Season 2022 – Sailing Azimuth

January 1, 2024January 17, 2024

Exploring the San Blas Islands

Last time we left you we were still in Cartagena in Colombia. It was time to pull up the anchor and set sail for Panama. We visited our local supermarket to stock up on supplies. As far as we had gathered, the San Blas islands are very remote and there are very few shops or places to get anything. Similarly we need some US dollars to get us from Cartagena to the next to the next potential ATM in Panama which could be at least a month or 6 weeks away. THe only way to get this money was to take the cash out of the ATM in Colombian pesos and then go to one of the myriad of small money exchange places in the old town and ‘do a deal’. So we were a bit nervous carrying 3500,000 pesos all in 50,000 pesos notes, a huge stack! All the money exchange places have glass windows pretty much straight on to the street, so agreed a price (which was actually reasonable) in exchange for US dollars and then stuff all those notes through the hole at the glass window. A few minutes later, the guy had finished counting out the $730 dollars and pushed that back through the window where I tried to stuff it in to my rucksack as fast as possible and disappear in to the streets without being observed! Thankfully we got away with it.

Our friendly marine agent Jose Bonillo organised our checkout for the next day, got our passports stamped and produced our Zarpe, the document you need to check the boat in to the next port. Our next port was to be Puerto Obaldia right on the border of Panama and Colombia. This port we had heard was one of the easiest places to check in to Panama and it also had the advantage that we would be able to sail North up the Panama coast and see all of the San Blas islands, hopefully on a nice beam reach.

Documents in hand, we waved goodbye to Cartagena, pulled up the hook and set off. The growth on our chain was something to behold!

We decided to stop again in the Rosario islands and wait for a weather window to get south. Thankfully the Colombian customs don’t seem to mind yachts stopping for a few days at the islands on the way South. We had a fantastic sail to Rosario and dropped the hook in the same place we had been before.

It took me three days to de-barnacle poor Azimuth’s bottom! Incredible amount of growth including huge mats of mussels languishing on the keel!

We were in the Rosarios for a week in the end, as the wind disappeared and then turned North so that it was coming from where we wanted to go. Eventually the wind gods aligned and the weather looked perfect for a 24 hour sail south.

Off we set early at sunrise and picked our way through the reefs on what looked like a very promising morning.

The wind sort of died about 20 miles south and there was an annoying swell on the beam which made Azimuth loll around in a bad temper, bashing the sails and slowly making progress at 3 knots. As the afternoon heat built up, so did the wind and soon we found ourselves on a wonderful beam reach doing nearer 7 knots. This was more like it, although that swell was still there. We have often found that the wind picks up in the Caribbean after sunset and that’s what happened again. Steadily the wind built up, and up, and up! The Radar showed a whole line of squalls in our vicinity on a collision course with Azimuth. By this time we are doing 9 to 10 knots, but given our mainsail ripping experience on the passage between Trinidad and Curacao, we were both nervous about going anywhere near a squall especially as the wind was already force 6 at this point. So we furled away the Genoa and our speed dropped to about 6 knots on just a reefed main. We managed somehow to shoehorn ourselves through the line of squalls. The sea was pretty angry though and we took a few waves over the deck and rolled around. We both felt tired and a little sea sick and there was not much chance of getting any sleep. At first light, things always look better, but then the radar showed a big squall that we couldn’t avoid, off our starboard bow. It was an angry looking sky in the dim light and sure enough the rain started to pour and the wind to howl. The sea turned white around us as the tops of the waves blew off. Azimuth didn’t seem to care. Still with just the mainsail, I turned a little more downwind and enjoyed surfing waves at 10 knots for 20 minutes!

We approached Puerto Obaldia with some trepidation. The reports say that the anchorage is very roly at the best of times and we could see huge rollers heading in to the bay. Another yacht entered in front of us and made its way in. It turns out our CMAP charts are totally useless in this area, and so when I saw an uncharted rock off the headland of the bay pretty much where I had my way-point, I decided, no way! We made a sharp turn to port and headed back over the border to Colombia battling along the coast in force 6. We were both very happy to sea the little fishing village of Sapzurro in a perfectly protected bay just round the corner. Dropping the anchor felt a great relief!

After a great nights sleep, the fatigue of the last 24 hours washed away, the world felt good again! The wind had died to nothing, the sun was out with the occasional rain shower and the forecast looked good. Time to have another try at Puerto Obaldia. Up came the hook and we motored off round the stunning headland, to be hit by more rain! It is the tropics I guess. Arriving at Puerto Obaldia we didn’t know what to make of it?

The town was more like a little village of ramshackle houses and the port was a couple of jetty’s sticking out. However, the swell was still huge entering the bay, making the anchorage very undesirable. We dropped the hook in 10 metres and put out 60 metres of chain to make sure. Azimuth swung in the swell and dropping the dinghy and getting in it was a very tricky operation. Azimuth was bouncing up and down and slamming her back in to the waves right next to the dinghy. We slowly made our way to one of the docks and some really nice military guys helped us moor up and climb on to the rough concrete. There wasn’t much to the town really and it was swamped with water rushing off the rain soaked hills. We found a shop where we could get photocopies done of our paperwork and passports and then headed to immigration. All very easy and efficient. Then we were directed to the Port Capitan’s Office to get the boat checked in. A huge pile of paperwork was handled with a huge smile. One piece had at least 10 copies all of which had to be stamped in duplicate. He was a lovely chap and clearly happy in his work. Liberated of 220 dollars we were sent on our way. A quick visit to a ramshackle supermarket and we braved the boat trip back to Azimuth and negotiated the bucking back deck.

Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves then, up goes the Panama courtesy flag and off we set on the San Blas adventure. Just to help the sun came out and lit up the coast. It’s a stunningly beautiful place. Not what I imagined at all. The terrain in mountainous, covered in thick lush topical rainforest, shrouded in mist.

The sea is striped in deep blues and light turquoise around the reefs. Our first stop was to be the magnificent Puerto Escoses.

A huge bay surrounded on all sides by impenetrable jungle with some wood huts on stilts built by the local Kuna indians. In 1699 the Scottish arrived at this bay and set up a village and a fort at the entrance which they called Fort Andrews. It was not to be a successful mission to set up a new outpost and at least 2000 of the 3000 Scots were to die from hunger and disease. An interesting story to read about if you have chance and a catastrophe that would eventually lead to the formation of the United Kingdom.

For us though, this place was heaven! It felt so remote and we had the whole place to ourselves.

Soon after dropping the hook, we were visited by our first Kuna Indian. He came paddling his dugout canoe, singing to himself in the rain. Pulled up to Azimuth and we managed to actually have a brief conversation. The charge was $10 to stay for up to a month. Also he asked if we would charge up his mobile phones?! Of course we said. He said he would pick them up later and off he went.

