38:41.779N 009:24.756W

SV Eleonora
Michael A. Andronov
Sat 11 Aug 2018 19:35
UTC 1805.
We are at Cascais… On anchor, In front of the marina… or in front of the beach…

The beach is packed. For the sake of arguments — I double checked the water temp…. 59.9 F…
(59.9 -32)/9*5…. ~ 16 C ? They are swimming… They are jumping into the water… they are enjoying it…
Kids… Men in colourful swimming suites, women in bikini…

I’ve looked around… My eyes started to fill with tears… I SEE THE PALM TREES!!! The marina is surrounded by palm trees… ;-)

From the distance of my boat — the Cascais seems to be a very nice place to be! I’ll check it. But not today…

I had an eventful night. The day, in comparison, has been on a bleak side…
Until noon — no wind… IT WAS A PLEASURE TO HEAR THE MOTOR RUNNING!!!! ;-)

I also topped the tanks with the fresh water, and started to clean the boat… But not for a long… As the .grib filed suggested — shortly after noon ( or more precise, at 1215 UTC… ) the clouds gone, and the wind started to pick up…. 8 kts, 10 kts…. 15 kts…. At 1330 we were running at 8.5 kts, with the wind indicator showing 22 kts apparent wind… Cleaned my glasses, looked around… The white hoses all over the place indicated that my instruments seem to be working right…

Blue sky, strong wind… a bit confused sea… Easy to navigate since we were following the coast… I let the autopilot to rest ( together with the batteries ) and took control over the helm… The fun began… It has been working better then the coffee!!!! ;-)

The marina appeared on the plotter together with the handful set of tankers… We were still running with main(full) only, at 8+ knots… … On each swell — like downhill skiing — I have to use all muscles to control the boat… Thanks God, the tankers appeared to be on anchors, or drifting… The small sailing boats were zig zagging between them…
Kind of relief… but I would like to slow down a bit…

The magic happened in 2 nm range in front of the first tanker… The wind went from 25 kts to 7 kts… I looked on the shore… Yes, the mountains… Low, but seems to be efficient enough…. Coming closer to the marina… The anchorage opened, full of boats… People on the beach… Metlro train going in the direction to the Lisbon… Marina house and palm trees around… My eyes started to fill with tears… ;-)

I’m happy to be here… I’m happy to be on anchor…
I do not have a beer, but I do have wine… It will do…
The rest — cleaning, more cleaning, closing sails, etc, etc… — After the sleep…

As soon as we anchored — the wind picked up in the harbour, up to 18 kts…. But we are holding… At least so far… ;-)

That is all for today,

We are fine, our status — OK.

Talk to you soon,
M.