Santa Luzia, up what the Lonely Planet guide describes as fourteen zillion steps. (We didn’t count them). National Geographic once said it had some of the most beautiful views in the world but we could see only four or five miles at most. By the time we came down the top of the hill was wreathed in mist, and it was raining and distinctly chilly (by Spanish standards). Today, weather permitting (and the fog has closed in again), we head south to Leixoes.

Saturday 9 September

We’re in Baiona (Bayona) which will be our last port of call in northern Spain. Like La Coruña, Baiona is something of a crossroads and popular with British yachts. Within 30 seconds of our arrival, Ben had met up with eight-year-old Maddy from Moon Dance, who we met in La Coruña, and Donnache from Khepri, whom he spent several days with in Vilagarcia. He was absolutely thrilled.

Next to us was a big Swiss Ovni, a distinctive aluminium boat, called Anthea – we remembered seeing her two months ago in Lezardrieux and Trebeurden. We even wondered if Intemperance might still be here, but as she should have left two weeks ago we were quite glad not to find her here. We also chatted to the owner of Mingulay, who was on his way to Scotland from after keeping his boat for several years in the Algarve, but having encountered fog and even rain in the past few days has now decided to head south again.

Columbus left from here in 1492, so it’s obviously been a popular jumping-off point for a while!

Above - replica Pinto in Baiona - now you see it, now you don't

Fog has been the bane of our lives for the past couple of days. When the 35 degree temperatures ended last Tuesday the visibility closed in, and by the time we left Vilagarcia on Thursday we could see only a mile or so. We were heading for a small marina at the head of the ria, only 20 miles away, but the visibility got worse and worse. Thank goodness for the GPS chart plotter and radar, which between them tell us where we are and what other shipping is around. As we reached the entrance to San Vicente I told Sam and Ben on deck that we had to spot a crucial red buoy. I could see it quite clearly on both the chart and the radar, but we finally spotted it looming through the mist only about 100 metres away, and it was a big buoy probably three or four metres high.

San Vicente was delightful and incredibly peaceful after Vilagarcia, but Sam felt we should press on. Once more we left in adequate visibility and once more the fog closed in suddenly. The wind also came and went, changing direction through 180 degrees and strength from nothing to 15 knots. We anchored during a clear patch off the gorgeous Islas Cies, and I swam through the cold turquoise water to the white sand beach, but five minutes after I got back to the boat a squall hit us and we upped the anchor and left. By the time we reached Baiona the visibility was going again.

Thank goodness it now seems to have cleared and the sun is shining on bits of the ria that we haven’t seen before! We were planning a long, 70-mile run down to Leixoes in Portugal tomorrow, but because of doubts over the weather have decided to run only 35 miles to Viana do Castelo. It sounds like a good introduction to Portugal. On the other hand it’s frustrating to be leaving Spain just as we start to get to grips with the language. Sam managed to obtain a crucial circlip (a sort of horseshoe-shaped spring washer) for the loo pump today in a ferreteria (ironmongers) with a combination of drawings, English, Spanish and sign language. We’re told Portuguese is impossible to understand but more people speak English.

The autohelm which took almost two weeks to reach us

The longest stay

We are finally all set to leave Vilagarcia after a whopping eight nights here. Yesterday was a red-letter day - not only did the autopilot finally arrive from the UK, but Sam went by taxi to a VHF specialist, bought a new aerial and I winched him up the mast so he could fit it! Very hard work, as he weighs several times as much as Ben...

It has been staggeringly hot here, reaching a peak of 35 degrees on Tuesday, so in some ways we were quite glad not to be sailing. Now it´s very misty with almost no wind. We´ll take a couple of days to get to Baiona and then set off on the long hack down the Portuguese coast. Having lost time here we may end up in the Algarve rather than Seville - but we´ll see.

We were all set to be rather rude about the marina here, but Maria was so helpful over the VHF aerial we are changing our view. We are very glad to be out before club night at the weekend, though.

Pictures again

Glorious Santiago cathedral


Sam appreciating Santiago. Below: Ben appreciating a bath!




Ben with friend Donnache lurking in Ben´s cabin

Vilagarcia and Santiago

There’s still no sign of our autopilot – it now seems it´s held in a depot somewhere because the courier couldn´t understand the address, which said Viladarcia de Arousa instead of Vilagarcia. Sigh. We still hope to set off today, though. We went right off Vilagarcia on Saturday night, or in fact Sunday morning, when the extremely loud club music started at midnight and continued until after 8am, at which point a number of inebriated youths were seen heaving bottles, glasses and metal crowd barriers into the marina. This is supposed to be a safe place to leave your boat, and security is good, but incidents like that are a bit worrying. Thank goodness, last night was totally peaceful – I kept waking up and wondering where the music had gone!

