Well here we are in a small marina in Peniche, what appears to be a
thriving fishing port judging from the heavy traffic of fishing boats
going in and out of the harbour.
We arrived at just after 11.00pm last night, two hours outside of the
allotted time for yesterday's voyage. The planned journey from Figueira
de Foz to here was about 50 miles, but the winds were 15 - 20 knots from
the South / Southwest. We sailed the whole way, tacking out West for
about 15 miles before heading back in and down the coast. The sailing
was good with Gertha regularly giving us 6.5 - 7 knots with one reef in
the mainsail for most of the day. As we got to within about 10 miles of
Peniche the tides and currents around the headland made it difficult to
achieve headway and this added an extra hour to hour and a half to the
voyage. In the end we did just about 100 miles of sailing to get here!!
Once again Gertha was the only boat in the fleet to sail the whole way,
others telling of sailing for the first 2 to 4 hours, then heading south
under motor, others not even bothering to sail. It must have been an
uncomfortable ride for those who motored all day straight into the
wind. Everyone is hoping that the wind will come around to the north to
allow all of us a nice broad reach, by far the most enjoyable point of sail.
As has been the case on most of our "free days" we woke to wet windy
weather, and it seems set for the day. How nice it would be to have
some warm sunshine to relax in. Even going shopping is an effort when
you have to don oilskins and get soaked! Spares for the mainsail track
have arrived courtesy of North Sails, which we managed to order via
email whilst in Bayona, so that's a nice surprise.
Tonight we have a "civic reception" at the municipal hall, so it looks
as if we are being treated like visiting dignitaries - let's hope the
food is good!
More tomorrow,
Andrew
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