True to his word he turned up later that evening and collected the phones and in exchange presented us with two freshly picked coconuts still in their husks! Good deal I say!

I had some fun trying to get in to those the next day. They were most succulent coconuts I have ever had. Delicious. I hope for many more.

The nest day another boat turned up. It was a British boat called Coral Moon and on-board were Donna and Mark. A really lovely couple, and we have so far been travelling together ever since.

By now it was getting pretty close to Christmas, and whilst Puerto Escoses was such a tempting place to stay, there was very little phone signal, and we both wanted to be able to talk to family on Christmas day so we decided to head a little further North where there are a couple of Kuna Villages, one of them with a radio mast.

I mentioned that the CMAP charts were useless. Thankfully we have a copy of the excellent cruisers guide to Panama by Bauhaus. Some clever sailor has also converted to the charts in this book in to a format for OpenCPN. These charts are very detailed and so far have been (fairly) reliable. The next villages North of us were tucked in between a chain of islands creating an inside passage of very protected water. Leaving Scotland bay the sea was still quite boisterous but as we came in to protection of the island group the sea flattened to glassy flat and we sailed our way through the narrow channel in a wide open vista.

Our first look at a Kuna village, they are incredible. Taking up all of a small islands space and virtually at sea level, the villages are a collection of thatched huts and some concrete houses, crammed as close together as possible and taking up all available of space.

We dropped our hook about half a mile off one of these villages.

It was much busier with lots of dugouts and longboats, some with outboards running around between the two villages. Most of the them detoured to take a look at us, and everybody waved enthusiastically with huge smiles. Quite a few decided to pay us a visit too! One 10 year old boy pulled up with a boat of 4 year old kids to say hello. They appreciated the Chupa Chup lollies we had on-board. We got visited by the local nutter who we couldn’t understand a word he said. We got visited by people asking for Gasoline.

This continued all afternoon, but the best was saved until last. Just as the sun was going down and we thought we were safe for the night another long boat speeds up to us with 6 guys on it screaming hello and can they take a photo?? Of course I say. So they all jump up on deck! It appears these guys have probably had a skin full. A couple were struggling to stand up. They proceeded to drape themselves all over the boat and take photos. I tried to strike up a conversation. They wanted to know where we were from. Inglaterra I say… which the all seemed to like and started shouting Beckham, Beckham! Then I asked them if they celebrated Xmas here, and that started shouts of Feliz Navidad for the next 10 minutes and lots of laughter. They were great fun. We took lots more photos and one of me on the back with them all. Then they jumped back in their boat and headed off at great speed for the next village with promises that they would return the next day! Ailsa and I headed to make our tea, somewhat shell shocked but with a big smile on our faces too!

We had one more journey to make for our final destination for Xmas. That was the island of Pinos where the Radio Tower is.

We had said we would meet the Coral Moon there too as there apparently was a little beach bar there, perfect to toast in Xmas day.

Another beautiful sail saw us arrive at Pinos Island, what a spectacular place. Very protected again, and a small village with a beach and the “bar” on stilts over the water.

Coral moon showed up that afternoon, and we took a trip to the village together and then went to the bar for sundowner beers. What a way to spend Xmas Eve!

Xmas Day arrived, and we were woken at 6:45am by our lovely children in the UK! I think it might have been punishment for being so far away! It was lovely to see all the family on WhatsApp and share with some of their day. They all went to pub for lunch. It looked like great fun to us. We wish we could have been there too.

We managed to cobble together a reasonable xmas dinner too….

During the afternoon, a couple more boats turned up, one of whom we had been anchored next too in Spanish Waters, Rolf and Andre on Rebel Rebel, and Bjorn and Linda on Sirena. We all went to the bar for Xmas afternoon / evening and had a lovely time, and the we went back to Coral Moon with Mark and Donna and properly toasted in Xmas day!

That’s all for now folks. See you again soon with more tales from the San Blas.

December 25, 2022December 26, 2022

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year

Hi everyone!

Wanted to wish all of you who have followed us on our blog a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year. We are really very lucky this year to be celebrating in Martinique. We have our family with us too! Caleb sailed across the Atlantic with us and Vinnie, Ethan & Judith (Ailsa’s Mum) flew out to join us just before Xmas.

We want to thank everyone who has supported us and helped us this year to achieve our dream of sailing away. It has been a wonderful 6 months and we look forward to welcoming any of you who want us to join us next year onboard for some fun in the sun!

All the best.

Dom & Ailsa.

December 22, 2022December 22, 2022

Atlantic Crossing

Last time we left you in Mindelo in Cape Verde, just about to set off across the Atlantic to Martinique. In this post, we will tell you about what it was actually like to do the crossing.

The North Atlantic has been with us pretty much all the way from the UK. Ok, so they call it the Irish Sea, or the Bay of Biscay, but hey its all the North Atlantic really! However, this sail is the one that everyone thinks about and is certainly the one that we have been building up to for the years now. It used to feel daunting, but not so much anymore. All those long sails to get to Cape Verde have been great preparation and practice for the big one.

For the past month I had been watching the weather like a hawk between Cape Verde and the Caribbean. It had been comforting to see the trade winds blowing strong and continuously, and I had started to assume that we would be able to leave anytime we liked with guaranteed winds. Oh how wrong I was! After we arrived in Mindelo, the weather started to change dramatically. Two huge lows appeared in the Atlantic to the North of us and promptly kicked the Azores high out and hoovered up all the trade winds! Oh no! We had agreed to meet our family for Xmas in Martinique on the 22nd December, and now it looked like we were going to struggle to get there in time!

We spent many hours pouring over Windy and took some advice from sailing friends. It looked like if we pretty much left as soon as possible, there might be a small opportunity to get across the pond as long as we headed South from the Cape Verde towards the 10th degree parallel (Mindelo is at about 15 degrees). There would be just enough wind to get us south, and once there, a small band of trade winds would get us across until we decided to sail North again to Martinique.

The decision was made … it was go now, or probably not make it in time!

It actually felt great to be finally leaving. We had plenty of supplies onboard. Probably hadn’t done all the boat jobs we needed to, but we had ran out of time. The crew was in a buoyant mood as we hoisted the sails and glided out from the harbour at 4pm on Wednesday, 30th November, 2022. It wasn’t long until land slipped away to the horizon and we faced the majesty of the Atlantic Ocean ahead of us.

So the main question onboard for at least the first 5 days was “Why are we still heading South?!” Initially we were making good progress in a South Westerly direction, trying to get down to 10 degrees North of the Equator where we hoped to find wind to take us West. The crew schedule had been decided for watches and everyone was settling in to the rhythm of life at sea. No one was sea sick even though it was quite rolly to start with. It took at least 48 hours for everyone to stop feeling quite so tired and get in to the swing of things.