As a counter to that Ben has made a friend – a 10-year-old from an Irish boat across the way, called (approximately) Donnache. They are here for a few days while their mother flew back to Ireland for a family wedding. Ben and Donnache spent most of Saturday and Sunday together which was a great treat for Ben, who really hasn’t talked to anyone except family for weeks.

This morning we have redesigned Ben’s school timetable, as he’s more or less finished what he was set in DT (design technology), RS (religious studies) and science, but is concerned that he’s falling behind in some other subjects, especially Maths and Latin. I’ve been trying to persuade him that he doesn’t have to worry too much about French, as six weeks in France was pretty good education in itself, but bless him he is still a bit bothered. It’s wonderful that he is so conscientious.

We have on board a handy book of swear words and insults in four languages, which includes “Por favor, deja de habla tan alto en ese idioma tan molesto” (Please stop talking loudly in that annoying language). Sometimes it’s really nice to hear people NOT talking Spanish.


Saturday 2 September
A pilgrimage to Santiago

We’re in Vilagarcia de Arosa for a few days. Vilagarcia is singularly lacking in charm but it has a well—organised, secure marina and is on the main railway line between La Coruña and Vigo – just 40 minutes to Santiago de Compostela. Son on Thursday we packed a few possessions and headed off for two days in Santiago, one of Spain’s most beautiful cities and final destination for the famous Santiago pilgrimage.

Santiago was absolutely gorgeous, everything the guidebooks say and more. The old centre is totally pedestrianised with a mixture of narrow streets and big open plazas, the biggest being the one in front of the totally outrageous cathedral. We visited the cathedral itself, its cloisters, treasury and crypt, the bishop’s palace, the museum of the pilgrimage, the museum of Galician life, some lovely gardens and a number of cafes and restaurants. It was extraordinary to be in a place away from the sea, and slightly disorienting.

We stayed in a pleasant little hotel with a room with a bath, and we all luxuriated in the first hot-water soak we’ve had for 11 weeks. Ben was slightly disappointed in fact - having begged for a bath he found it wasn’t quite as much fun as the sea. It was also strange to behave like rich tourists and eat out at every meal, even breakfast. Our cost of living when we cook for ourselves on the boat is much lower than eating at even the cheapest cafes.

When we got back to Vilagarcia they were setting up a pop concert which went on until about 1am. No peace then though, because the club music carried on until 5am. This morning it’s very peaceful. Bad news: there’s no sign of our autopilot which should have arrived yesterday. Good news: Ben has met an Irish 10-year-old with whom he’s had the longest conversation with anyone other than the family since we left home.



Tuesday 29 August
Sea life

Yesterday we sailed into the Ria de Arosa, the biggest and one of the most popular rias. We’re only about 15 miles from Portosin but it’s almost 40 miles by sea. We had a night at anchor in Muros, where the anchor dragged and we had to move over to the other side of the bay – fortunately the wind dropped completely overnight, allowing me to get a bit of sleep!

Out in the Atlantic between the rias we saw a large group of dolphins which followed the boat closely, jumping and criss-crossing under the bows and stern, for almost an hour. Unfortunately Ben was feeling a bit queasy and didn’t really appreciate them. He perked up a bit when we came into the flat waters of the Ria de Arosa and we started sailing in the modest wind, and he set a mackerel line as we have done numerous times without success. The wind dropped, we slowed right down, and he actually caught two mackerel – what an achievement! We’d been told a few days ago that sailing is usually too fast and you only get fish at less than two knots, and it seems to be true. Apparently even mackerel realise that their prey don’t whip past at five or six knots. Anyway we ate the mackerel for dinner, and very good they were too.

We’re in Pobra do Caramiñal, yet another small Galician town, distinguished by a stout marina, pleasant tree-covered square in the town centre and a slightly better-than-average supermarket. Yesterday it was really hot for the first time for days, and we went for a swim off the beach almost as soon as we arrived. The night was warm and balmy and the morning brilliantly clear. Sadly it didn’t last, clouds and wind arrived again, although it’s still pretty warm.

We’ve reached the conclusion that too may more small Galician towns may start to drive us bonkers, lovely through the rias are. From here we will go just across the ria to Vilagarcia, where we hope to pick up our autopilot and spend a day or two in Santiago da Compostela. Then we’ll skip down to Baiona and head into Portugal, where we expect to make a few very long hops down to Lisbon and then to the Algarve.