Viano de Castelo

Pau Amma
Matthew Shaw
Tue 9 Aug 2011 22:06
Portugal!

Wow it is HOT - very HOT. we had a fantastic sail down the coast - it took about 5 hours. Not much action on the fishing front though. It's lovely to have the wind behind us.

We had a bit of a challenge leaving Baiona - the block at the mast top shattered under the load of the main halyard. Luckily we had a spare already set up so we could swap it over. We will need to get the block replaced inside the mast - might need to take the top cap section off to access it. I'll shimmy up the mast tomorrow and assess the situation....
The marina here is charming although a little shallow, we are aground by -0.3m at low tide so will move out to the waiting pontoons. The town here is charming - this was the start of the port trade, merchants trading the wine for fishing nets made in the south west of England. We went ashore for a walk around, the old granite town houses built by the wealthy merchants are really fantastic. A lovely town.

The Spanish and Portuguese have been very forward thinking about wind power, the coastline is littered with turbines. Actually they are very peaceful and help bring out the features and contours of the cliffs. I cant help thinking we should be doing the same in the UK?!

Franks and I are sitting out on deck at 11pm - Bimini up, cold drink in hand, planning our run down to Lisbon.

Happy birthday bro - glad your scissor lift is in..

We now need to learn another whole new language! Portuguese is Very different from Spanish.

ASTA la vista Spain