How do you wake a crew up REALLY fast - read on!

Catou
Paul and Sylvie Tucker
Sat 17 Jul 2010 19:02
Sunday 11th July The morning started on time with showers at 0800. A huge and very posh marina at Bayona had a portacabin for a shower with a floor that felt you would fall through at any moment. Dreadful toilets and plumbing: marks: 1/10. I left the shower at 0830 and said to Nigel that I was going for bread.  It took me an hour and 5 minutes to get back.  I tried the old trick of following a lady with a purposeful stride and a purse in her hand (this time I observed carefully - she didn't seem the church-going type I felt, since she was in jeans and a t-shirt!) Hey presto, she led me to a bakery - but it was closed! So off I went and I walked the streets of Bayona for an hour.  Eventually I did find a bakery and bought 4 baguettes, arriving back on board to see worried faces - they thought I'd been abducted.  Nigel and Helen opened a bottle of champagne and we had buck's fizz (it was my birthday) for breakfast with the baguettes.  Sylvie gave me a lovely new pair of binnoculars with a compass inside them, so I was giving everyone bearings of whatever I was looking at through them.
 
So we left a little later than anticipated, with a 10 hour trip to Leixoes ahead of us.  Leixoes is a small (but extremely busy) commercial port just north of Porto.  Yachts are 'discouraged' from entering the Douro river and going up to Porto, since it is very shallow at the entrance with a dangerous bar, so Leixoes is the nearest place to park.  We left Bayona at about 1000 and soon ran into the expected fog again.  It was very thick and we ran through it for hours with viz down to about 200 metres, so there was a continuous radar watch and eyes peeled on deck until we eventually ran out of the fog after about 7 or 8 hours.  We passed a couple of yachts at 1/8 mile without seeing them, but Catou's radar was excellent (it can even pick up lobster pot buoys which are tiny).  There was not a breath of wind, so we motored the whole way.  We arrived at 2100 and anchored in the outer harbour.
 
Monday 12th July  Ashore for showers and introduced ourselves to a rather uninterested harbour office. By the time we had come out of the showers, one toilet was blocked (from a previous occupant) and the inlet valve had stuck open (greatly encouraged by Nigel!), so there was water overflowing out through the door + the showers had run cold.  Finally, after a very late breakfast we  caught the bus into Porto and began a day of sight-seeing in a wonderful city.  We walked and walked and walked.  Had a lovely lunch down in the touristy area by the river, and even managed a 45 mins boat trip up and down the Douro river underneath the high bridges that span the gorge.  In some ways it is a similar setting to Bristol with it's deep gorge and bridge.  We found a most amazing Baroque church + museums relating to the port industry, but we saved the port tour until Tuesday.  We had a very late night trip back to Catou, and after successfully getting to grips with the city's new tram system which took us all the way back to Leixoes port, we then ended up with a very long late-night walk back to our marina, after getting off at the wrong stop, and arrived back on board at about 2330.
 
Tuesday 13th July I woke up at about 7.45, and lay in my bunk for a while.  Suddenly at 0800 there was an almighty blast/bang, from what seemed to be underneath the boat with an extraordinary sound (turned out to be the anchor chain rattling/vibrating). All of us were out of our bunks in a second and in the cockpit.  I thought that someone had run into us and Nigel thought the mast had collapsed, but we took a quick look about and nothing seemed out of place and no boats close by.  There was a dredging operation going on close by, and as I looked in that direction we got a second 'blast' just as I saw the sea next to the dredger lift like a depth charge in those old films.  The dredging operation somehow involved some underwater explosive work - but with no warning to the anchored yachts nearby!
So, after another late breakfast and showers etc, we went back into Porto for a day at the Port warehouses.  The main Port companies are all on the south bank of the river. All the famous names such as Grahams, Taylors, Sandeman, Calem and many others are there.  We opted for Taylors, for no other reason than it had a decent sign pointing us in their general direction.  After a bit of a trek and a very determined Nigel, we found the Taylors visitors' centre - with a wonderful looking restaurant.  We opted for the restaurant, and Nigel & Helen insisted on buying lunch for us.  It was one of those meals you don't forget.  With a glass of white port as an aperitif, we all had a different fish main course.  It was lovely, with views over old Porto.  After coffee, we left the dinning room - and, surprise, surprise, finished off with another glass of port, before going on a guided tour of the factory.  We were taken into the warehouses and amongst hundreds and hundreds of huge oak barrels our guide explained about the port production.  It was a very interesting tour, and - surprisingly, we finished off with a glass of vintage port before buying some bottles to take on board 'Catou'.
An early night, since Nigel and Helen are sadly leaving us in the morning to fly home.