North Portugal, September 2006

Basilica, Viano de Castello, Portugal

Weird to arrive in a country where neither of us speak or understand the lingo. We were told that it doesn’t matter as everyone speaks English here, but the first person to greet us, was a customs man who didn’t! In Portugal you have to clear customs and immigration at every port, even if you come from the EU and even though you have come from another Portuguese port. We were met on the pontoon and he indicated that we should go with great haste to the office and present our papers (insurance, passports, registration), which we did as soon as we had tied up.
Viana is a tiny harbour with nowhere to anchor so we were pleased that we hadn’t sat out hurricane Gordon here. We went aboard our neighbours boat – Moonya, for a couple of drinks and they ended up sharing their dinner with us(including freshly baked bread). Tracy and Paul only took up sailing 14 months ago and have bravely set off in their Moody 42 to learn as they go along. Unfortunately they had been in Muros with no forecast just as Gordon was approaching and despite laying all their chain out, they started to drag their anchor. After motoring for an hour or so to keep his position and making no headway into the 80 mile/hour winds the engine overheated and they dragged onto the mud. Luckily they went aground at low water, and floated off without incident once the wind abated and the tide came in. They haven’t been put off sailing yet!

There is an imposing basilica at the top of about 600 steps, which beckoned us for exercise the next day. There was a clear bright blue sky, so it was a hot and sweaty climb, but well worth it for the views out over the town and coast.
Gazing south along the coast, we remembered that we had to put some more miles in to get ahead of the autumnal weather, so we scooted back down the steps and through the town and set off in the afternoon without doing justice to the other sights in Viana.

We left the marina in bright sunshine as the whole morning had been but before the harbour entrance (1/2 mile) the fog suddenly closed in. We couldn’t see the channel markers or the harbour wall. Radar is a god-send in this situation and we were able to extricate ourselves into open water but the hope of much improvement shortly was halted by a radio call to a friend’s yacht ½ hour ahead. Visibility had improved to 1-200 yards. Entering ports in this visibility is not enjoyable so we pressed on and were rewarded with clear air later and even some downwind sailing until the wind failed and the iron sails were out again.


Leixoes, Porto, Regua, 26th September
We had been warned that Leixoes was not a nice port and that being next to the docks and the oil refinery, it certainly lacked charm and cleaniness. The swell manages to come right around the corner into the marina at all times, making the ropes squeek and graunch constantly. Had we known what we know now, we would have stopped at Povoa de Varzim, which is a new marina, albeit with a difficult entrance in swell. Porto’s super-duper new tram line has been extended all the way to Povoa now, and is a quick and easy way to visit the city.
We visited Leixoes (as do most cruisers) as a means to see Porto. This involves a bus journey of 1 hour , or bus 10 minutes, then tram 30 minutes to the city centre.
Porto is a fascinating city tumbling down the sides of the hill to the river Duoro, showing considerable wealth and poverty side by side. After a cheap meal on the waterside we set off across the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia to survey the port wine lodges. We chose to visit Rozes, and a French man gave us a free tour of the lodge and five samples of port.
We purchased a tawny and went in search of another tour to see the differences. Kopke was not such an interesting tour, but we still enjoyed some more samples.
Feeling overheated, dehydrated and pickled we stumbled back to the bus to return to the gently swaying boat.

Porto river

The forecast was rapidly deteriorating again, so we prepared for a stay of a few days, doing touristy things. Not only do the winds kick up a big sea here, but these waves make entry to many of the ports difficult, dangerous or impossible. The ports are about 60 miles apart- a 12 hour journey, equivalent to crossing the English Channel. We prefer to travel in daylight due to the abundance of pots and fishing nets laid out with barely visible marker flags. This gives us a narrow window of opportunity, as the days are shorter this late on in the season. We were constantly assured by other cruisers that we were not particularly late to travel this part of the coast, but it is not an easy coast-line to traverse.
Each time we want to move on we have to wait for wind, swell, fog and rain to clear, and have 12 hours of daylight for each trip!

The highlight of our stay near Porto, was a daytrip up the Douro valley by train. As you ascend slowly to Regua, the trainline follows the path of the river, and the scenery becomes increasing green and terraced, as you enter the wine growing regions that provide the grapes for the port wine. (Portugal is the 6th largest wine producing country in the world- where does it all go?! ) As we arrived a Regua, we found a steam train preparing to leave the station. After a couple of enquiries we procured a ticket to travel further up the valley on this train to Tua, and return an hour later. It was a fabulous trip, made in old wooden carriages pulled by the 1926 steam locomotive, and accompanied by Portuguese music and dancing. We were totally unprepared for the soot and dirt though – we were served a tiny meat sandwich and one glass of port on the trip, the glass rapidly filled with so much dirt that it was undrinkable.
We arrived back in Regua 2 hours later, absolutely covered in tiny black specks and a greasy black film. As the marina only had hot water 50% of the time in the showers- we were really in luck that day, and enjoyed hot showers back at the boat. The next day was spent washing our clothes from the day before!

