Cascais (Lisbon)

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 9 Sep 2008 21:59
We've reached Lisbon. We arrived in Cascais on Monday 8th September, just along the River Tagus from Lisbon.
We enjoyed our stay in Povoa as we met up with a small contingent of Brits who had decided to stay there for the winter and some for longer (one boat went in for 4 days and is still there, 2 years later!) We also met another ARC boat who we will see again on the Algarve or in Las Palmas. A 'Pot-Luck' supper is organised on Thursday nights where everyone is welcome and you bring something to cook on the barbeque and a dish to share and can chat with whoever is about at that time. That night and the following morning we had strong winds from the south that gusted to 40 knots at one time and with heavy rain. It was such a contrast to the day before when the sun was shining, it was hot and we sat on the beach. With the strength of wind and the swell that found its way into the marina, the motion of the boats was quite violent at times - we had 8 ropes holding Aurora B in the middle of 2 finger pontoons and Michael got soaked twice setting them up!
We waited a day for the swell to subside and left Povoa at 8.30 am on Sunday and arrived in Cascais on Monday at 5.15 pm, a trip of 183 miles and a tricky night passage with lots of fishermen's pot buoys (even in depth of 450ft 12 miles out from the coast) . The promised northerly winds didn't turn up until the afternoon and only stayed for a while, and the winds yesterday (Monday) were from the south but light, so it was motor-sailing much of the way. We had dolphins bow-riding on Sunday and we were very lucky to be visited by some at night too - exciting as the phosphorescence at night lights them up like torpedoes!
Cascais is a very pretty town and has beaches, a bit like a much warmer and sunnier Torbay with Portuguese architecture. We will be here for a few days so we can go into Lisbon and do some sight-seeing.

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