Wednesday 28th July - Now at Sines ; 037.56N, 008.52W
Island Wanderer
Peter and Avril Brookes
Thu 29 Jul 2010 19:36
We spent two lovely nights at anchor in Cascais,
sharing the anchorage with 3 other British boats amongst others.
We caught the train into Lisbon - they run every 15
minutes - and had a look around the tourist sites and sampled the Portuguese
food.
For the first time I heard Avril say she was too
hot as the temperature rose into the mid 30's. It was more pleasant back on the
boat in a gentle breeze.
Today we had a pleasant mix of sailing as the wind
was very variable. En-route Avril spotted a large something - at least 3 metres
long and 80cm wide, with a curved dorsal fin. Was it a very large dolphin, or
some type of whale or shark? If you have any thoughts let us know.
We are now anchored in a small cove off the town of
Sines - very pretty, but as we arrived they were just beginning sound testing
for a large rock concert to be held just above the beach. The sound echoes
around, the boat vibrates and causes ripples in the water. Hopefully it will not
go on too late.
Temperatures are still hot, but pleasant when you
can find a cooling breeze.
The boat is performing really well, and we are
becoming quite practised at changing the rig between a setup for upwind or
downwind sailing, deploying a pole for the genoa and a boom preventer when
sailing downwind, then as the wind eases stowing the pole and launching the
gennaker. The lines look like spaghetti at times, and all need securing before
beginning to motorsail when the wind dies!
Regards,
Peter.