Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear !!!!

We seem to be going from one disaster to another – We are having continuing trouble with water in the fuel which necessitates going below at 1/2 hourly to 1 hourly intervals when we are motoring or motor sailing to check the fuel filter, this means in practice stuffing your head into the engine compartment with the engine running and shining a torch onto the water/fuel separator to see if there is any or in our case how much water is in there. We motored yesterday from Bayona into a strong headwind and rough seas and had to stop 3 times so that Richard could empty the water from the filter and then bleed the engine. I eventually lost it big time when another boat on the rally (Katerina) radioed us to ask if we were OK as he could see us wallowing around in heavy pitching seas being swept towards a huge wind turbine !!!

The next problem has been that I made the stupid mistake of not sealing the dorades in the front cabin (the nice open things that are designed to let in plenty of fresh air while we are sailing or at anchor) and when we arrived here yesterday, the forward cabin bedding right down to the mattress was soaked. Also we have found a leak at the bottom of one of the stays which has caused a small amount of water into the boat and of course although it is only a very small amount of water, it managed to find its way towards our passports and some other important papers. Today has been spent (instead of going on the planned trip to Porto and the Port factory) with Richard again trying to sort out the fuel problem and sealing the leak in the deck and me going up and down to the laundrette in the marina washing and drying all the bed linen and airing out all the wet things.

 

On the positive side, it is a real treat when we make it into the marina to have the local marina staff and the ever helpful, always cheerful, Andrew and Nick from the World Cruising Club ready to take our lines and welcome us in.

 

Tomorrow we are off to Figueira da Foz which is 75 nm down the coast, the weather forecast at last looks good and we are hoping for a change of luck and good fortune – surely we are due some!!