Thursday 20^th September – Baiona – Póvoa De Varzim

41:22.309N 8:45.914W

Today we came to Portugal.  Since La Rochelle all our passages have involved night sailing and so today we treated ourselves to a 50 mile daylight hop.  As things turned out, there was little wind and little swell and the sun was out, and so we ended-up motoring pretty much all the way. 

We tried to fly the cruising chute at one point thinking we had 6 knots of wind behind us but it realised into only 1 knot and so we quit and motored on enjoying the sunshine.

Our British friends decided to continue passage to Leixões, nearer Porto, but we wanted to turn in earlier having heard good things about Póvoa, and with it also offering train or bus to Porto.  We arrived here around 5pm (4pm UK and Portuguese time). 

Although we had an uneventful passage, our new Swiss friends had a bit more interesting passage as they set off a little later and were called upon to help a Belgian yacht having engine difficulties into another harbour on the way.  Our German friends were travelling with them and stood-by whilst they sorted things out.

We thought we had time for a shower before they arrived but in the ten minutes we were away, they had called us and got no response and so berthed next to us just as we arrived back.  We had put some wine in the fridge to chill for their arrival but they beat us to it.  We felt a little less guilty when both boats came aboard Pyxis for a couple of bottles before heading for the showers.

The staff at this marina are very good, very friendly and speak all languages – there were two of the harbour guys waiting for our lines as we arrived, and the office were similarly very welcoming and efficient.  The facilities are the best since Santander and there is a metro into Porto that we will try tomorrow.  Gets the thumbs up from us!