39:35.2N 09:04.4W
ALBA and her travels
Jim Panks
Mon 30 Apr 2012 19:30
We have stopped after 48 hours because the French Met Office have issued a storm warning for our next sector. Well typical French sit on the wall and say "near gale". How near gale? What type of gale? Could be near Amanda, sorry I jest but typical non weather forecast when they put ambiguous statements. I am not playing with our lives and therefore we stopped before we run out of harbours to stop.
Nazare is a very non tourist place or at least the fish dock and marina are defiantly not. We tried to radio in and had no reply so we came in and conquered the place. Mmmm not quiet Captain Birds Eye and his wife have been here for eleven years. They are probably in there eighties and as we berthed perfectly they came over to greet us and give us the low down. Very nice man and lady. He a retired merchant sea captain and she a retired WREN. He is the official Harbour Master. Seems funny an Englishman in charge of a Portuguese harbour.
Went to the cafe and mixed with the locals. Just sat down outside with a couple of the local ice cold lagers when the heavens opened and we had to dash back to the boat to close the hatches which had been left open to give the accommodation a good airing.
Had some fun watching he antics of the locals greeting the kamikaze fishing boats who seem intent on making us run for cover as they approach at speed to do a fast swing to starboard ram it into reverse and come alongside their place perfectly, then the locals arrive to buy the fish. Very old fashioned and may I say something a lot of Europeans have lost. Their customs and ways.
On our way up we have seen some wonderful scenery which is only seen from a boat and gives a completely different aspect to what you would normally see as a tourist. Cape Trafalgar which I wrote about previously is spectacular for its place in history and Cabo De San Vincente where our westward and southern track is replaced with a northern one. Now we watch the degrees go from 36 to 50 and then it's a right hand down the English Channel. Our position now is the latitude we left from in Valencia or just slightly higher - we have traveled 761 nautical miles or around 830 miles. If we had driven across country we would be around Paris and nearly home.
Matt & Alex have been on bar b q duty tonight and we are all full and ready for a rocking free night without watches to perform and the roar of our little engine.
We will be having a pow wow with Captain Birds Eye in the morning to decide our next plan of action and we will try and get our sat phone to speak with the computer before we hit the Bay of Biscay.
Our feast tonight was made better by the Red Leicester Cheese on our Portuguese rolls and hamburgers. Thanks Mrs S much appreciated.
Watch for our blog tomorrow. Nighty night from the Captain and Crew of the good ship Alba.
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