39:21.119N 9:22.598W                                                         5- 9/10/14

Figueira da Foz to Nazare to Peniche……………………. and a fish at last!   

We planned to leave Figueria da Foz at 8am after paying our harbour dues of course but unfortunately that plan didn’t survive first contact. The harbour office was due to open at 8 so Norma was sitting outside the café next door at ten to 8 waiting while I got Spectra ready for sea. At 9:30 a rather sleepy security guard turned up and opened the office, so there went that plan. At 10 am we set sail for Nazare and as is the norm had 15 knots of wind smack on the nose all the way so on went the engine again!  About two hours later wonder of wonders the fishing gear started streaming out line which caused a bit of a flap on board as this was definitely new territory. Norma slowed the boat down while I rather nervously began to wind in the line still half expecting to see a large clump of seaweed attached to the hook. But no, Paul the hunter gatherer extraordinaire had provided for his clan by capturing a beast from the deep. Well not exactly a beast, it was a 1.5Lb Mackerel type fish which had taken a snap at my lure as it shot by at 6.5 Knots. All I can say is that 30 mins from catch to plate it tasted great. See pics for evidence and, No Steve, there is not a shopping bag or fishmongers in sight ye of little faith.

The hunter and his prize. Note the sailing gear, Jacket by Jeckells, trousers by Army surplus and still wearing my old deckies.

Sea to plate in 30 minutes, served on our posh new plates courtesy of Andy and Sarah.

Nazare is billed as an all weather port which is pretty rare on this coast and even more so when you consider that this is also the town that registered the largest wave ever surfed. There are pictures of it all over the place, even in the harbour office which is a bit disconcerting. The monster waves are created by deep sea bed canyons just off shore, and they are deep! One on the chart drops to over 700 meters from a surrounding depth of 50 within a matter of 100 meters or so and it is only a mile across. The monster wave in question was 30 meters high and the photographs show a tiny surfer flying down the face of it as it towers over the lighthouse on the cliff top at the bays entrance. Needless to say we encountered none of that nonsense as we entered harbour on a manageable 3m swell.

Approach to Nazare, the 30 Meter surfers wave formed in front of the cliff to the left. But not this day I hasten to add.

Norma did what Norma does best and we were soon chatting to Dave who was single handing a 36 foot yacht down to the med for the winter. He had more or less been one step ahead of us for the whole trip with the exception that he went around the coast of Biscay rather than across it as we had (thrupenny bitting the bay as Johnny Foster called it). The weather was due to change and to prove the point a 30ft British yacht came in that night with a very wet and bedraggled bunch of twenty some-things on board who had been caught out in a squall coming down from Figueira Da Foz. The next day we headed into town for breakfast and to get internet access somewhere. Nazare is very much a holiday town with all of the restaurants selling of the same menu and lots of camper vans around. I think it must be included on the bucket list of the European caravan clubs 100 places to visit before you die. Anyway the weather showed a window of opportunity that afternoon and then it was closing in for 2-3 days so we made the decision to move onto Peniche 25 miles further south.

A rush back to Spectra was followed by a quick move onto the fuel pontoon while Norma walked over to the petrol station on the road outside the marina which bizarrely controlled the pumps. After much confusion about which pump was actually diesel I put 400 litres of fuel into the tanks and gave my bank balance a good kick in the pants to be sure. The dash down to Peniche was pretty horrible, 20 knots of wind dead on the nose (where else would it come from with the other 359 degrees being out of bounds at the moment). We also had 1.5 knots of tide against us, a 3meter swell coming from the North and rain showers to boot so it was head down and get the journey over with.

No room in the Inn at Peniche and so we had to raft up outside of a French yacht and in front of a very worried Halberg Rassey owner who gave plenty of advice but not a lot of actual help in the mooring procedure. Anyway, I got Spectra alongside second attempt without any bumps or scrapes which is always nice.  As I went ashore to fasten the shore lines a friendly English voice shouted, “long time no see” it was Vicky who had completed her Day Skipper course at the RTYC Nav School and had subsequently went on the first RTYC Spanish cruise with Nigel Collingwood and Co a couple of years ago. She was helping to crew a large trawler yacht ‘Western Star’ down to the Med (small world). As it was raining we organised a meet up for the following day because low and behold Dave from Nazare had also come down to Peniche and was rafted up alongside the Western Star (smaller world).

Electric hook up Peniche style and it worked!                                                  Spectra rafted up

The rain then began to fall from the heavens and so we dashed below, Norma to get dinner on the go and me to put the boat to bed. After dinner while I was back on deck sorting out a clanging halyard I heard a shout and very unladylike language from below. With 31 years of marriage under my belt I thought it best to stay on deck until the dust had settled and so it was a good ten minutes later that I went below. Norma had walked into the galley at full pelt forgetting that she had opened the drop down oven door. This door being at knee height had cut deeply into her knee. When I came below she was laying flat on her back, her right leg in the air with a 4 inch gash oozing blood onto the carpet. It did look pretty nasty, and so under repeated and prolonged advice from the ships medical officer, I cleaned it up and applied a dressing. Luckily it was not too deep so Tony Smythe’s suturing lesson did not have to be put to the test, but it was a stinger that’s for sure. I settled Norma down with a cup of coffee and her leg elevated while I did the washing up, as all good husbands should do in an emergency. No pics too icky.

The next day it was into town to experience the hot spots of Peniche on a very rainy and windy Wednesday in October. We did the usual rounds of harbour office and port Capitinaire to book ourselves in and then had an absolutely ginormous pancake for breakfast.  The weather report was strong winds for Wednesday, large residual swell on Thursday and so it will be Friday before we head of down to Cascais to meet up with the new crew. We met up with the Western Star crew again in a coffee shop with WiFi (you always find the yachties huddled where they can get internet access) and were invited aboard for a look around. After we had done the rounds of the shops in Peniche and restocked Spectra’s larder Norman from Belfast (go figure) one of the long term crew gave us a guided tour of the Western Star. Tony the owner had spent 5 years refitting her for the trip down to the Med and she was very nicely done if I say so myself. After that it was a reciprocal visit and obligatory beer aboard Spectra before going out for a group meal in Peniche.

From left to right, Western Star Crew and Dave aboard Spectra.

Norman from Belfast, Dave solo sailor, Sally, Tony Owner Skipper and Vicky          The Western Star ready to leave Peniche

On the way back to the boat we helped moor up a small yacht coming in with a very wet and bedraggled crew of 20 some-things. It was the same crew from Nazare who had again left late and battled the weather that we had made the dash to avoid the previous day. (Even smaller world). I think they are either gluttons for punishment or just don’t check the weather very well because they are certainly making hard work of the trip. Anyway they seem happy enough this morning as they hang out all of their sailing gear to dry again.

On to Cascais tomorrow weather permitting……………………..