Location: Leixoes

Lat/Lon: 41:10.20N 008:42.35W

DOUGLAS:

We said goodbye to John and Helen and the next morning we set off for Leixoes, a large marina inside a large commercial port. Again due to lack of wind we had to motor.

We arrived in brilliant sunshine to find eight or so huge container ships anchored outside

The harbour entrance awaiting their turn to enter. As we made our approach a monster of a ship also made a dash for the entrance so I thought it prudent to give way and follow him in, tucking close in behind his stern and using him as a shield against all the traffic that was coming out. On the way in, a distance of about a mile, we met a Fred Olson liner, a tanker and a bulk carrier. As our friendly container ship did a handbrake turn to starboard we broke off, crossed the shipping lane and entered the marina. After tea we took a walk up town but it was fairly uninspiring being the dock area for Porto. We were fascinated by the huge cranes that were able to strip a container ship of it’s cargo in a matter of minutes, or so it seemed.

Just before John and Helen leave.

Following our friendly container ship.