Too soon
Lera(hen3ry)
Malcolm Cann
Sat 8 Mar 2008 11:03
This was decided for a couple of reasons 1. I was booked in until the 1st March 2. I had spent afternoons soaking up the sun during the previous week.
Things looked good for the Friday leave, the wind was to be N NE at between 11-15kts and it was going to be sunny.
Friday dawned , there was no wind but there was sun so I left at exactly midday. The intention was to try for Lagos and after a few hours change to Sines if necessary. Out through Cascais bay I had Portuguese gunboats playing around me, I ignored them and they managed to miss me. During this time the wind was beginning to increase and the number and height of the white horses increased considerably, the wind now was mostly in the high teens and the boat was doing about 5kts, so distance was passing quite quickly but it was getting bumpier. Around 1700 I realized that I was beginning to get cold so I decided I would not go to Lagos but take the shorter option of Sines, I was some 25 miles from Cascais so it was only some 25 miles to Sines, changed course and waited for it to get dark, the wind was, or appeared, to be getting stronger, and all in all it was quite uncomfortable. This was the first time in nearly 4 months that I had been out at sea and it was a bit hard, can only get better! I was running the boat with just the genoa flying and still making 5 kts most of the time.
The problem with this day was the night time air temperature, I had been watching it steadily rise to 10-12 degrees overnight which had helped me decide to move, this night it had dropped to about 4 degrees which with a 20kt wind gives a wind-chill of -14.5 deg, no wonder I was cold. I've always said I won't go out at night unless its at least 10 deg. Since then the night time temp has dropped to -4 deg in northern Portugal and 0 where I am.
I had to run the engine for a short while to charge up the batteries. This wasn't too bad because all in all I ran the engine for a maximum of two hours to cover 58 miles. when I checked the fuel gauge you couldn't see any had been used.
I kept the genoa flying up to about 1/4 mile from the marina, and then tried to reel it in, the wind was still about 20kts and it made the sail very heavy cause it was pulling like a train. I did it after a lot of hassle just in time to turn into the marina.
The reception pontoon is also the fuel berth and is in a cul-de-sac so there is not a lot on maneuvering room, my first attempt missed completely and I had to reverse quite violently to avoid the boats at the end, second time I lassoed the bollard and hung on. I made finally. The fuel berth here is open weekdays only and then only 1300-1400 1700-1800 and that's your lot. I thought about booking in but on seeing the gates were card controlled I decided to wait till morning, it was 0124 now. was thoroughly cold and, because I was on the fuel pontoon I couldn't light any gas I had no heat, so I wrapped up in a sleeping bag and waited for daylight.
Come daylight the world looked better, I went and booked in and found that all the card keys had been disabled with bits of string. I spent Saturday and Sunday getting myself into a better frame of mind.
Monday I went and had a look at the birthplace of some bloke called Vasco da Gama, and the castle, and that completes the tourism part of Sines.
I'm not sure if "supermercado" means supermarket in the terms that we know because they all seem to be corner shop size, but there are a lot of them in Sines, and one of them even had a small stock of "Heinz Baked Beans" in proper sized tins! The shopping here is protracted because you buy vegetables at the market, meat at the talho and the rest at the supermercado. But I got all I wanted and in quite good quality, must better than the Cascais supermarkets!. Bread could be a bit of a problem because mostly they don't have processed white bread which keeps for days but have the local baked stuff which lasts only one day before its stale, but I did find some processed.
There is internet here but not for the likes of us in the marina, even with my good aerial I couldn't find a free one, so there is no internet. The library does internet just for the asking, so it can be done.
I've been here one week now and am watching the temp at night, I don't intend to move until it gets back up to 10 or above, so it might be a while. This place can grow on you. The shops are actually closer than they were in Cascais, but you do have to climb a hill!