22 August 2016

Porto is a great place; not as ‘cosmopolitan’ or picturesque as Bayona, but certainly very interesting.  It is a working city full of Port producers and terracotta rooves of houses and warehouses crammed into every square inch. 

A huge fast flowing river runs through the city with enormously high bridges enabling people in cars, trams and trains to cross the valley.

We are struggling to pick up Wi-Fi currently so Ken used his new climbing harness and ascenders to climb the mizzen mast and retrieve the aerial.  We figured it was the wire going up the mast connecting to the aerial that is faulty.  Whilst he was up there he took a photograph of Storm Breaker! Helen went off for lunch supplies and returned with bread, cheese, meats, olives and huge plum tomatoes, exactly what you’d expect in Portugal.

The first Port House we visited for a tour and tasting session was Graham’s, one of the larger producers.  We discovered that Ruby port is kept in large vats, less exposed to wood and is filtered into bottles stopping its aging process.  It tends to be a deep red colour.  Tawny port is kept in smaller barrels, more of the liquid being exposed to wood, giving it a brown colour, again filtered into bottles stopping the aging process.  Vintage port is not filtered enabling it to continue ageing in the bottles.  Vintage was our favourite, then the 20 and 10 year old Tawny ports, followed by the Ruby ports and lastly the White port that was much drier.  We departed armed with various bottles, not including vintage or the 20 year olds as they were rather more expensive.

The first evening in Porto, Jimmy Cornell (the rally organiser) had arranged a meal for us all.  The small family run restaurant put on a marvellous spread including the typical meats, cheeses, squid, peppers in butter, sausage, battered fish, pineapple and black pudding, pork, potatoes and some other dishes that I have no idea of the ingredients but tasted delicious.  All this followed by a crepe for dessert and various wines.

The second day took Helen, Ken and myself across the river in a local ferry, then into Porto old town by very antiquated but rather lovely tram.  Despite the rain we enjoyed the sights, intricate buildings, cafes and ice cream parlours.  We then crossed the valley over one of the enormously high bridges and took a cable car down back to the area of the Port houses.  This time we had a tour and tasting session at Churchill’s, a much smaller concern.  The three of us agreed Churchill’s Port was much smoother and even more delicious than Graham’s, so we departed armed with several more bottles of port!  Even better was that we didn’t have to pay for the tour and tasting session at Churchill’s as it is promoted by the Marina. 

We said our goodbyes to Helen who caught the train back to Vigo, near to where she keeps her boat and Ken and I made our way along the river, in the now glorious sunshine, back to the Marina for a skipper’s briefing where we received information regarding our next passage towards Lisbon, departing tomorrow morning.

Saturday 20 August 2016, Porto to Lisbon, 182.4 miles, 30 hours, 8.3 engine hours, 6.08 knots average speed

Total miles: 811.10

We departed Porto at 0800 hrs.  There was not a lot of wind initially but we put the mainsail up to try and reduce the rolling from the Atlantic swell and motor sailed.  By midday there was just enough breeze to sail so we hoisted the mizzen and genoa and enjoyed the sound of no engine!

My Garmin Vivofit clearly knew we were on passage as kept telling me to ‘move’!  As we were relatively flat and it was smooth sailing I made the effort to do some exercises and march on the spot.  It was my watch so between exercises I looked out for other vessels, lobster pots and checked we were still on course. That exercise regime didn’t last long as by 1400 hrs there was 22 knots of wind and we were romping along in the sunshine reaching 8 knots plus rocking and rolling all over the place!  In fact we were making such good progress and with increasing wind strength we dropped the mainsail in order to slow down.  We didn’t want to reach Lisbon before low water (1128 hrs on Sunday 21 August) so we could go up the river on a rising tide and use the 5 knots of current to our advantage and more importantly, arrival time after mid morning is a far more suitable, civilised and justifiable time for a docking totty J. 

By 0200 hrs the wind was gusting 30 knots plus; we recorded 34.5 knots, Storm Breaker recorded 42 knots, which on the beaufort scale is a gale!! We had to reduce sail further so reefed heavily.  It was impossible to sleep due to the noise and rolling.  We were both extremely tired; it wasn’t the most pleasant of sails by any means.

By 0600 hrs the wind had dropped to 8 knots.  The sky was lit ages before the sun rose and there was not a cloud in sight. 

Time to enjoy a relaxing sail for the remainder of the trip ….. until, that is, the wind chose to rise again to its

30 plus knots and once again we were bouncing along on the waves, uncomfortably.  Even my bondage contraption to tie myself into the cockpit failed and I, complete with cushions, shot across the cockpit landing in an upside down heap on the cockpit floor.  Even Ken was too tired to laugh this time.

Once in the lee of Cascais near the entrance to the river Tejo upon which Lisbon lies, the wind was suddenly next to nothing and the sea remarkably flat.  The sun was so hot we were instantly dripping and looking for shade!  We passed the impressive Forte Bugio and motored the 15 miles upriver to Marine Parque das Nacoes stopping to refuel on route. 

A cheeky Portuguese boat pipped us to the fuel pontoon but luckily, in a very tight space, we were able to turn and take refuge on an empty pontoon nearby and ‘re-group’! Having refuelled successfully we went under the 70m high bridge and entered the lock to the marina.  That in itself was a massive challenge as with such fast flowing currents we had to put our foot down and go for it in order not to be swept into the lock sides. 

Lady Rebel, having thought her work was done for the day with the leisurely jaunt up the river, was suddenly woken up into action and her new propeller performed brilliantly and shot us through the lock spitting us out into the marina basin where we moored, packed the boat away, opened all the hatches, put the fans on, dressed her overall with brightly coloured flags and had a cold beer as a docking totty!

A rum punch and nibbles party for all participants and a quick meal out rounded the day off nicely.  Even the annoying buzzing of the evil mosquitos didn’t keep us awake for long!

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