Nimrod Oceanlord

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!

Having got in late last night into Figueira da Foz, you would have thought that we would have slept in but no, both of us awake by 0800. We found an amazing indoor market by the beach with fresh fish, fruit and veg. The beach itself is huge with walkways and even lamp posts!

We left Foz around midday as good winds were forecast for the afternoon and the swell was increasing to 2.5m by evening so we thought we would continue on to Nazare – some 30nm south. In the event, the winds were quite light for downwind sailing so we had to motor the whole way. Nazare marina is run by an eccentric English couple who are quite sweet but definitely eccentric. We are moored in the middle of the fishing harbour so lots of activity and no doubt lots of noise early in the morning!

Photos of the beach at Foz and the entrance to the harbour at Nazare with Jo in the picture as it has been noted that Liz has been hogging the limelight!

Yet again we woke up to glorious sunshine. We had decided to try and make our way to Figueira da Foz some 75nm south as there was a forecast of high winds for tomorrow. In the event, we had light winds all day so had to motor the majority of the time as we wanted to arrive in daylight.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that the Portuguese coast is littered with badly marked fishing/lobster pots. For those of you who are sailors, you will know that most coastlines have them. However, in Portugal they are more frequent, further from the coastline and very poorly marked. Add to this the Atlantic swell of 2m and it could be a recipe for disaster – getting one of these with 50m of rope wrapped around your propeller is not a good thing.

We finally arrived at Foz after sunset and just had sufficient light to moor up after checking in with the authorities who were waiting for us. There is supposed to be high winds coming through tomorrow so we may be here for another day.

Some pictures of good and bad lobster pot markers.

We gained an hour as Portugal is the same as the UK so we awoke refreshed before 0800 local time. The temperature has suddenly rocketed here with 35 degrees in the shade and over 40 in the cockpit. We had already decided that we would visit Oporto so we caught the metro – €7 each return for a 40 min journey. Neither of us had been to the city before so didn’t know quite what to expect although we were keen to sample the port!

The city is stunning. It has a long heritage and was clearly wealthy in its heyday with a large number of very grand buildings around a maze of streets. It is also very hilly so everything seems to be up a hill!

To start our visit we went to the Torre dos Clerigos and climbed to the top to get a wonderful view of the city and get our bearings. We then walked down to the river Douro which is filled with cafes and bars. The river was the principal transport for the export of port from the vineyards further east to the boats at Oporto.

To cross the river, you walk across the Dom Luis bridge and then you can go to the various port cellars to sample their wares. Apparently, there are now 48 brands of port but we limited ourselves to just 5! The first was Taylor’s which is the only family run business left that has never been taken over. Liz was keen to have as many tastings as possible as you could get three glasses of different port for €3. Suffice to say, she slept well on the train home!