Left Bayona early. Lovely dawn and sun coming over the hills beautiful clear day and ran slap bang into solid fog whilst still well inside the entrance to the bay. Put radar on and that nice chap Ray Marine went bonkers. Fiddled around and put back into beautiful clear sunny Bayona and hung about on a buoy til got him sorted then plunged back into the gloom. Said gloom persisted til about 1500 as we motored down the coast. Yes – motored. The fabled Portuguese trades are on their holidays at the moment. what wind there was went to the west then ssw and sse!!! Not in the brochure. We eventually got to Leixoes about 2100 and tied up to the reception dock. Said Leixoes is a very large commercial port and we have a fine view of the container terminal about 100 yards away and the Pilot boat dock, about 50 yards away. Said PBs are driven with considerable panache and verve and operate 24/7 necessitating doubling up of line as mini tsunamis surge along our dock as they ply their trade.

 

Took the tram into Porto TRULY amazing place. Monumental buildings and public square, rectangle really, tiled buildings, steep streets with cable cars like SFO and the Douro running fast and deep with tourist boats and port carriers with barrels of port and the great port houses high on the other bank, white with red tiled roofs. Huge bustling riverside full of restaurants and bars. Bridges arching across the river in all directions busy with people and traffic and the light rail

 

A place worth seeing.

 

Was planning to leave tonight for Portimao but fog closed in and with the vast numbers of crab pots along this coast decided to wait til tomorrow. The pots are laid on long lines with a float at either end and a pick up buoy and are not easy to see. A very good lookout is a must.