38:41.606N 9:24.975W

Today, Monday, we returned to what we know best…..retail therapy. We visited the out of town shopping mall by bus (7km away 3.40 euro return). We think the bus drivers race each other to see who can complete each route the quickest!

We had one objective, to find a vacuum cleaner that was physically small (to store on the boat where space is at a premium) and very quiet (so it wouldn’t wake Koshka). Well our Portuguese wasn’t that good and they didn’t seem too keen to let us turn on all 20 models to see which the quietest one was. We decided on one model but could not find any assistant or work out how to buy it – hence we left empty handed. There were no boxes on the shelves only demo models.

As we left the shopping centre we saw our bus pull away and realised we had to wait for another one. We then decided it didn’t matter – we had all the time in the world and can slow down now. We don’t even wear watches any more (although it did mean we had no idea when the next bus was due so picking up the timetable was pointless!). Anne just pointed out I packed the train timetable and not the bus one, so we really had no chance at all of knowing when the next bus would arrive!!!

We got back (via bus we hasten to add) to howling winds in the marina. The cats are spooked and so are we. We turned the wind instruments on and realised it was 30+ kn / F7 – no wonder it sounds bad. Then we realised we were out in this wind across Biscay. We had another glass of wine to celebrate our safe passage.