Leixoes, Nr Porto, Portugal

Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Sat 11 Oct 2014 22:52
41:11.160N
008:42.325W

Leixoes Marina, 3 miles north of Porto, Portugal; a very busy and interesting harbour with constant activity, ships coming and going, pilot boats buzzing in and out, 40 + dinghies from the local sailing club, never a dull moment.

The weather forecast talks of 50 knot gusts from the south tomorrow, so we have scuttled into the Marina and lie here alongside 7 other boats all waiting for the elusive northerlies to kick in. It looks like we may have to wait a week, but it will give us a good chance to jump on the bus and visit Porto itself on Monday, 3 miles away. And of course there is a happy little girl on board who will have her birthday in Portugal on Tuesday, she spent time today writing a list of party games (Pass the Parcel, Pass the Pig), then the food she'd like, let's hope we can find some friends to invite, otherwise it will be the four of us!

In the meantime, there are 4 Mullet in the marina swimming around with sore mouths, Harry caught 5 and threw 4 back, he cut the 5th up and used it for bait to try to attract the Dover Sole swimming under the pontoon. It is 10pm and we have just dragged him in off the pontoon unimpressed that it is bed time.

A delightfully sociable day and we have just returned from an evening onboard "Sile A Do", fishing boat turned beautiful family sailing boat (met them in Roscanval and more recently in Bayona). Thanks to Helen and Leo for showing us a slide show of her restoration project, (wonderfully reminiscent of Partridge's rebuild.................. but took 2 years!) Harry and Isabelle photographed here at the end of her bowsprit this morning.

Earlier a tropical rainstorm with lightening, is this the calm before the storm? The bigger boats on the pontoon were asked to tie up to the sea wall so not to tear the pontoon away from the seabed, the marina staff are taking the forecast seriously. At present not a drop of wind though, the only sound reaching us other than the mullet jumping out the water is of a typical Saturday night in town, drunken voices, plenty of singing, breaking glass.





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