On Day 2 we were greeted by an enormous pod of Atlantic Dolphins, and a pod of as yet unidentified whales (we think pilot whales perhaps) who stayed with us for a couple of hours and entertained the crew with pirouettes and riding the bow wave. Day Three and the wind continued to drop. We had turned further South to try and get to the 10th Parallel but had now slowed right down, so on Day 4 when there was literally only a puff of wind left we decided to drop the sails and take the opportunity to go for a swim in 5000m of water! What an amazing feeling! Quite scary and exhilarating at the same time. We reckon we are now true earth explorers … surely the only people to have ever swam in the ocean here….

Our good friend Charlie had our backs. Our satellite phone was refusing to download the weather, so bless him, Charlie became our weather guru on the trip. Every couple of days he would phone us up and get our position. He would put that in his weather routing software and send us instructions by text message everyday as to where to head for the best wind and sea conditions. Absolutely brilliant! I fully intend to return the favour one day when they cross in their boat Aquamarine. Couldn’t have done it without you mate 🙂

With the light winds we carried on heading South West and on Day 5 we dropped South of the 10 degrees and turned more west much to the delight of the crew. It felt better to be going almost in the right direction towards the Caribbean! The highlight of Day 5 was that Caleb caught two fish!. We had been sailing through the Sargasso weed all day and fish had been all round the boat. The trolling line had been out all day and eventually the fish bit. Two small Mahi Mahi were caught in 10 minutes. It was a delicious dinner!

Down here nearer the equator it was HOT! In the day the temperature soared and the deck saloon heated up nicely. We started to get some wind behind us though but kept having to switch sail plans to adapt to its changing direction by 30 degrees or so on a whim. We also had some large squalls passing through to. Huge angry grey clouds would form in the afternoon and if you got in their way the wind would veer and gust up to 30 knots or more giving us some welcome speed and cooling us down.

We continued to head slightly south of west for several more days and crossed 9 degrees north on Day 8 and finally reached our most Southerly point on Day 10, 8 degrees 30 minutes North of the Equator. For those of you who don’t know what that means, there is one nautical mile in a minute of arc and 60 minutes in a degree, so we were 510 nautical miles North of the Equator at this point. From here on, we pointed the boat directly at Martinique and waited for the trade winds to re-establish themselves.

On Day 11 we reached the half way point! Time for a party! The beer flowed, the party snacks were cooked and Ailsa’s delicious Moroccan Tagine was served for tea. Those not on watch were in bed for 8pm…. rock and roll!

Life on board was pretty sweet. Everyday was easy going with everybody relaxing; reading books; catching up on sleep; removing the flying fish from deck; cooking; eating; drinking; fixing sails and tightening ropes; stopping things squeaking and knocking and the obligatory game of cards called Skip-bo (or sometimes known as Spite and Malice) which became a daily ritual and quite ferocious! Infact that tradition is still going on now as I write this, and scores are being recorded!

Here’s a video montage of daily life onboard Azimuth. It hopefully gives a little insight in to the trip. Dolphins, swimming in 5000 metres of water, putting up the cruising chute, catching fish and surfin’ the waves.

From here on it was plain sailing. The winds started to pick up and become more reliable on a broad reach. The wind gradually increased from 15 to 20 to 25 knots. Azimuth loves “20 knots right up the bum”. And she was dancing along surfing the waves. On Day 14 we passed 3/4 way. This was celebrated with the cooking of a Sunday roast with all the trimmings. A remarkable feat by Ailsa given the way were were being chucked about on the waves at this point!

On Day 14 we also got hot by a huge squall and had an hour of Chaos. The wind peaked at 38 knots and the sea became a torrent of spray and rain. Day 16 and Tom and Ailsa witnessed a new speed record from Azimuth as she surfed down an enormous wave hit 16.8 knots. You could almost hear Azimuth giggling!

The faithful autopilot had been making some strange noises for a few days and on Day 16 it started to make some horrible grinding sounds. The gearbox had all but given up. We were still 100 miles from Martinique at this point, so we decided it was time to hand steer from here. We took turns of 30 minutes each over the next 20 hours. It was actually alot of fun. At night we the star Polaris (the North Star) as a guide against one of the stantions to keep Azimuth on the right course.

Finally that night we sighted land! The lights of both Martinique and St Lucia were twinkling on the horizon and the lighthouse guided us in. We slowly sailed round the South of Martinique and waited for the sunrise to get in to the Anchorage at Fort de France. Infact the last hour was pretty crazy…. 35 knots on the nose and sharing the water with a huge cruise liner and tanker.

The sunrise was magnificent and a toast was drunk when the anchor was dropped. What an awesome sail!! Well done to the magnificent crew!!

Well, what an amazing feeling to have made it all this way. Check out the route on the front page of the website as to the whole distance. Here is the stats for this trip:

Join us next time as we explore Martinique!

December 1, 2022December 20, 2022

Cape Verde – No Stress!

Last time we left you we had just arrived in the Cape Verde after a six day sail from Lanzarote. In the post we will tell you about the stress free life in the Cape Verdes … or is that stresss (with a treble s!)

When we made it to shore in the dinghy in Palmeira, you are left in no doubt that this is Africa. The dock is awash with small wooden fishing boats, and a makeshift tent covers the guys gutting and descaling the fresh catch. Lots of people mill about in the fierce sun and a bevy of young boys fight each other to be the one to help you get in to to shore in your dinghy and tie you up, and haul you up the rough concrete dock! The first thing anyone said to us was ‘Cape verde – no stress’. Hence the title! We wander through the streets of ramshackle huts and concrete houses and stray dogs until we find the police building to check in. The check in process was not too bad, but its a bit concerning when the police inform you that they will be holding your ships papers (a very valuable document) and you collect it again when you check out (more on that later!)

There is not alot in Palmeira. A few small cafes / bars and a couple of very small “supermarkets” run by Chinese that do their best to supply all your needs. We decided to head to the next town called Espargos to find an ATM and sort ourselves out with a SIM card. mobile roaming in Cape Verde is extortionate! We managed to catch a minibus to Espargos, where the price for the 6km ride for two people is 1 euro.

Espargos felt a little more affluent than Palmeira, and once we had sorted the SIM and the money we found ourselves a nice cafe for lunch where a band was setting up to play live. It turned out to be awesome! Full of locals enjoying the music. We enjoyed it too and ended up spending all afternoon there with several beers and wines!

We had a few days to recover from our journey in Palmeira. Several attempts to fix the outboard too, and then it was time to sail to the South of Sal to the resort of Santa Maria to meet up with our friends Charlie and Jen who were flying in from the UK for a week.

