Should I stay or should I go?
Cat-man-do
Tue 19 Jun 2007 11:48
|
The next leg involved the trip from Pavoa da
Varsim, Southwards towards our next port of call, Figaro de Fos. An uneventful
trip to be honest had little of note, the wind, as usual was bang on the nose so
no good for sailing (for us at least) Robert took up his usual position on the
lee berth. A rather bumpy entry to the channel as the river and the tide fought
over possession of the harbour mouth, making for a "lively" entry.
After several attempts to fuel up, we gave up and
berthed up in our rather tight spot, I say "berthed" it was more a pushed and
shoved it in the hole after a less than elegant entry by the helm (holds my hand
up and looks a little sheepish)
A delightful fish BBQ at the marina cafe was
arranged for that evening, delightful that is, if you like fish! A sweet smile
to the girl in the bar and at least I had a plate of chips to go at, which
weren't supplied with meal.
A strange sort of town which appears to be
set up for holiday type activities with obviously, huge amounts of money being
spent on the beach installing wooden walkways and cafes it all looks quite nice
but there didn't seem to be an awful lot of people about. Probably due to the
weather, which as usual was pouring down. So after setting of for a walk around
the town, the 3 of us and Simon and Andy (Gertha 4) retreated to a bar, as you
do when the weather starts declining. It has to be said, after arriving in the
bar about half 3 and drinking pretty constantly until around 7 the bar bill of
25 Euro's for the whole group of us was a pleasant surprise.After that, a
pleasant stroll back to the marina for an evening meal which was cracking
quality and good value too.
The following day a trip to the Casino which is a
large square glass building which holds the surprise of having a theatre inside
something like the Grand in Blackpool, quite impressive. Not a bad show all in
all with the rather strange occurrence of a Salsa class as a continuation of the
show which was rather strange. Every credit to young Graham of the cruising club
who got up and shook his "funky thing"
That evening word started to filter through that
the weather for the following day wasn't forecast to be very good at
all. With that, the decision was taken by a couple of boats to abandon the
leg the following day and wait 24 hours before setting off to Peniche. So, we
were left with the conundrum, do we stay or do we go? Well, actually we decided
to poke our head out of the harbour in the morning and see what it was like
(nothing like being decisive!) As it happened the first 4 hours of the leg we
had glorious sailing, albeit in the wrong direction :O( After a few calculations
we deduced it would take us till sometime in the next 3 days to sail the
distance, so we whipped the Donkeys and headed into wind yet again. To be
honest the wind was never an issue, but the sea state was. Short, steep waves
that did nothing for our speed and got us absolutely drenched (Foresail changing
mid Channel in a force 7 comes to mind for Marys' benefit) However we
arrived and got rafted up alongside Ruby in the predominantly fishing port
of Peniche.
The Scotch was finally emptied and after a surprise
visit by Paul & Vic (Ruby) at 01:30 we headed off to bed.
All in all Fos was a great improvement from Pavoa.
Foot note: If you've seen the film Love actually
with the Portuguese cleaning girl..........
|