Lisbon
Oceanarium
We nearly didn’t get to the Oceanarium in
Lisbon. We did
get on the right train and we got off at the end of the line like it said on the
map. We should have got off two stops earlier, which it didn’t say on the map.
Still, two Metro trains and 14 stops later we finally got there…and yes, it was
worth the hassle. It’s the second biggest Oceanarium in the world (so the guide
book says), split into zones, Atlantic,
Pacific, Indian and Antarctic Oceans – the penguins had real ice to sit on!!!!
The main ‘goldfish’ bowl was on two levels – mid-to-top feeding and bottom
feeding, complete with Sunfish, Manta rays, Black-tipped white reef sharks and
various types of pelagic fish (Tuna, Bonito, etc).
We saw this penguin and thought of you, Mick!
Looks like he is about to deliver a speech!
Sunfish (2 metres long).
3 metres of killing, eating, shi**ing
machine.
Daddy spider (King Spider Crab) – this one was 30
cm across the carapace and had a 1-metre leg span.
Trip to Carrefour
We had an exciting trip to Carrefour, involving
Road Train (sponsored by Carrefour, but didn’t go there), followed by a bus to a
retail centre the size of the Trafford Centre, meal (KFC), taxi home, and our
shopping was delivered to the boat a couple of hours later. You can’t say that
the CAPE crew don’t know how to have a good
time!!!
Rugby widow (again) – and I thought that I’d left all
this behind in north Wales!
On Friday evening, France played Argentina in the
opening game of the Rugby World Cup. France lost 12 v 17. Apparently, this
was the excuse for consuming a large amount of beer according to John, Mike and
David (and Coke according to Bryn). On Saturday the excuse was
England v.
USA and on Sunday it was
Wales v. Canada.
When Wales won, this was worth a whole day
of drinking… Only another 4 weeks to go, and David disappears to Paris for a whole weekend
of the stuff!!!
Apart from this we swam, drank, ate, played
‘Traveller’s Trivia’ (thanks Vicky, Huw, Megs and Morgan), swam, drank, ate,
played ‘Traveller’s Trivia’…
On Monday, I celebrated my **th
birthday – quietly of course!! I had a surprise birthday cake and bubbly stuff
(as well as a pair of fuchsia pink Crocs with diamonds and sapphires, and Mika
on CD…). Well it would have been a quiet celebration were we not also saying
goodbye to Frannie and John as they set off for the Caribbean via Madeira, the
Canaries and the Cape
Verde Islands...
Party time on TENGY: Mandie, Beth and the remains
of the feast.
Beth, Bryn, John and Frannie.
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Bryn about to dive into a
Lasagne… |
And Beth about to dive into a
pizza. |
BARBARY DUCK showing us her best side as she heads
off to the Caribbean.
No longer
windlass-less
We are now the poor but very proud owners of a
sparkly, stainless steel, Lofrans, low-profile windlass. The whole of the inside
of the anchor locker has also been revised so that we no longer have to resort
to child labour down the sail locker to flake the chain as it comes in. We have
since been scouring the charts for a decent anchorage in which to try it out in
anger, but there don't seem to be many on this coast of Portugal
(typical!).
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Our sparkly new windlass. |
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On the work front
I am still working about 1–2 days a week, so about
1 week a month. Yes it is extremely hard to focus – the hardest bit is sitting
down to start, but once I have done that, I do still (thank goodness, or very
sadly, not sure which) switch into work mode and get on with it. One of my
biggest work worries is internet access – will I have it wherever we go next? We
have been lucky so far, but it does sometimes entail quite a trek to specific
bars or internet cafes. Spain was inconsistent – some places we had free
wireless on the boat, while in others – Baiona for example – the only option was
pay as you go in every bar (no use for work when I need to upload or download
stuff), or one (very busy so we often had to queue) internet cafe where we could
plug in the laptop. Portugal has had more wireless and around Lisbon we could
log on wirelessly (spelling?) on the boat and buy half-an-hour, an hour, 2 hours
(€2, €3, €5, respectively), 1 day (€20) or 1 week (€50) from a national
provider.
Oeiras to Sines (O’Irish to
Sinash)
After a spectacular thunderstorm and heavy rain
overnight, we left Oeiras with a few flashes of lightning and less than a mile
visability with which to cross the busy mouth of the Rio Tejo. We spent another
windless (as opposed to windlass-less) day under motor to Sines – another degree
downhill. The technical hitch of this passage was the final gasp of the ‘out’
pump of the sea toilet (we leave this one to your imagination, as we don’t have
scratch and sniff capacity…).