Santa Maria

It was great to see our friends again! Charlie and I have spent many a year now dreaming and discussing sailing off in to the sunset, so it was great to share stories of our travels and bore them to death with all our photos.

Santa Maria at one time was probably a small fishing village. Now it is a resort with one design … to extract as much money from tourists as possible. Our first trip to shore to meet up with Charlie and Jen definitely put this mantra to the test when we were skilfully guided by a local to the market and duly ripped off for a hat, a bag and some shell bracelets to the tune of £30! Whilst we laughed about it afterwards, and Charlie and Jen rightly took the mick, the same thing would happen to them two days later involving the purchase of some wooden turtles! Apparently it is a right of passage for anyone visiting Santa Maria! Eventually you learn to nod and ignore the persistent traders as they battle to get you to see their wares at makeshift stalls that litter the resort.

It was an awesome week with Charlie and Jen. We very quickly discovered the Brazilian beach bar and the Caipirinhas served up which after two had you in the mood for anything. Chilling to the sounds of reggae from the local band and soaking up the atmosphere.

We visited plenty of restaurants , ranging from hotel and beach fare through to backstreet Senegalese food where the menu was “Chicken or Fish” served with rice and onions, all cooked in fiery spices. Italian food was consumed too, and on the last night we went to the trip advisor number one place where the food was excellent, although the location left something to be desired buried in the far back streets of the resort which left us all a little on edge as we walked in the dark.

The Beach on Santa Maria was superb. Charlie and Jen even swam out to our boat one day anchored 250m off the beach and enjoyed the crystal clear waters of the anchorage. 10m deep and you could see to the bottom.

Heres a dodgy video of me jumping off the roof of Azimuth. At least you get a feel for the colour of the sea and the surroundings.

One evening they came over for tea on board. Charlie and I bought fresh tuna steaks and red snapper from the fisherman on the Quay for next to nothing and we cooked up a feast onboard. The tuna was melt in the mouth and literally nothing could be fresher, 5 Euros for one kilo!

Charlie went for a couple of dives which he really enjoyed, and kindly sent me these pictures to share with you. Huge fish life all round the Island.

At night, the boat was surround by these crazy bright blue needle fish!

It wasn’t all plain sailing though of course. On the last night out, we got back to the Quay to find that our dinghy was gone! We had heard rumours that dinghy’s and engines had been damaged by the kids that play at the end of the pier, but we hadn’t heard of them being stolen. We luckily flagged down some other cruisers that gave us a lift back to Azimuth in the dark as it was 11pm by that point and we didn’t think we would have much chance of getting back to Azimuth any other way. Charlie and Jen had continued to look for our dinghy on the beach and report the theft to the police. Eventually they went back to the Quay to find our dinghy had miraculously reappeared… although the outboard was damaged and unusable (I had only just bloody fixed it that day!). Bless him, Charlie rowed it out to Azimuth for us, and then we attempted to row him back to shore but couldn’t make it because the wind was too strong. I got the canoe out instead and we paddled Charlie back to the Quay. Charlie we owe you one big time mate!

Perhaps you are now starting to get the feeling that maybe there is a little more than no stress in Cape Verde?!

All good things come to an end. We want to thank Charlie and Jen for coming out to visit us. We had an awesome time!!!

When the guys left, we were still reeling from the previous nights stress of having our dinghy stolen and recovered, so we decided to head round the corner to a much quieter anchorage and make a sharp retreat from Santa Maria. We still had three days before our crew Caleb and Tom were to arrive at the island of Boa Vista to help us cross the Atlantic.

Before we left Palmeira to go to Santa Maria we had checked out of Sal, just incase we didnt make it back to Palmeira again. As we understood it at the time, we were told that if we hadn’t left Sal within 48 hours it was OK, we could just come back and check out again….. This turned out to be the start of the next nightmare. We got back to Palmeira early morning, with plans to sail to Boa Vista that day. So we duly visited the Police station and queued for over an hour. It turned out our assumption had been very wrong. We were told that we had now been in Sal illegally for 10 days. We were then told we had to come back to the Police at 10am the next day where a decision would be made as to whether we should be fined or deported from Cape Verde forthwith with immediate effect! No Stress??

We skulked back to the boat, feeling terrible. The crew was arriving the next day in Boa Vista and we were stuck in Palmeira with our ships papers confiscated. We decided instead of moping about we had best assume the worst and go and stock up the boat assuming that we would be kicked out of the country the next day! We didn’t get a lot of sleep that night with the worry of what would happen the next day, and off we went to see the police in the morning. They made us wait for at least an hour before we were taken in to the office to see the chief. He gave us a severe telling off …. and boy did I grovel and say sorry a thousand times! Telling him this would never happen again etc etc! However, in the end, I noticed just a hint of a smile. He filled in a new clearance for Boa Vista and sent us on our way!

You didn’t see us for dust. Never have we jumped in the dinghy got back to Azimuth and pulled up the anchor so fast and we were on our way sailing south to Boa Vista with huge relief!

Boa Vista – New Crew!

The Anchorage at Boa Vista was very dramatic. A huge bay behind an island. A large offshore reef where kite surfers played in the huge rollers. The anchorage was subject to a large Atlantic swell which picked us up and had us surfing too on our chain. We had to move after the first night after we dragged about 50m (No Stress!). The next day we went to check in to Boa Vista with our valid paperwork. We eventually found the fancy police building and sat and waited for two hours with another cruiser named Sasha. We were then told to return that night at 6pm because the guy who did the chekin had lost his keys and couldnt get in to his office?! (No Stress!). So, we headed to the airport to pick up the new crew arriving from London. We managed to flag down one of those minibuses for the short 5km journey thinking that it would be cheaper than a taxi and then proceeded to get ripped off (No Stress!)

The guys arrived on time in thick jumpers and coats to the 30 degree heat! A taxi whisked us back to Sal Rei for a quick journey back to the boat to drop off their stuff. The engine ran out of fuel on the way back so we had to row the last half a mile. The wind was blowing a hooley and we managed to miss Azimuth altogether and then proceeded to be swept out to sea! (No Stress!). To our immense fortune, a fishing boat was just going past and we flagged them down for a tow back to the boat …. phew. Refill the fuel tank and off we go to check in at the police station with the new crew. Actually this time it went very easily.

Time to relax for a bit… a nice meal, some local beers and then back to the boat for an early night. However, the outboard had other ideas. Now the battery was flat. It was pitch back and it was a mile row back to the boat …. no way. Our new friend Sasha to the rescue. He was in the pub still and gave us a tow back to Azimuth! What a day??? (No Stress?!)

It was great to have the guys onboard. We decided we had had enough of Boa Vista (the little we had seen of it and it was time to sail to Mindelo on the Island of Sao Vincente. The staging point for the next leg the crossing of the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

Mindelo on Sao Vincente

Mindelo is Cape Verdes second largest town and we hoped a great place to stock up for the trip, fix a few boat issues, take on diesel and get on our way with No Stress!

