12th June 2008 - Day trip to Porto
Bali Hai
Neal Stow
Thu 12 Jun 2008 16:37
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The day started ominously with scurrilous
rumours abound that a certain Blackpoolian member of our crew had
appropriated certain articles of underwear from Blonde Moment's washing
line. This has been completely denied and Andrew's strange gait put
down to too much starch in his shorts. However, if tomorrow we take
line honours as a result of our new spinnaker I
suspect that accusations will continue to fly.
After this initial blip it turned out to be a
fabulous day. Porto is a very interesting city build on steep river banks
on either side of the River Douro. The port lodges are located on one side
of the river and although the tour of Taylor's port lodge was rather limited as
all the wine is actually made 100 miles up river it was still very
interesting. After the tour we wandered down to the river front for a meal
with the crews of Sea Lion, Vision and Blonde Moment - the local salt cod, some
white port, vinho verde and then tawny port (we were in Porto after all).
We then headed up to a bar recommended by Lonely Planet for its port tastings
but found that the opening hours were 4 until midnight and as the coach
left at 3 we were forced to retire elsewhere.
Back now on the boat, the crew are busy getting it
ready as I write this. We have a 7 o'clock start tomorrow for a long
65 mile leg and so we thought it better to be fully prepared the night
before.
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