Lisboa 38:45.283N 9:5.63W

Pau Amma
Matthew Shaw
Tue 23 Aug 2011 17:52
We had a fantastic sail up to Lisbon from Cascais. Seeing the city unfold as we sailed up the river was a really wonderful experience. The huge bridge and the dominating statue of Jesus were the main landmarks. Most of Lisbon was destroyed in the 1800's by a huge earthquake, as a result the waterfront is mainly contemporary architecture. The marina here is well set up. Several millions of Euro funding have been blown on a massive development, sadly there just isn't the economy to sustain the over development and many shop windows are empty. Still, the facilities are excellent and tomorrow we will explore the oceanarium and some of Lisbon. We're all feeling pretty sad that tomorrow is our last day together but it has been an amazing few weeks. We've never had so much time together and it has been blissful not to have been interrupted by the demands of the multiple grocer.

Vasco da Gama set off from Lisbon on his voyage of discovery and landed in Kerala - South India. He is also buried here in a monastery. Lisbon was my first landfall after months at sea on my short merchant navy career 18 years ago. It's a very impressive city and we will need to come back to do it properly.

It's lovely and sunny and we have finally got round to washing the salt water out of the bunks from their soaking by wet oilskins in Biscay. We must remember to never get wet foulies on the bunks again! Hoping we can get them all dry by bedtime.
Laptop should be arriving tomorrow so we'll upload more pics tomorrow.

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