We needed to be in Martinique by the 22nd of December because we had family coming out to stay with us for Xmas. As everyone knows sailing to a schedule is always not advisable. Low and behold the trade winds that should have been blowing strongly at this time of year also agreed and decided that they would stop!!!!

The Port of Mindelo is pretty stunning as you enter. It has a marina that was packed full of boats. The anchorage was also full to bursting but we managed to find a spot tucked in front of an upturned wreck of a fishing boat. That certainly set the scene. Thankfully Mindelo did turn out to be a little less stressful although worryingly (for Cape Verde) the people in the town certainly seemed to be struggling with life. This was the first place we had been where people were begging for food in the streets. It left you feeling very sorry as there was little we could do. I ended up buying a tin of baby milk for one guy who befriended us in the street. It was sad, one the one had you had the affluence of the marina and all the yachts at anchor who were passing through the port. On the other hand, there was clearly severe poverty and people struggling just to get by with their young families.

We found the local supermarket and fully stocked up on all the essentials we needed. Checking in and out was a breeze, and finally we had to make a judgment call. There were no trade winds for over a week for the direct route to Martinique, but if we sailed south, there may be a way through. The decision was made quickly…. time to go. (No Stress!)

Join us next time as we sail across the Atlantic Ocean to Martinique!

November 20, 2022December 20, 2022

Madeira to Cape Verde

Last time we left you in Madeira, and its been a while since we updated you all with our progress. Life has been pretty hectic, so its nice to catch up and tell you a bit more about our adventures.

We had to wait a long time for the right winds to leave Madeira and head south for the Canaries. Finally the South Westerlies that had set in for at least two weeks subsided and the weather looked set for an easy passage south.

So we set off on the first leg of the long journey to Cape Verde. Join us then as we take you through the fun and the trials and tribulations of life at sea!

LEG1: Madeira to Lanzarote

We were sad to leave Madeira. What a fantastic place! And we had made some new freinds too. But the lure of the Atlantic crossing still beckoned, and we still had a lot of miles to sail to the Cape Verde Islands.

As you leave Madeira heading south, the first place you see is the dramatic Islas Desertas, part of the Madeira Archipelago. The wind was fluky as we sailed down these islands, and the mountains hung their heads in the cloud. We were rewarded with a rainbow, before land slipped away to the horizon and all we had was sea all around us.

Its 273 nautical miles from Machico to Rubicon on the South end of Lanzarote and it took us around 48 hours. The first part of the trip, we had great winds and we sped along at 8 knots. Then the high pressure kicked in, and we were becalmed for at least 12 hours, our speed down to 3.5 knots. It didn’t matter though, it was still great sailing ghosting along in the sun on a calm sea.

About half way across, we picked up a passenger. A small bird that looked absolutely exhausted! He sat with us for a day whilst we gave him some bread crumbs and some water and he seemed to get more and more chirpy and bolder and would sit right next to you.

He left the following day and not long after that we sighted land with the usual cry of “Land Ahoy!”. Always a great feeling after many hours of sailing. We dropped the hook (always a great feeling too!) just outside the entrance to Rubicon Marina.

So we know many of you told us that the Canary Islands are beautiful and that we should spend lots of time there! Well unfortunately it didn’t quite work out that way for us?! Our intention all along had been to meet up with our good friends Charlie & Jen somewhere in the Canaries. Unfortunately time was moving on. Charlie and Jen couldn’t make it for over a week, and we were looking at the weather for getting further south to the Cape Verde and it looked great at that moment, but not in a weeks time!

The other factor was our outboard engine. Bought new in 2022, it had decided to strip its impeller and was now unusable. The anchorage was incredibly rolly, which made attempts to bush fix the problem very difficult and frustrating. In the end, it was impossible for us even to get to shore, the wind was too strong to row in!

A plan was slowly hatched…. Charlie and Jen managed to book a week in Cape Verde! So our minds were made up. We moved to another anchorage for the next night that was much flatter. Got a great nights sleep, and then got the boat ready to leave for the Cape Verde!

LEG2: Lanzarote to Cape Verde

This next leg was to be our longest sail so far. Some 900 nautical miles from Rubicon to Palmeira on the Island of Sal. The first job on leaving is to pull up the anchor …. we were both excited to be leaving on a long journey. Thwarted! The anchor was firmly stuck in 12 metres of water! It took a good 45 minutes of driving in circles and straining of the chain until it finally came free. Not a great start!

Eventually though we were off and sailing a broad reach down the side of Fuerteventura. The crew were in good spirits too after a stressful start!

It was to be six wonderful days at sea with light winds and seas and all the joy of the remoteness of the world. No seasickness. We ate really well. We sat in the bow everyday watching the flocks (?) of flying fish jumping out of the way as Azimuth ploughed through the waves. We enjoyed the heat of the sun as we got ever closer to the equator. And at night we enjoyed the glorious stars and moon that lit up the sea.

Three nights in to the trip, I was on watch at one in the morning when a loud bang and the sound of the mainsail falling down interrupts my semi awake state! I didn’t want to investigate what had happened until the morning as going out on deck on my own at night is not safe, so we continued to sail on the Genoa. Daylight arrived and we found that our brand new main halyard had completely chafed through. The mainsail had dropped, but also the main halyard had disappeared in to the mast. Not the sort of thing that is easy to fix! Fortunately Azimuth has a topping lift for holding up the boom. However, this is a lighter rope than the main halyard (also brand new) and I didn’t feel like risking chaffing through this line too as we still had three more days of sailing ahead. So that morning, we spent a couple of hours removing the new topping lift and replacing it with Azimuths old main halyard (actually made of carbon fibre). Main sail was re-hoisted and we were off again.

Every year, there is a large yacht rally called the ARC where hundreds of boats pay an exorbitant amount of money to cross the Atlantic together leaving from the Canaries. We had decided not to join this as when I enquired as to the cost I was told it would be £5000 for Azimuth and 4 crew! There is also an extension to this rally called the ARC+ where a smaller number of boats cross the Atlantic from the Canaries via Cape Verde. We were aware that they were leaving around the same time as us. So one day we zoomed out on the chartplotter and discovered that we were being chased down by the ARC+ fleet!

They never caught us though 🙂

Channel 16 on the ships radio is supposed to be used for distress purposes only. This is strictly enforced in Europe and people can be fined for misuse. It seemed that there was little enforcement in Morocco or Mauritania as we sailed down their coasts. We had the constant chattering and bizarre messaging between we presume the fisherman. People were playing music over the channel?! and on one occasion, we were entertained by someone playing the accordion! The other entertainment was provided by the Moroccan Navy in their “Warship” speaking in pigeon English with numerous Cargo vessels and shooing them out of Moroccan territorial waters.

