Position: 38:41.4N 009:25.1W - Cascais Marina

384 miles after leaving La Coruna we finally completed this leg of the journey, and I can't tell you the relief.  This is like a long, drawn out boring coach trip, with the disadvantage that you can't get off when you want, but then again we don't have to suffer motorway service-stations so there's always an upside.

Cascais is a pretty little town on the outskirts of Lisbon.  I was last here nearly 10 years ago on a week's conference with work, when we had plenty of time to explore the cobbled streets and paddle in the sea - it's not quite paddling weather at the moment though.  Our approach into the harbour at 7am yesterday was in driving rain but we were all grateful at least the lightning had stopped.  We wound our way through the huge tankers anchored in the mouth of the harbour and onto the waiting pontoon.  A member of staff took our lines and when Chris checked in an hour later he was presented with a bottle of local wine - nice touch.  We had to squeeze into, stern to, a very tight spot next to a Beneteau.  There was a strong wind catching the bow and it was too tricky without that pesky bow-thruster so the harbour staff helped push us in with a tender.  By then the rain had cleared and the sun was out, so we celebrated passing the half way point of the journey on deck with the local vhino.

After catching up on much needed sleep, Chris and I explored the old part of town where designer shops and rows of swanky restaurants are void of customers out of the tourist season.  We had a very disappointing Thai meal and an early night, and a hailstorm woke us this morning - it sounded like someone was throwing a bag of nails at the boat.  It would be nice to spend more time here, preferably in warmer weather, but we're here to re-stock, refresh and get going as soon as possible.  It's another 700ish miles to the Canary Islands and we're looking to do it in one hop if possible.  Fingers crossed the winds will finally be with us; we'll need to top up with another couple of hundred Euros of fuel yet again before departing, but even with our additional cans we won't be able to motor the whole way and we most certainly don't want to - this is a sailing boat not a gin palace!