37:06.6N 08:40.5W

Cascais is a really pretty town and we would have liked to stay in longer but needed to stay at least a day ahead of the rally Portugal yachts as the next stopover in Sines was only a small marina and  we may not have been able to get a berth. Cascais was also a marked change from the Portuguese ports further north where there was a feeling of emptiness and something waiting to happen……probably the short holiday season in July and August!

The journey from Cascais via Sines was notable only for the lack of wind. We have been treated kindly by the weather gods and all the major coastal dangers have been in their more benign moods with Cape St Vincent passed with no wind and a flat sea although we did have to handle the dense fog that reduced visibility to just a few meters for the last 10nm of the Atlantic coast. For the first time since we left Ipswich we turned left and headed east towards the final destination of Gibraltar (at least for this part of the trip) and are now in Lagos where we will stay a few days and take a break from sailing and try to regain some fitness that has been lost over the last few weeks.

Lagos has a holiday resort feel about the place and is buzzing with lots of English and Irish tourists and restaurants of every type and nationality.

We have also taken lots of videos of the dolphins that have joined us at least once a day to play around the boat as we made our way south. On the last leg to Lagos we had four separate groups that came to play ranging from a small group of three to a larger group of thirty or more. The last encounter was with two mothers and there very small youngsters.

The trip down the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal have provided plenty of interest and I have attached some photos of some of the many images captured.

Santiago de Compostela

Not all plain sailing!!!

Eiffel’s bridge in Porto

Dolphins!!!!