Do boats get the hump?
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Sat 9 Aug 2008 13:10
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39:35.018N 09:04.494W
Nazare
After a day spent doing laundry/shopping in Povoa
de Varzim then a day in Porto purchasing 'essential supplies' [after some
judicious sampling], it was time to move on. The forecast was for NW F4 to 6,sea
state moderate to rough. Normally, I don't 'do' rough, but in this case I felt
that the conditions would be more akin to Tradewind sailing (although the
trades' sea-state is not normally rough, there are usually large, regular seas)
and I wanted to see how the autohelm would cope and play around with sail
combinations. Nazare is safe in all weathers, the distance was 108 nm so all in
all I felt it was a reasonable bet. Bearing in mind my previous record with
weather forecasts, I had a sneaking suspicion that the wind would struggle to
make F4 and there would be some motoring involved.
In the event, I left Povoa with a steady NW F5 and
moderate seas, full gennaker, no main and a lovely sunny day. Troutbridge loved
it, and we belted along anywhere between 7 & 8+kts. For the first two hours,
despite the numerous fishing pots, we always seemed to be going between them, no
avoiding action necessary. It began to occur to me that I was going to have to
slow down. I had left at 1100 (same as UK time) and wanted to arrive the
following morning in daylight. At this pace, we would arrive at 0300 or
thereabouts. I put a roll in the Gennaker, but in any case we were now getting
fairly frequent gusts of 27kts, so I put out the working gib, with three reefs
in it so life would be easier for the autohelm. I don't think Trouters was too
impressed by this, although we were still doing 6 to 7 kts, because for the next
couple of hours ALL the fishing pots appeared lined up with one or other hull
and avoiding action was definitely necessary! The sea state was indeed rough and
stayed that way, although the wind gradually dropped off to 5 kts, around 0200!
I ghosted along for a bit as I was nearing the coast and getting back into
'fishing-pot territory' again and didn't want to risk much motoring in the dark.
Eventually, just about first light I dropped the gennaker (which was flapping
around anyway) and motored for an hour or so to get in.
Nazare is not an inspiring marina, in fact I'm
rafted up against Moonshiner as there isn't much room, and the harbourmaster is
worried because the pontoon was damaged yesterday in strong winds. The town is
1.5 miles away and the harbour area is fairly typical 'port de Peche', i.e. not
inspiring. Weather allowing, we'll move on tomorrow to Cascais. This will
probably be a long day's sail, but should be 'do-able' in daylight. Cascais
marina is renowned for being expensive, unlike Povoa de Varzim wich was 15Euros
per night, all in. I think we'll be anchoring in the bay and make enquiries
about the marinas in Lisbon on foot. Again, the chap here (English) is very
negative about the prospects of finding a berth anywhere in Lisbon and mutters
about it being 50 + Euros per night, we'll see. He might be right or perhaps
he's 'got the hump' about something as well.
So..... DO boats get the hump, if so have I been
forgiven yet.....only time will tell.
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