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!
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!
Super blog. Really lovely pictures as well. Well done
Lovely to see the progress you are making and great places to visit…Great to read about x