Sooty Port

Tiles at the railway station

The low point of the stay was a trauma for all of the cruisers there. Late one night, in about 30 knots of wind, a 36’ Spanish sailing yacht hit the rocks on the outer rocks of the port. We heard the noise of a helicopter searching among the waves crashing on the rocks. At first we didn’t know what was going on, so we walked around the corner to the beach, where a few people had gathered, now 1am. The boat was already completely broken up on the beach, just tanks and pieces of GRP and wood, no larger than 1m bits – the police trying to find something to identify the boat.
By the morning they had only found 1 of the 2 bodies. No-one seemed to be able to say what had happened. It seems unlikely in this day and age, that the skipper would have misjudged the entrance, and with GPS it’s unlikely that they didn’t know where they were. There is a big question mark as to whether there was a Mayday call, and if so, whether the Portuguese authorities responded to it. It was certainly a sobering experience, and cast an even gloomier mood over all of us holed up in the marina.
The following night a Norwegian yacht called up for help with a tow into the port, as their engine was out of action, and there was not enough wind to sail. As the swell was still significant, we didn’t feel that it was safe for them to drift towards the entrance, and suggested they contact port control for assistance. The response by port control was somewhat reluctant, but eventually they dispatched a pilot boat to tow them in. The rope provided by the pilot boat snapped – in no wind, towing a 30’ yacht!
It’s a story that we have heard reported by other yachts this year – engine immobilised by fishing nets and calling for help, another yacht virtually outside another port found that no-one responded to their pan-pan at 3am. They were unable to contact anyone for a tow until 7am!  We towed a German yacht into Cascais marina that was waiting for parts for his engine to arrive, with rapidly deteriorating weather conditions. The marina are ‘not allowed’ to undertake a tow outside of the marina, and the maritime police will only assist if life is in danger!!
We forget how fortunate we are in the UK to have a reliable coastguard, and the RNLI, and a 24 hour listening watch on VHF. It just goes to show that you really have to be self reliant in this area, as no doubt in many other parts of the world. Somehow in the EU we expect something more, particularly as there is always a glut of officials at every port 24 hours a day to routinely check the papers of every single boat (including the Portuguese ones) at the end of every trip. We will be very happy to put this Atlantic coast behind us, and it just goes to show how much safer ocean sailing is, as all these problems occur where water meets land!


Figuera da Foz     4th October
Finally escaped from the depression of Leixoes marina, we motored at full speed for 11½ hours to arrive at dusk. Nice marina, and facilities, but we took advantage of a second day of good weather to press on south.

Nazare. Batahla, Alcobaca - 6th October
At last a sunny force 4 westerly wind restored our spirits and we arrived in Nazare, a tiny port with a couple of pontoons nestled among the fishing boats. We arrived at dusk, and had barely tied the boat alongside when we were summoned to the offices of the policia maritime. There were at least 3 of them there busily employed in watching television. After completing the required form, we were directed up the road, about 150m to a hut where we could collect a security pass to access the pontoon that we had just left. Again we trundled along, to fill in another form, and pay 20 euros deposit before we could return to our boat. The harbour office was not open until the next day – it is run by an enthusiastic and helpful English couple, but is not involved in taking money for berthing or dealing with the official side of the business. There is a huge pile of books available for swapping and they helpfully provided us with bus timetables to visit nearby Batahla and Alcabaca, which we did in a one day round trip.
Batalha (Battle abbey) was built to commemorate the victory of the Portuguese (assisted by English longbowmen) over the Spain invasion in 1385. The abbey contains the tomb of Prince Henry the Navigator who guided ships in the discovery of Maderia and the Azores. We hoped that some of his navigational prowess might rub off.

Alcobaca is the home of a vast Cistercian monastery founded in 1153. The monastery was apparently reknowned for its hospitality and generosity, decadence and ‘gormandizing…..fumes of banquets and incense…..fat waddling monks’.
The kitchen of the monastery has vast chimneys and marble tables. A stream still runs through the kitchen, ensuring a supply of the freshest fish in its day. The monks were only allowed access to the refectory via a tiny slim door – if they were too fat to pass through, they had to fast until they could hold in their tummies enough to squeeze through the gap. Stuart took up the challenge – see for yourselves!

The trout river runs through the kitchen

The kitchen tables

Will he fit or should he diet?

After delaying our departure for another day due to fog, we spent the day up in the old town of Sitio teetering dangerously out literally over cliffs worn away by the forces of nature, above Nazare. Great views but burgeoning with shops selling all sorts of tourist tat. We think they should close down the shops and save the weight of all the ponchos, toy guitars, and all sorts of tourist-trinkets.

