Into a fish!
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Wed 20 Oct 2010 20:57
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39:35.02N
009:04.51W
The tuna count jumped to three today. The whale
count and the lobster-pot-wrapped-around-the-prop count happily remained
obstinately on zero. Not for any lack of opportunity, mind you. Though we spent
most of the day running along the coast in depths usually considered unsuitable
for whales, we saw countless lobster pots and fishing buoys. It's a sort of
endemic pollution in places, and plenty of people have come to grief on them. No
more night sailing in these waters for us.
Our small albacore (a snip at just a couple of
pounds) was fished on a new lure that we bought in Leixoes. The small, plastic
sardine has a huge lower lip which drags it 5m under water as we tow it along
behind us and prevents it from being picked off by gulls, unlike some of our
other lures. Oddly enough, another boat that we'd been keeping pace with most of
the day got into fish at the same time as us. They only caught mackerel,
though...
We're in the marina at Nazare tonight which is
mostly distinguished in my mind as 'the place that smells of fish'. The fish
quay is 100 yards away and the local fishing boats literally race each other in
to land the catch first. A bell is rung when the first boat gets in to let
everyone know that the auction is starting. We had hoped to anchor off a
fabulous beach in the lee of a headland by the town, but the swell crept round
the corner and made it uncomfortable. Also, the seabed rocketed up from 100m
deep to just 6m, very close to the beach and we would almost have been in the
rollers.
The high life continues here, with drinks on board
some friendly Germans a few boats down. We've been shadowing them since Gijon
but have never really spoken. We saw Belgo-Australo-Italian David in his
Yarmouth 23 again and the Swedes appeared too, making it a full house. Next stop
Peniche, then on to Cascais for Lisbon.
Lovely Leixoes
 ria de Aveiro
  Another quiet day at sea
 Then I ruined it by putting the spinnaker
up
 Figueira da Foz
  Beachfront at Nazare - anchorage sadly not
on
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