Loving it in Cascais
ULA
John & Jackie Richards
Sat 23 Aug 2008 15:42
|
Position 038:41.428N 009:25.132W
As the skipper's last blog only reported the
sailing details of the trip to Cascais, a quick backtrack from yours truly on
Nazare and an update on our time in Cascais.
Nazare was quite a bit bigger than we expected and
is a thriving tourist spot for the Portugese with a lots of shops and
restaurants and very nice beaches. The marina is in the fishing harbour approx
1.5km from the town and run by an English couple, retired Capt Mike Hadley and
his wife Sally who are very helpful. We had a final night out on the town with
the crew of Libertad on Monday 18th before saying goodbye to them early Tuesday
as they had to be in Lagos by Wednesday pm . As they were moored inside
us we were up early to let them out and rather than go back to bed, John,
Andrew and I sat planning the likely meals/provisioning for the ARC over several
cups of coffee. Feeding a crew of six for probably 18-21 days at sea is
quite a task, not to mention the other little essentials such as how many toilet
rolls might we need! Later we visited Nazare - most of it is at sea
level but there is a funicular which takes you up to a higher town area which
has street markets, a wonderful old church and fantastic views. We also walked
to the lighthouse we would have liked to have seen more of if it hadnt
been foggy on the way in! The day was rounded off by a meal at the local
yacht club. As everyone knows my credentials as 'last minute.com personified'
are well established - having been told the meal was booked for 7.00pm I was
ready as ever around 7.05ish only to find I was actually 25 minutes early! I
should have smelt a rat when I emerged from the showers at 6.50pm to find John
casually chatting to the crew of Nimue outside the
bar...mmm.......!
Our trip to Cascais was great apart from the Force
7 winds as we came in - fortunately the marina staff here are used to
these late afternoon strong winds which are a feature of this coast, and
were very helpful. It is also easier berthing in a blow with more crew on board
to jump off/fend off etc. After the large sea swells we had experienced on the
way down here, even dry land was swaying for a while after we got in -
although the several beers and wine may have had something to do with
it?!
As of today, 23 August, we are still landlubbing in
Cascais - our longest stop over ever I think! Tom is due to get a
flight back to Basel from Lisbon tomorrow am after which we hope to leave
for Sines. Having aborted plans to stop at Peniche on the way to
Cascais, we have had an extra couple of days
here than originally planned and are loving it. Wednesday saw
us exploring Cascais itself,(very nice, upmarket resort), doing a
massive shop at the 'Jumbo' supermarket - witness Andrew, ('a man on a mission')
with a shopping trolley - no prisoners taken!! Bearing in mind that we
have to carry it all back and there were several special offers on the beers and
wine, we were forced to call in Laura and Tom to help out as 'bag persons' - Tom
got landed with the job of transporting a cardboard box of 24 beers
(6euros!) back to the boat!
Thursday we took the train to Lisbon (about 15
miles due east) and managed not to get evicted from the train with
incorrect tickets this time!! As previously reported, 'it never rains in
Portugal' but we were treated to 90% cloud cover and a few spots during the day!
Everyone liked Lisbon - we did a lot of the sights and had a pleasant lunch out
in the Baixa area.Yesterday saw us hiring a car and visiting Sintra, a
very beautiful area a few miles North of here. We did a lot of walking and
visited the Palace de Pena which was impressive. Later there were fireworks both
on board Ula and ashore! Aboard Ula the race is on between John and Andrew to
confirm the exact location of the Battle of Trafalgar! Yours truly will be
having a 'Google' moment later to get the precise coordinates as it got
serious and the bet is on dinner out tonight!! Ashore the fireworks were of the
more usual sort and equally as spectacular.
The wind last night got up to 40 knots - it seems
to funnel down the hills and hit the marina area with a blast. Today has been a
chilling day - catching up, sunbathing, blogging, reading and Su Doku. The
combined efforts of all five us have managed only eight out of god knows how
many clues in the weekend FT Polymath - cerebral atrophy has set in it seems! We
need to get our brains in gear and sea legs back for tomorrow's trip to
Sines,
One or two quotes from the last few
days:
'I never drink at lunchtime' - Jackie halfway down
a beer in one hand and with a glass of white wine in the other over lunch
in Lisbon!
'I've done all ten boyfriends now - Andrew on
finishing his book (see previous blog)
'No Andrew, it's this way!' - John to Andrew during
Sintra trip
'No John, - it's this way!' - Andrew to John, also
on Sintra trip
Internet connections,mailasail and weather
conditions permitting, next blog from Sines.
Jackie
|