Nazare
Moorglade's Voyage
Ted Wilson
Tue 17 Aug 2010 16:00
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Our position is 39:35.01N 09:04.52W
Tuesday 17th August
Sunday was a relaxing sort of a day, but we did
take a bit of exercise walking a circular route that took in the beach and a
long strip of parkland that runs through the town. The beach was unusual in that
it was separated from the seafront road by a wide area of dry sand well above
sea level, lit at night by high floodlights and criss crossed with decking
walkways. It had no obvious function. The park was pleasant and lead to the
covered market which was open despite it being Sunday afternoon, so we bought
cakes and fruit.
 The marina at Figueira da Foz.
 The beach
 One of the many board walks The beach is a long way
to the left.
 Plenty of cheap fruit and veg at the
market.
Yesterdays passage from Figueira Da Foz to Nazare
was easy but not very interesting. The wind started westerly force 2 or 3, but
the expected shift to NW and increasing in the afternoon failed to materialise.
In fact it died away to nothing, so we motored all but the first few miles. The
course was a straight line a mile or so off a coast of sand dunes and a few
towns. The only incident was when an unexpected wave spilt my full glass of beer
over the port cockpit cushion at lunchtime. Not a great highlight.
Nazare is an easy harbour to enter but a lot of
fast, small to medium fishing boat action in the harbour entrance. Spanish and
Portuguese harbours have very slow (2 or 3 knot speed limits that nobody
obeys).
The marina is small and we could see no empty
berths so came alongside an old British flagged patrol boat on one of the hammer
heads. The owner Ron, a long term resident here, was keen to tell us all about
his boat. It had been commandeered by the navy in 1939 and done service in Hull
fitted with anti aircraft guns and fire fighting equipment until 1945. He now
seems to spend his life trying to maintain it.
Unfortunately the history of the boat took long
enough for the office to close, so we had to walk down the road to the security
man's cabin to check in. He did however offer us an alternative berth so we
moved to a finger pontoon before commencing cooking dinner.
This morning we were paid a visit by the Harbour
Master, Mike, who is British and also is the Portuguese Government's adviser in
matters to do with marinas and yachting. He is a good chap to talk to resolve
the details of leaving the boat for a month and getting ready for the sail to
Madeira.
We will spend the rest of the day with Kay working
and I will do some boat jobs. Elsie's cot / passage food stowage container has
yet to be fitted.
Tomorrow is probably a sight seeing
day.
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