Sitio hovers on the edge of the cliff

The benefit of being tied up amongst the fishing boats, was the proximity of the fish auction. The fishing boats arrive at the end of their day at about 7pm-11pm. As the boats are unloaded and the catch sorted into batches for the auction on the quayside, the ones that are too little or too big are thrown on the ground, and the canny locals are seen with huge carrier bags full of sardines picked up for a free feast ( or served to you grilled in the restaurants more like!)
The auction takes place as soon as enough fish are assembled onto the conveyor belts, and bidding takes place on a tiny electronic handheld gadget. Behind the auction the fish are loaded in ice and trucked off in vans to the various fishmongers and restaurateurs, some of them international. You can’t get fresher than that, even if you do pick the catch up off the floor! Most of the catch we saw were sardines and mackerel, but there were a few monsters passing through the auction. It is amazing that there are any sardines left in the sea at all!

Nazare fish market

8th October -26th – and still waiting to leave……
Cascais, Lisbon, Sintra

It was a landmark for us to arrive in Cascais, on the outskirts of Lisbon. We had been aiming to arrive by mid-September, but the benefit of arriving in October is that the marina costs 20 euros rather than 50 euros a night. Some friends spent 18 days waiting for a weather slot here in high season – that’s 900 euros !!!!!
We anchored peacefully in the bay outside the marina, for the first week until we were forced into the marina by forecasts of gales. At least we kept the costs down a bit though.
The anchorage was very secure and we were happy to leave the boat to visit Lisbon on the ridiculously cheap modern train (1.65euros ). Lisbon was grimy and dirty, but with options to ride on the old trams, cheap lunch and shopping for bargains, we were quite content. We spent another whole day visiting chandleries (yawn) and finished the day off by visiting the Mosteiro de Jeronimos at Belem – with its quite amazing church. The richly embellished tomb of Vasco da Gama is here, he was responsible for making Portugal rich in 1497 by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and beyond, thereby opening up the spice routes to India.

Lisbon trams

On another bright blue, hot sunny day (difficult to imagine that right now!) we took the coastal bus round Cabo da Roca – the most western point of Europe, and up to the old town of Sintra in the hills. Right at the top of the hill is the Palacio da Pena, a funky, brightly-coloured, bizarre, gothic style palace, set right on top of the hills, commanding superb views of the surrounding countryside and coast, every room filled with weird and wonderful furniture, paintings, sculpture. It was left in a hurry by the royal family in 1910 when they fled the country, following a joint revolt of the army and navy. After that we walked down through the gardens and down to the town. The descent took about an hour so we were very pleased with our choice to have taken the bus to the top! The thoughtful monarchs even had a castle built for their ducks!!!

Sintra castle

The duck pond!

   Shortly after our sightseeing expeditions, the weather turned sour and all the boats left the anchorage for the safety of the marina - very nice with good facilities, but the wifi is broken and doesn’t show signs that it will ever be fixed. We have been tied up here for 11 nights as depressions and fronts sweep their way across the coast. There are about 30 liveaboard boats here, 4 of us British, the others mainly Norwegian, Dutch, German, American. There are plenty of social opportunities for late night drinking sessions, everyone waiting to head south to the Algarve or south-west to Madeira. We are about 50m from the (thankfully) very sturdy harbour wall, which is all that stands between us and the 6m waves breaking as they arrive from the Atlantic. When it is not raining there is constant haze of sea-spray in the marina,  making it impossible keep anything dry.
Being in port for too long drives you to drink and strange behaviour – the Norwegians had races in their rubber dinghies converted to sailing boats! Nutters!

The forecast for tomorrow is the best it has been for ages, so there will be a mass exodus of boats moving onto the next port of call. As for our plans for the Canaries, we go from hot to cold about the trip. Some say the trip back is a problem and we don't want to be too delayed getting into the Med. The weather has been abnormal here and the sea is terrible for the trip south at present but it may well improve and then we will see. We have considered going round to the Algarve for the winter and even a trip to Africa and on to Canaries that way, or just staying somewhere in the Algarve / Spain coast as we are told it is quite nice but obviously not as hot and the work we want to do on the boat will take longer. On the plus side of staying on the mainland, there is more to see and spares will be easier and it gets us into the Med probably a month earlier than returning from the Canaries. So the jury is still out and we will keep you posted as the plans come together.

Today the weather is starting to improve and the sun has come out 2 or 3 times. The waves are about 4 to 6 m high. on the outside of the Marina and it looks pretty impressive when we can see the safe water buoys , which indicated us the safe distance off the marina wall on our arrival , literally disappearing under about 20 foot breaking waves.

We think it will all start to moderate tonight and tomorrow it could well look quite normal by tomorrow. Several other boats are preparing to leave tomorrow both to Madeira and south. We will see - it's not the first time they have said they are leaving; some have even gone and turned back!