Nicely moored in Nazare

andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Thu 3 Sep 2009 17:58
39.35.024N 09.04.509W
Here we are in a tiny marina, known as Mike's
Marina, about a mile and half from the holiday town of Nazare. The
place is known as Mike's marina as a somewhat eccentric ex sailor, who's over
80, basically runs the place as the harbour master and the man who knows
how to get things done. He is extremely knowledgable about all things nautical,
and his wife, Sally, very kindly took Susan and Glenda to no less than three -
yes three!! - supermarkets in their car.
Mike and Sally live on a Joshua Slocum replica boat
-(he sailed alone around the world in the 1800's), known as a Spray and
after arriving here some 19 years ago still hasn't left. Great characters
and they make navigating around the town and countryside far less stressful than
can sometimes be the case. Worth coming to Nazare to meet one of life's great
characters.
We had to motor sail most of the way from Figueira
da Foz, which with is not one of our favourite places, and arrived
mid-afternoon. We passed only on other yacht, a Dutch boat heading south under
cruising chute. Interestingly there were a whole array of pot markers
in the entrance to the harbour, which is not that wide, which made our arrival a
little nerve wracking. All along the coast there are pot markers - even 4 -5
miles off the coast and in water over 30 metres deep. We try and avoid going
anywhere near them - certainly after our experience off Poole which does
sometimes make for some unusual course changes. Some you can see some way off -
some are simply sticks on a float that you can't see until you are almost upon
them. No night sailing unless well offshore.
Glenda from Lucy Alice was here on her own as Ian
was in Spain sorting out the supposed sale of a flat, so we had a good chat and
catch up. We went into Nazare on the bus and found it was hugely different to
Figueira with a real buzz and vibrancy about and people genuinely enjoying
themselves and having a good time on holiday. There are quite a lot of elderly
ladies in traditional dress adverising rooms for rent, and quite bizarrely a
large number of them who seem to take great delight in popping the bubbles
in bubble-rap as they walk about or sit on chairs with small billboards on their
laps - beats me, but bubble-rap bubble bursting is clearly an international
past-time!
The beach wasn't smooth sand, but it was hot, and a
sea with crashing waves was the right side of freezing. There are racks on the
beach for drying fish - mostly sardines or small Dorado - odd smell but very few
flies.There are two parts to the town - the beach and the old town on top of the
cliffs, linked by a funicular which was built in 1889. The old part of the town
is quite pretty with brightly painted houses and narrow streets. The beach part,
is as you would expect, a seaside town with cafe's, bars, shops and a market
which is quite large. Certainly worth a short visit.
The marina is next to the fish dock and market and
most of the day and evening there are fishing boats, large and
small, arriving and offloading their catch. Fishing boats arrivals are
announced by a siren going off - however it doesn't happen much after midnight!
Lots of people visit and buy fish direcly off the boats - most of the rest goes
to restaurants, for export or off to the fish processing plants. The place
doesn't really smell of fish, unless you pass some of the old nets which most
certainly do.
Last night we were invited for drinks on a large
catarmeran by a very friendly New Zealand couple, Bruce and Leslie, who had
brought the boat in coastal hops from La Rochelle where it had been built. They
are off to Turkey for the winter and then on to New Zealand - they've already
cruised the Pacific! They have a huge amount of space in the cockpit and
saloon area and lots more in the hulls, including a full size double bed, water
maker and washing machine. Turned into quite a long night as the glasses never
seemed to empty, but they were up early and are now off to Cascais which is just
outside Lisbon.
We spent several hours helping Ian out with a
problem with his prop once he had returned from Spain - it turned out that some
fishing net had caught in his rope cutter and had jammed itself inside causing
friction on the prop. A few hours with the right tools and a hammer, we managed
to sort things out and Ian and Glenda will be high tailing it down towards
Gibralter as soon as they can. They have flights booked back to the UK before
they join the Blue Water Rally so we shall say farewell for a second
time.
We are planning on trying to get into Peniche
before heading towards Lisbon - we've heard some slightly worrying things about
the berthing arrangements in Peniche so plans may change when we actually get
there. After that we are thinking of also heading for Caicais so we
can visit Lisbon or Lisboa as its known locally, which we are really
looking forward to.
Many thanks for the feedback - if anyone
reading this would like to ask any questions about what we are doing etc.
then please do drop us a note to the andromeda903799 mailasail
account (andromeda903799%mailasail.com - not supposed to put the full
address in due to spam but replace the % symbol with an @ and it should reach
us)
P.S. We are a little perplexed as to why there are
so many Dutch boats out here - is there something happening in Holland that we
should know about? They certainly outnumber all the other nationalisties sailing
out here at present. However as there aren't that many folks sailing perhaps
they do know something we don't.
Andrew & Susan
S/V Andromeda |