Bayona to Lisbon inc birth of new grandson, Miles and lovely photos of Bonds wedding
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Mike’s birthday and so we are off out to lunch, preceded
by sharing a couple of bottles of fizz on board RT with our new best friends
from Island Kea, Mahi-mahi and Magnetic Attraction. We had a reasonably nice
meal – most of us opting for velvet crab starter and sharing platters of seafood
for mains.
Pics: New best friends and Mike making a very drunken
lurch back into our dinghy after
lunch! 3 more days of socialising and watching the weather
forecast, down loading weather forecasts and waiting for any breath of wind.
Island Kea join us for a meal, we beer o’clock with them and Mahimahi and, on
our last night in Bayona we go to Island Kea for a delicious meal cooked for us
by restaurateur Marcus. Somewhere in all this haze the last of the homemade
lemoncello gets drunk so I’m on the lookout for more Eau-de-vie to make more! We
meet Dan and Charlotte from Hestur – a
2-masted boat they made themselves and we are full of admiration for
their planned trip across the Atlantic. There’s been no rain for a couple of weeks apparently, so
we have 2 forest fires during these days at anchor, sadly. Exactly the same
thing happened the first year that we were here, this year, happily, we weren’t
covered in ash and didn’t get cinder burns in our sails and the fires were
swiftly dealt with.
Pics: Helicopters and planes scooping water from the bay
to drop onto the fires. Viana de Costelo
Our Spanish courtesy flag has shredded itself so is back
in the sewing sick bay till the next time the machine is pulled out. A few dolphins emerge to play but the
day is overcast and damp probably as it rained last night, which was the final
straw in our decision to head on South in search of the sun.
We are becoming true snow geese! Mike is glum because of
the need to motor and, in addition, he’s found a tear in the Yankee along one of
the folds that definitely wasn’t there when he rolled it away so another item
added to my sewing list. We head
into Viana for a night on the marina pontoon in the river. Mike has decided the
outboard can’t stay on the stern rail as it interferes with the wind steering,
so time to move everything round again. Just completing the job when Island Kea
shows up. Viana to Leixoes, Porto Mike still thinks we are off to Cascais but I have other
plans to visit Porto. Well, he did say that once we crossed the Biscay I could
choose where we go! Lots of muttering about losing days with wind – I point out we have 3 months to get to Rabat and
the wind will surely blow again before then! Don’t think I’ve ever seen so many sea birds! Porto We catch the bus to Porto in full sunshine. Quick coffee
and cake to refuel and then hop on a double-decker sightseeing bus to do our
usual orientation trip. We get off after the bus crosses the river to see the
pretty wharf side warehouses and Port shops. Got to do the port wine tasting
after all! Into the food and wine fest that’s going on on the riverbank to watch
Portuguese celebrity chefs (!) do their thing and a sojourn in the sun with a
white port on the river bank. Quick visit to port shop to buy red and white port
at cheaper prices away from the warehouses (red port, white port, any port in a
storm!) and back to RT for a well-earned
rest!
Cascais Rounding the final headland there is the customary
“blowing old boots” wind and we reef quickly only to be becalmed as we come into
the bay. Anchored in the bay and the sun is shining.
We planned to stay in Cascais for a week or so waiting
for the spare engine hoses to arrive from UK and an envelope from Charlotte with
a memory stick of their wedding photos. So, lots of socialising was done
including celebrating the birth of Miles Maxwell Goldsmith on Friday
13th. Congratulations to our Aussie wing of the family. We now boast
3 grandsons!
Calm restored at the back of Give me Five
after one of the dinghies flipped itself upside down on top of the
others in a gust that sent their paddles flying and all 4 boys
scrabbling to rescue them! We had drinks aboard Give me Five with
Claude and Gaelle, a lovely couple from Geneva and then we returned
the hospitality also inviting Michael from Drina, a very experienced
Aussie
circumnavigator. A couple of
days into our sojourn here Sara and Magnus on Mahimahi arrived and a few days
later Marcus and Margie on Island Kea showed up too. So we’ve been on board
there for yet another lovely dinner, this year the socialising is very high
class! We walked round some of the illuminated art installations, which
comprised the festival Lumina one weekend, but Magnus insisted we stop and find
a bar so we never saw the rest!
Tell me,
seriously, what kind of kid is going to choose to ride the pig on a
roundabout! The wind
blew in big gusts for several days and the customary heat replaced
by a chill wind but finally it disappeared and normal service has
been resumed. On top of that we’ve managed to get our bow thruster
motor serviced organised by the very beautiful John
Pedro! The sewing machine emerged so we now have a repaired
genoa, various flags repaired, mozzie screens resurrected and Mike’s shorts
sporting 2 patch pockets on the rear where he’d worn through them. I finally got
my birthday present from Mike, a new MP3 player, so I can listen to all the
audio books I got from Margie. Other than that, days of lazing in the sun
reading books. It’s a hard life! The parcels we’ve been waiting for finally
turned up (lovely pics of Charlotte and Chris’ wedding!) so we are ready to move
on.
The jellyfish here are enormous and very
ugly. One day a
neoprene laptop case floated by, so we hooked it on board to find an
Apple Mac Pro inside, obviously too wet to have survived its swim
but the red case is very nice, thank you! Bad weather forecast so
decision made to hole up in the river near Lisbon waiting for
improvement
Magnetic Attraction arrived so dinner on board RT with
Magnetic Attraction, Island Kea and
Mahimahi.
The beautiful marble sets pavements of Cascais
Cascais to Seixal Fog becomes a real pea souper by the
time we are at the entrance to the river but we finally emerge into sunshine as
we near the bridge. SeixalOur day started with cocoa (!) and ashore for provisions
where we stocked up on French stuff we haven’t been able to source anywhere else
like Pastis! Find Loic and Marie in the boatyard getting their pulpit repaired
from when they got stuck under a gantry, which was lifting with the tide! Marcus
and Margie also there by dinghy getting their watermaker repaired and there’s a
washing machine so that’s on our list for this week while we shelter from very
gusty winds and the first rain we’ve seen since we left the UK. Magnus turns up
the next day waiting for Sara to get back from Sweden. After 2 nights at anchor
and reanchoring several times we move up to the pontoon and tie up alongside
Island Kea who promptly invite us for dinner as the local fisherman have given
them 2 big fish and a bucket of tiny crabs which Marcus makes into a delish
sauce for the fish. Aperos aboard RT and back out to anchor after 2 nights with
shore power. September only travelled 265 miles, which makes a total
of 1135 miles this trip. Way to go! |
