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.

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!).

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…).