We were shocked to find that there were clouds in the sky this morning! However, by 1100 they had all but disappeared. We had a long journey of over 70 miles to do so we set off as soon as we had paid for last night’s mooring at Nazare. The wind was forecast to gust up to 30 knots at some stage but for most of the day it was less than 15 knots which wasn’t enough to sail downwind comfortably with the swell so we ended up motoring again. It gave us a chance to top up our tans and read for a while but keeping a look out for the damned fishing pots.
The wind didn’t pick up until about 1800 and then we fairly flew along with the gusts of 30 knots making an appearance. Nimmie loved it and took all of it in her stride. We just had the genoa (front sail) up and still we were making over 7 knots.
We are now in Oeiras marina just west of Lisbon. We were going to stay at Cascais but they were charging €50 a night which is outrageous by Portuguese standards. Here they are charging half that and we are nearer Lisbon. It seems that the Tall Ships Race is in Lisbon this weekend so we may go and have a look tomorrow. Tonight we have eaten a delicious meal on board of octopus cooked with chilli and coriander with a Greek salad and Spanish white wine that cost €2 for 2 litres!
