We went into the city by Metro, very easy once you worked out how to use the ticket machine. Lots of incredibly narrow picturesque old streets and magnificent bridges over the River Douro. We did a tour round the Sandeman Port Warehouse. You have to pick one, there are many to choose from. And of course we bought some port.
Portugal seems to specialise in crazy names. We had a great sail here but the mist came down just after we tied up. The marina is hi-tech in part – you use your fingerprint to open the gates and showers etc, very James Bond, except it doesn’t work for me (it does for Steve).
Wind was still against us but set off from Baiona on Friday morning. An uneventful trip south, apart from the echosounder has given up working so we had to navigate carefully. Took down the Spanish courtesy flag and hoisted the Portuguese one at the border. I thought we’d arrived at 7 pm alongside a pontoon at Viana do Castelo, much later realized it was 6 pm as Portugal is on same time as UK. Very hot but a mist came down overnight almost obscuring the rail bridge by Gustav Eiffel just up river. Attractive town with grand old buildings and narrow streets, lots of restaurants but have not yet located the bread shop.
And the weather has reverted to Scottish style S wind at gale force and rain. We were just thinking to deploy the bimini sunshade as it was getting very hot, but not now.
We arrived in Baiona yesterday near the entrance to the Ria de Vigo. Going south from here you are soon in Portugal and the coast is much straighter without all the attractive and welcoming indentations. Reckon we will be here a few days waiting for the wind and swell to die down. Quite historic, you can walk all round the walls of the Parador (castle) and you can look at a replica of the Pinta which seems very small to have crossed the Atlantic with all those people aboard. We are in the club marina whose base is built into the fortifications. There are so many little fish it seems the boat is floating in fish soup.
Had a great sail here, plenty of wind and from behind a lot of the time so had to set the pole and goose wing the sails. Spent 2 days in this lovely Ria, it has suddenly got very warm. Surprised to get a visit from Spanish customs late on in the evening when we were at anchor. Luckily the form was multi-lingual as the 2 young guys were not. At one point we thought we might have to rescue them when their outboard failed to start and they had already cast off from us. We explored the attractive old town. Went for a cooling dip at the beach and out for a very nice fish meal to celebrate my birthday yesterday. Planning to head on south today.
So far visited Ria de Corme and Ria de Camarinas. Planning to go on south round Cap Finisterre today. Sun finally came out yesterday afternoon and it got very warm. More like what we were expecting! Sea still cold so I have worn wetsuit to swim from the boat.
This one may be out of order?
Left Plymouth Wednesday after lunch. Did not stop to finish a game of bowls. It was rather too exciting a sail overnight with the boat charging into big waves head on. Hydra the Hydrovane managed the steering and Windy Wendy the wind generator made sure the batteries were fully charged. It had calmed down by the time we arrived off the French coast and later tied up in L’Aber Wrac’h
Next morning surprised to find that the folk on the British boat called Walden that tied alongside we knew from way back when sailing from Hayling Island, in fact from messing about in boats as teenagers. And they are heading across to the Caribbean too.
Stocked up with French bread and wine and sailed on a favourable wind for a change through the Chenal du Four to Camaret
Sunny and warm at last. Thank you for all your comments. Will hopefully be able to add some pics when get better Internet. Probably setting off across Bay of Biscay to Spain tomorrow while weather is fine which will take at least 3 days or so.
Wednesday 12 August
Finally after a very wet night sailing and a day spent motoring we were approaching the Spanish coast. But the waypoint as set was 30 miles out so it still took a while to get in, and a wind sprung up against us further inshore. Entering the marina we saw a few boats flying their ARC+2015 flags including “Ally” the Swedish flagged boat we’d met in Plymouth. Her skipper, Paul, kindly took our lines. A new country and a new flag for Timshel.
Thursday 13 August: The rain in Spain today fell rather a lot on La Corruna, and we got soaked!
There are loads of fish in the marina, everywhere you look, big mullet and small fry. Had Tapas for lunch and Managed a run out to look at the Tower of Hercules.
Sunday 09 August: We set off from Camaret after lunch. Folk expressed surprise that we were heading straight off across the bay and indeed it would have been nice to visit more French ports, but we were concerned about the amount of time it had taken to get that far and felt we should take advantage of a favourable forecast (thank you to Malcolm for help with forecast) to head south. Started off motoring, then motor sailing until we took our departure from the Chaussee du Sein buoy (so we were outside the Raz) then we were able to sail close hauled throughout the night. There were brightly lit ferries going to and from Santander and Portsmouth, lots of fishing boats in the distance – Purse seiners with
flashing yellow lights.
10-12 August: Getting ever more peaceful by dawn and eventually had to start the engine again. Hordes of Dolphins – I think they were fishing, rounding up mackerel, over the area where the sea bed drops off quite quickly from 200-300m to 2000 to 3000m. This is called the Biscay Abyssal plain, not that we could tell as our depth sounder only reads down to 75-100m. Lovely to see the Dolphins fantastic acrobatics leaping out of the water and many took a break and came and played all round the boat, with me rushing about and hanging over the side taking photos and video. Later on we saw 2 whales heading north. Sperm whales I think as they were sending blow high in the air – this was the first thing I saw of them.
We were beginning to wonder if we had fuel to motor the whole way to Spain, but got wind to sail about midnight and we are still bowling along in a moderate swell. Nothing to be seen but waves and grey sky, no ships on the AIS. It was cold on deck at night (though warmer than the Irish Sea) so fleeces etc are not packed away yet. Watch system so far is Steve on duty 2100 to midnight (after dinner), Anita midnight to 0300, Steve 0300 to 0600 and Anita 0600 to 0900 (breakfast time) with both up during the day. Seemed as though generally we were to sail at night and be becalmed and motoring by morning.
Timshel81 