Friday 5^th October – Cascais - Sines

37:57.045N 8:51.969W

We left Cascais at 0800.  It felt a bit strange to be on our own.  The weather was fine but with no wind.  When we approached Cabo Espichel, three hours later, we were plunged into thick fog.  We took short watches so that we could concentrate on looking for, and avoiding, the fishing pots, of which there were many.  Once we rounded the headland the fog cleared briefly and then became patchy for a while.  Eventually it cleared and we had a clear run into Sines.  The wind was 3-4 knots, with the odd burst of 7-8 knots, so we motor-sailed all day.

Today we saw two pods of dolphins, one when the fog finally cleared – they were 200m ahead and jumping for joy and heading out to sea (they didn’t join us), the second pod we saw about 2 miles from Sines – they were about 200m to starboard and seemed to see us and headed straight for us, played around the boat for about 5 minutes and then headed off again.

Approaching Sines is deceptive; there is an industrial bit just outside that makes you think that the place is going to be really ugly.  However, once inside the harbour, none of this can be seen; all you can see is the lovely white painted houses with red roofs on the hillside.

On arrival at the small marina, the reception pontoon was busy with a boat waiting for fuel and so we berthed next to a boat we had met in Cascais and then checked in; this seemed to be the right thing to do as when Richard went to the office, where we should berth wasn’t even discussed.

Richard met a couple yesterday at Cascais who are on their way to Sines to spend a week’s holiday from sailing; I can see why – the view into the town is lovely (haven’t had a walk round yet), the berthing is very cheap, and, most important (for me anyway), the facilities are fabulous and look like they are new.