Figueira da Foz

AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sun 5 Oct 2008 17:51
Today we have arrived at Figueira da Foz which is situated at the mouth of the longest river to rise in Portugual (so the pilot book tells us). The voyage from Leixoes - some 65 miles took approx 12 hours and was a motor all the way with little breeze to speak of - certainly not enough to get this heavy old cat going!
We slipped from Leixoes at around 0600 and were halfway to the harbour entrance when an inbound container ship halted our progress as we stooged around giving it whatever room it required to enter the narrow docks area on the river. Once it was clear we could motor out into the dark morning steering clear of the many lobster pots that litter the coast of Portugual. Other than that the only other worthwhile matter of note to report was that at last we had managed to tune into the Bracknell weather centre on the SSB radio which gave us an up to date weather map. Unfortunately, having found the right station I stupidly left the radio and fax machine on all night to see what else it may give us only to awake to yards and yards of fax paper strewn around the nav area as the fax machine had obviously had a busy night of it! But at least we are getting some good weather info from the SSB radio now, but will have to look for some more fax paper soon. Do they still sell it I wonder?
Today we have walked all the way along the town beach on miles of soft golden sand and walked back along the promonade like many of the locals enjoying the warm autumn sunshine. Portugual is famous for its beaches - milesof them and the soft sand makes for a challenging walk. Our friends Jan and Ruth in their catamaran left at first light this morning as they have only a limited amount of time to get the boat down to the Med. Last night they invited us onboard for some Port (from Porto - naturally) and some Roqufort blue cheese before we retired for an early night after the long day. We may stay in Figueira da Foz another day or so depending on the weather.