Hello from LISBON!

Sarah Grace goes to sea
Chris Yerbury and Sophy White
Fri 7 Oct 2005 23:24
 
This is a picture of Mimi running around a brilliant children controlled water fountain in a playground in Fig Foz.
 
There have been horrible fires throughout Portugal, and the boat has been filled with ash, and we have seen lots of smoke.  Leaving the harbour was prevented by the harbour master whilst planes filled their water tanks in the calm water of the river, whilst still flying.
Hello All, we are 100 miles further south, in Cascais,which is just out of Lisbon, and it has suddenly got hot again. Must keep going south!!  The last week further up the coast was cold and foggy, we finally followed African Queen out of Figueira Da Foz,(Foggyarea Da Fog), and broke free, we hope forever, of fog.  Chris kept rushing up from the radar  shouting, 'There's something off the starboard bow!' and it was a fishing pot flag.   These occur in dense packs between zero and fifty metres depth, and some are camoflagued,(cereal box sized white polystyrene blocks, or with blue flags).
Not having done a passage since Biscay, we are now getting all keen, and are having esoteric conversations along the line of,'Shall we go to Madeira and then the Gambia, or to the Algarve and then Morocco..??'.   It's all a bit of a mystery to us at the moment.   Should the next passage be horrible, I am threatening to stay in the Canaries all winter and learn Spanish,(whilst updating web-site with fantasy photos of the Caribbean and appropriate tales).
Chris says:
'The last hour into Cascais was accompanied by a sudden doubling in the windspeed, Sarah Grace storming ahead at a steady seven plus knots'
Sophy says:  'Chris was cackling with manic laughter as he increased his lead over a chasing yacht with a spinnaker'.