We sighted land early in the morning on the 6th day. Land Ahoy!

We sailed all the way to the entrance of Palmeira to be faced by a huge number of boats at anchor and what looked like no space. Here we were then, pretty exhausted, thinking what do we do now? A little boat comes along side and “Jay Ramos” introduces himself as the man that can provide anything you need directly to your boat and offers to help us anchor. He guided Azimuth right inside the anchorage and tells us to squeeze between a small yacht and a beaten up old metal fishing boat and drop the hook. It didn’t quite go to plan though. A gust of wind swings us round and we nearly collide with the fishing boat. I decided that this was not a good place to anchor and we head back out much to the annoyance of Jay who confidently tells me he has been doing this for ten years and he knows what he is doing! However he did find us another spot much further out and then charged us for the privilege of his services! Oh and we did buy a Cape Verde courtesy flag from him too.

Next time join us as we tell you about our adventures in Cape Verde!

November 13, 2022December 19, 2022

Cloud Walking

last time we left you in Porto Santo. In this post we will tell you about our last couple of weeks in Madeira. We left Porto Santo as the wind turned west and had a run in with a French boat that had dropped his anchor over the top of ours! Not a great start to the day and were both a bit stressed as we sailed out in to some pretty big seas and headed south for the island of Madeira. The incident was soon forgotten after a few hours especially as we got to the spectacular headland off the East of Madeira and dropped the hook in the Baia d’Abra.

What a spectacular and remote place. This bay left you in no doubt of the volcanic nature of these islands with all the tortured rocks on display. It was a very peaceful anchorage and we spent a few nights there relaxing in the glorious scenery. Here’s a flavour of the place in pictures

We had some tricky winds coming to the Islands again, blowing from the South West, so we had to move round the corner to the lovely town of Machico which had the only anchorage in Madeira that could provide any protection. Even so, it was a very rolly anchorage, and we ended up staying there for a couple of weeks. A great place to go an visit a little bit of Madeira, and oh what a wonderful place!

We took the bus to Funchal, the capitol of the Island and spent the day having a look around. Its certainly a busy place, and the bus journey was interesting along the steep mountain roads.

One of the features of Madeira is the Levada’s. These are man made water channels that weave through the mountains and syphon water from the wet side of the Island to drier parts to be used for farming. We took a taxi to walk the Levada do Furudo and this turned out to be one of the most spectacular walks I have ever done. Right up in the mountains at 800m we were walking through ancient forest, clinging to the side of precipitous cliffs and walking in the clouds. An amazing experience, and worth visiting Madeira just for this

A lot of pictures I know. its hard to capture the feeling of walking in the clouds along the edge of a precipice! Its also amazing to me how anyone managed to build these? We got to the end of the walk and came on a main road which mysteriously been roped off. We walked down the road a little towards a town and then the police started waving at us to get out of the road! It seems we had stumbled across a major event in Madeira, the legend rally. We spent the next two hours watching classic cars screaming round a hairpin!

Not long after we arrived in Machico, we were walking down the path by the river and met a couple Doug and Maria. Doug is from the UK and Maria is from Madeira. They live 6 months of the year in Madeira and 6 months in the UK. Seems like a perfect setup to me. We went for a quick drink and then Doug and Maria very kindly offered to take us out on the following Sunday to visit a local market. We had a fantastic day out! Doug and Maria were lovely hosts and really looked after us. On arriving at the market we went to the stall of their freinds, and sampled a glass of Poncha, a local homemade white rum with a serious kick drunk with honey and lemon. We were all feeling pretty good after a single glass!

We took a walk round the market and had a coffee at the local cafe. Then we all went for lunch for local delicacy and several more poncha’s & beers!

After a fantastic lunch Doug drove us to Maria’s home town of Porto Cruz on the North coast of the Island, not far from Machico and showed us around. What a spectacular place…

We wanted to say a huge thankyou to Doug and maria for a wonderful day!

Join us next time as we head South again to the Canaries and on to the Cape Verde Islands!

October 21, 2022October 31, 2022

Porto Santo

Last time we left you in Gibraltar and after waiting quite a few days in La Linea where we got some boat jobs done, finally we had a weather window for the 570 mile journey to the Madeira Archipelago. we have been excited about this one, having seen a number of sailing vlogs on YouTube about these islands. Now was our chance to take a look for ourselves. What we have seen so far has not disappointed!

So we left Gibraltar after a quick stop to fill up Azimuth with Duty Free Fuel. £1.15 a litre! Sailing out in to the Gibraltar Straits again we had strong winds behind us and made quick progress out of the tidal area. The speed didn’t drop either although the sea state was challenging with large waves behind us, Azimuth surfed her way along with the crew hanging on by their fingernails. After 3 days at sea, Land ahoy! Porto Santo appeared on the horizon and the wind died, so we had to motor the last 6 hours in the harbour.

Who says sailboats are slow? New record for us on Azimuth 15.1 knots!

The first thing we had to do was negotiate the crazy anchorage that is Porto Santo Harbour. Some how we managed to squeeze Azimuth in with all the other boats in the tiny area that is reserved for anchoring.

After a day of rest, we went out to explore this beautiful island. It is a very dry and arid place. Apparently they get less than 400mm of rain a year. However, it has a very relaxed atmosphere, all the people are very friendly. The one town on the Island is nice featuring a great supermarket full of fresh produce. Quite astonishing as everything has to be imported on the ferry.

We decided to take stroll along the coast down from the harbour away from the town. It turned out to be a stunning walk along the edge of huge cliffs and with breath-taking views. If there any geologists out there, then you should enjoy these pictures too. No denying the volcanic heritage of this island.

As we got to the end of the cliffs, we came across a bizarre tunnel that had been bored through the headland. We later heard that in the 1990’s there had been a large oil spill on the east coast of the Island and this tunnel and a road had been built back to the harbour for transporting the waste oil that was collected from the wreck. The road has all but disappeared due to cliff erosion, but the tunnel still remains.

Walk through the tunnel and up a sand track and we were treated to the fabulous views of the east of Porto Santo

Ok so I got a bit carried away after that and the geologist within me tried to escape and made me take lots of pictures of all the crazy rock formations. It was a fun walk!

A couple of days later, we decided to take a 4×4 Tour of the Island. Our guide was a local chap called Claudio who was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the island. Never mind the fact that he was only in his 20’s and could speak Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, Oh and was in the process of learning German!

We shared the tour with a another couple from Poland who were staying in one of the swanky hotels on the Island. First stop was the Peak at the end of the beach with more spectacular views

Then we were whisked up another peak and then drove right up to foot of this spectacular columnar basalt formation reminiscent of those we had seen at the Giants causeway in Northern Ireland and of course Staffa in the Hebrides.

