Position 39:35.480N 009:04.740W

Monday October 27^th

11h46

Wind N Force

Sea State 3-4M

Visibility poor

Heading 230 T°

Under: Full Main Motor

Speed 6.6 Kts

Awoken this morning at 8h30 by Captain Hadley. Who is very annoyed at us for not having checked in last night on arrival. A pipe smoking and white bearded British ex navy officer (I assume). He is quite rude to us and asks us to leave within 30 mins. Wild one also gets a going over and Matt is pointing to the line in the pilot book where it says “friendly staff” and asking where they are.

When we arrived last night it was dark and we could see no notices. We were told by one of the other yachts that there was nobody around until 9 am when the Captain would be in. As we had no key to get back onto the pontoons if we exited we could not even explore the possibility of checking in. Anyway the place seemed pretty desolate. Matt and Annie were to stay on today but decided to leave with us after this refrigerated morning reception.

When I go up to check in and immediately check out the Captain has mellowed somewhat and it transpires that the police should have come down to check us in on arrival last night but nobody did so he now takes it out on them instead. The Captain and his wife Sally are volunteers here and obviously get a bit pissed off when they end up doing the work someone is actually paid to do.

Ursula and I managed to get a key last night from one of the other boats and walked the 2 k into Nazare village. The walk there was eerie and every house, field or shed and a dog that tried to pull its chain out of the wall as we passed. The town itself was quite nice strung neatly along the beach with on e main but narrow backbone street. We found a great restaurant which was obviously quite famous and many guests had left their marks on the walls. The fish was all laid out in the centre of the room. We opted for a seafood rice dish to share between us. It arrived in a large pot which was placed in the centre of the table and a whole crayfish was hanging over the side as if too tired to climb out. This cost us 22 Euro and had the crayfish very roughly chopped in eight-10 pieces in the shell, prawns, mussels, cockles and unidentified fish. The sauce was a tomatoey bisque and the rice was like a very wet risotto. It was one of the nicest things we have had.

Wild one left a few minutes before us. We left at 09h18 and motored most of the way alongside Wild One. We are anxious to get into Peniche as the weather is closing in.

We did some radar checks on both vessels. Then I could smell sausages! I called Matt up on the radio but he totally denied having any sausages on board. I could smell 5 of them so they could have had two each and thrown one over to Ursula and I to share. Still they continued to deny it.

Hugh dolphins jumping around Wild One with the Wild Two on board. Our mainsheet block has come loose so we fix that.

We spotted a huge whale in the bay off Peniche and motored around a while to see if we could spot it again but no. Tied up at the pontoon in Peniche at 13h07. Wild one arriving in soon after. Dinner with Matt and Annie aboard Cerys tonight.

Photo Wild One. Matt and Annie