Figueira da Foz
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sun 5 Oct 2008 17:51
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Today we have arrived at Figueira da Foz which is
situated at the mouth of the longest river to rise in Portugual (so the pilot
book tells us). The voyage from Leixoes - some 65 miles took approx 12 hours and
was a motor all the way with little breeze to speak of - certainly not enough to
get this heavy old cat going!
We slipped from Leixoes at around 0600 and were
halfway to the harbour entrance when an inbound container ship halted our
progress as we stooged around giving it whatever room it required to enter the
narrow docks area on the river. Once it was clear we could motor out into the
dark morning steering clear of the many lobster pots that litter the coast of
Portugual. Other than that the only other worthwhile matter of note to
report was that at last we had managed to tune into the Bracknell weather
centre on the SSB radio which gave us an up to date weather map.
Unfortunately, having found the right station I stupidly left the radio and fax
machine on all night to see what else it may give us only to awake to yards
and yards of fax paper strewn around the nav area as the fax machine had
obviously had a busy night of it! But at least we are getting some good weather
info from the SSB radio now, but will have to look for some more fax paper soon.
Do they still sell it I wonder?
Today we have walked all the way along the town
beach on miles of soft golden sand and walked back along the promonade like many
of the locals enjoying the warm autumn sunshine. Portugual is famous for its
beaches - milesof them and the soft sand makes for a challenging walk. Our
friends Jan and Ruth in their catamaran left at first light this morning as they
have only a limited amount of time to get the boat down to the Med. Last night
they invited us onboard for some Port (from Porto - naturally) and
some Roqufort blue cheese before we retired for an early night after the
long day. We may stay in Figueira da Foz another day or so depending on the
weather.
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