The reason it looks like a quarry, is that at one time it actually was. The locals used to break off the columns, slice them up and use them as bricks!

The next stop was a golf course that straddles the middle of the island. Apparently the course was designed by Seve Ballesteros and features one hole that you have to take a shot across the sea off the edge of a 300m cliff! Given the lack of water on this island its remarkable that a golf course exists at all.

Most of Porto Santo is covered in a yellow sand. Our next was the source of this sand. One more for the geologists then. Apparently 100,000 years ago Porto Santo was a green and luscious island covered in trees and 100’s of species of land snails. To the north of the island was a huge reef as big as the island itself. Around this time, an ice age struck, sea levels fell dramatically and strong winds ripped the reef apart, blowing sand over the whole island, killing and fossilizing all life. The locals call this the sand spout, and its an area on the North of the Island where this sand is 90m thick and teeming with fossil roots and snail shells. The wind has sculpted the sand in to beautiful patterns and shapes with fossils littered all over the ground.

Next we visited a traditional Porto Santo house. The owner produces his own wine and passion fruit liqueur which we got to sample.

Finally we circled back to the hill above the port and looked down on where Azimuth was anchored.

All in all we were really taken with this place! It will probably find a place on the top 10 list until something better comes along!

Join us next time in Madeira to continue the adventure

October 9, 2022October 10, 2022

Cadiz & Gibraltar

We left you last time in Portugal. This time we head further east and cross in to the Mediterranean. First stop the Spanish port of Cadiz.

Waiting for the right wind always pays off and we had a wonderful downwind sail from Portimao to Cadiz. Arriving in Cadiz was a little tricky in the dark though. Its a shallow river entrance full of dangerous shoals, and at night you cant see any of the Navigation lights as they are obscured by all the shore lights. Still we dropped the hook in a large anchorage right underneath the new Cadiz bridge

As you can see, it was very industrial and a hard working port. A real contrast to the town of Cadiz itself that is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in Western Europe with remains spanning back to the 12th century BC. Its a strange place, situated on a narrow strip of land surrounded by the sea, and now an ancient town surrounded by a modern concrete jungle.

John from Rival Spirit arrived just after us, and after a day of recovery from our trip we set off to explore.

The walk in to Cadiz was pretty dreary, past the docks, but it was well worth the effort to see this glorious old town of narrow winding alleys connecting beautiful plazas. We spent the day just wandering in the Spanish heat. We visited the museum to see the Phoenician and Roman artefacts. We found the fort that guards the North of the peninsula, sat and drank beer by the Cathedral and wandered through the medieval quarter with the roman amphitheatre still partially buried under medieval houses.

Here’s a flavour of the day in pictures

We must have walked about 10 miles that day. All of us agreed Cadiz was well worth the effort and we highly recommended a visit if your ever in the area.

A few days later and the wind was right to get us to Gibraltar. We set off at first light in to the river and out past Cadiz to be met by huge seas. Poor Azimuth was getting chucked around like a cork. It settled down a little bit as the wind swung behind us, but we were in for a pretty rough day. Here’s a short video I took as we passed Cape Trafalgar (yep the place where the battle was fought!)

The wind actually died by the time we got to the entrance to the straits. But then picked up with considerable force as we approached Gibraltar. The current is really strong in the straits too and we were joined by some canoeists who were keeping pace with us (we were doing 9 knots!) As we approached the Rock, we found ourselves with 35 knots on the beam. The autopilot gave up, so I grabbed the wheel and hung on. We whisked through all the tankers, ferries, fishing boats, ribs and other small craft in Gibraltar Bay sometimes touching 12 knots. Eventually it calmed enough to get the main sail down and get to an anchorage. Crazy sail!

The next day with the wind due to swing to the East and freshen we moved to La Linea on the border with Gibraltar. We had no luck getting in to a marina in Gibraltar, they are full to bursting. Still the La Linea anchorage (which was to be home for well over a week) was actually ok with a good view of the Rock

We took a couple of day trips to Gibraltar. You have to go through customs to enter, then cross the runway on foot!

We spent the morning wandering around the main street area.

Ailsa had a dentist appointment which turned out to be very good and they fixed a long term problem she had been having. After lunch we headed up towards the cable cars to take the trip to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

We were accosted by many salesman trying to sell us a tour by minibus which in the end we opted for and were happy we did. It was a great trip!

First we went to St Michael’s Cave, to see the spectacular formations

In the cave there is a huge auditorium where you can see live concerts. We reckon that would be an amazing experience.

Next we headed right to the top of the rock to walk the glass skybridge and see the Barbary macaques monkeys.

Our driver seemed to know a few of the monkeys very well and they were comfortable climbing all over us!

We visited the windsor suspension bridge, which seems to be a completely pointless bridge from nowhere to nowhere?!

Finally we visited the North end of the rock for some more views before heading back to town for evening drinks with John who had just arrived in Gibraltar that afternoon

We got back late across the border in the dark to find our dinghy had a puncture! Stressful end to the day trying get back to the boat!

A couple days later (with the dinghy fixed) we headed back to Gib to meet up with John for farewell drinks. He will be staying in Gibraltar this winter and we wish him all the best. Its been a lot of fun sharing our adventures together in Spain and Portugal and we shall miss him. John, you will always be welcome onboard Azimuth anytime!

Right now we are still in La Linea doing some boat jobs and getting ready to do the four day sail to Madeira. Join us next time!

September 25, 2022September 28, 2022

Very Moorish

Last time we left you we were hunkered down waiting for an Atlantic blow to pass. Eventually the wind went in the right direction again, and it was time to head South again and make our way down the final stretch of the West coast of Portugal. We left Sebutal that morning and sailed out through a fleet of warships that thankfully ignored us, They seemed to be busy going round in circles. First stop was the town of Sines (pronounced Sinesh). The only place with a possible overnight anchorage on this coast. Plenty of history here, with occupation by the Romans, the Visigoths and then later in the middle ages the Moors. Modern Sines is a mixture of old town and industrial port with a huge oil terminal where they can unload 500,000 tonne super tankers. Still once you got in to the inner sanctum of the old harbour and anchor off the beach it was quite easy to forget about the industrial bit.

John on Rival Spirit had been staying in the marina here for the last week and so the next day we rowed the dinghy over to meet him and went for a look around the town.

The castle had a free museum that had an impressive collection of coins going back thousands of years as well as other artefacts from the site.

John introduced us the finest bakery we had seen yet on this trip next to the castle for coffee and cakes. As well as cake, Sines is also apparently famous as the birthplace of Dom Vasco da Gama, whom in 1497 was the first explorer to round the Cape of Good Hope and discover India. Da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to India opened the way for an age of global imperialism and enabled the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire along the way from Africa to Asia. The violence and hostage-taking employed by da Gama and those who followed also assigned a brutal reputation to the Portuguese among India’s indigenous kingdoms that would set the pattern for western colonialism in the Age of Exploration. Nice bloke then!

Feeling like a true explorer myself after a day out, I had Ailsa row me back to Azimuth, much to the amusement of John!

We were up early the next morning with the promise of a breath of wind to take us down the coast and finally round the bottom of Portugal and the foreboding Cape Vincent. Not necessarily that foreboding from a navigation point of view, more in the sense of anything with the name Vincent is likely to be trouble!

In the end there was barely enough wind, but a decent sail anyway and the first time we tried our cruising chute out too.

We dropped the hook as the sun went down just round the corner from the cape nestled beneath the huge cliffs, and had a rolly night.

The next day with the promise or more wind, we headed up the coast towards Portimao. A great start ended in a slow crawl and then champagne sailing of Force 4 and flat seas for the last hour in to the Portimao river mouth. There is a huge anchorage at the entrance behind the breakwater but it was pretty much full of boats, so we squeezed in on the edge.

Portimao is basically a tourist resort in the Algarve and we weren’t totally enamoured with the place. The anchorage had the potential to be lovely other than the constant stream of tourist ribs, fishing boats, high speed cats and jetskis that buzzed us constantly throughout the day. At night we had the boom of the speakers from the beach clubs too! Oh well, we ain’t complaining. Portimao did provide some useful shopping opportunities and sourcing some boat parts. Also, jusy up the river was the delightful little town of Ferragudo with small winding streets and excellent restaurants. Ourselves and John took a couple of trips for some nice meals out. This incident was funny … after ordering their “Chicken in hot stone” and “Tuna in hot stone”. Ailsa and John were helped in to these bibs?! It became apparent why when the food came delivered with a hot stone that they had to cook the food on themselves.

To wrap up then here’s some pics taken from the anchorage. We had some decent sunsets to accompany our gin and tonics!

Catch you next time as we sail back in to Spain, and then head on to Gibraltar.

September 14, 2022September 14, 2022

Migraine, Sea Sickness, Broken Toe and Sunburn!

Hi again everyone! Since we last left you in Porto, we have been busy sailing south again down the Atlantic coast of Portugal. As I write this we are hiding out in the Sado river estuary as a big Atlantic Low works its way through.

Lots to tell you about then. I’m sure the title intrigues!

Our first sail after Porto was an overnight one down to a little headland and the town of Peniche. This part of the Portuguese coast does not give you many options other than a few small marinas. We are far to big to get in to most of those, or the marinas are far to expensive for our taste, hence a longer run South. It was a lovely sail, although mysteriously during the night Ailsa was struck down by sea sickness? Not rough at all, but something got her good. Over to Dom then to sail through the rest of the night!

We arrived in Peniche in the morning and dropped the hook in a rolly anchorage. Both pretty exhausted. So we chilled for the rest of the day, knowing that we needed to move on the next day because the wind was to swing to the South, making this location untenable for another night. The next morning, Ailsa looked terrible! She had been struck down by a horrible migraine. Unfortunately though, we couldn’t just stay put, so it was singlehanded sailing day for Dom! We left to head further South to Cascais on what was to be a beautiful sail, although poor Ailsa didn’t see any of it….

We arrived in Cascais just as the sun was setting and dropped the hook in the bay. An early night was interrupted at 12 30 in the morning by an almighty explosion which physically rocked the boat!! We both jumped out of bed to find ourselves about 100m away from a fireworks display being launched from a string of dinghys in the middle of the bay! Talk about a rude awakening … the fireworks were literally cascading down around the boat. We had no idea what was going on, but apparently it was to mark the end of a music festival that had been going on that week. The picture doesn’t do the moment justice!

It was time over the next few days to explore Cascais and Lisbon.

Cascais’ anchorage is nestled in the bay outside the town but open to the South and that made it quite rolly. Non the less, Cascais was well worth visiting. It had a different feel to Porto. Being close to Lisbon, you could tell there was plenty of money here, and none of the derelict sea front buildings that were all over Porto. All the streets are paved with mosaics, and it is very touristy. We took a stroll up the coast to see a natural sea arch called the Boca do Inferno. It was worth the walk after fighting our way through the tourist stalls and the restaurants that crowd the entrance.

Heading back in to the town we stopped at a museum in a fancy Portuguese castle which gave a welcome relief from the heat

Adjoining the castle was a beautiful park providing shade from eucalyptus trees and many cockerels roaming free. The lake in the middle was shared by ducks and terrapins…

We wondered around the narrow street of the old town and the sea front, and really enjoyed the feel of the place.

John on Rival Spirit was also in the anchorage at Cascais and we agreed we should all take a day trip to Lisbon to see the sights. Only a short train journey from Cascais, Lisbon is just down the coast and sits on the Targa river.

We had a great day out wandering around the old town, although we all agreed it wasn’t as nice as Porto! Still worth the trip. The pics below give you a feel

It was time to move on again. The wind has been very fickle and the next day was a sailing opportunity to move a little further south. More worrying for us, a large Atlantic low was due to blow in to the Portugal coast, and Cascais would be a horrible place to anchor. Just down the coast is a place called Setúbal, which has a narrow opening to the coast due to a huge sand spit called Troia peninsula that works its way across the river Sado. On paper it looked like a good place to hide out and wait for the low to pass.

It was actually a really nice sail south on a beautiful day

John sent us this video of us as we passed him on the way. Its quite nice to see yourself as you are sailing along!

Thanks to John for the Video

As we neared the entrance to Setúbal, we realised we had not factored in the tide. It was reminiscent of the good old Bristol Channel! And would you believe it (the peeps from Portishead with appreciate this) we had to get out of the way of this boat…. on its way to Bristol!

Setúbal was actually a large port and military area. Its been a pleasant enough place to stop and wait for the blow to go through. On the sail down here, I stubbed my toe on something on deck. I woke up the next day in some pain and my foot quite swollen! Good job we had a few days here. Dr Google diagnosed a broken toe for sure … but actually 5 days later and Im cured! Boat jobs beckoned whilst we were waiting around. We have been scrubbing the decks for a while now getting rid of the traces of a Portishead winter. I was outside for a few hours the other day in the rain and the wind … and got sunburnt all over my back! No sun in sight!

Troia was actually a really nice anchorage just off a deserted beach. Oh and just down the road were roman ruins of the largest Roman salt fish production facility known. Actually really interesting to see. A site with roman baths and salt fish production tanks that was worked for 500 years producing salt fish for the whole roman empire

We leave you with some shots of the local area. Really nice feel and a good place to wait out a storm!

Catch you next time as we head towards the Algarve!