How do you wake a crew up REALLY fast - read on!
Catou
Paul and Sylvie Tucker
Sat 17 Jul 2010 19:02
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Sunday 11th July The morning
started on time with showers at 0800. A huge and very posh marina at Bayona had
a portacabin for a shower with a floor that felt you would fall through at any
moment. Dreadful toilets and plumbing: marks: 1/10. I left the shower at
0830 and said to Nigel that I was going for bread. It took me an hour and
5 minutes to get back. I tried the old trick of following a lady with a
purposeful stride and a purse in her hand (this time I observed carefully -
she didn't seem the church-going type I felt, since she was in jeans
and a t-shirt!) Hey presto, she led me to a bakery - but it was closed! So off I
went and I walked the streets of Bayona for an hour. Eventually I did
find a bakery and bought 4 baguettes, arriving back on board to
see worried faces - they thought I'd been abducted. Nigel and Helen
opened a bottle of champagne and we had buck's fizz (it was my birthday) for
breakfast with the baguettes. Sylvie gave me a lovely new pair
of binnoculars with a compass inside them, so I was giving everyone
bearings of whatever I was looking at through them.
So we left a little later than anticipated, with a 10
hour trip to Leixoes ahead of us. Leixoes is a small (but extremely busy)
commercial port just north of Porto. Yachts are 'discouraged' from
entering the Douro river and going up to Porto, since it is very shallow at the
entrance with a dangerous bar, so Leixoes is the nearest place to park. We
left Bayona at about 1000 and soon ran into the expected fog again. It
was very thick and we ran through it for hours with viz down to about
200 metres, so there was a continuous radar watch and eyes peeled on deck until
we eventually ran out of the fog after about 7 or 8 hours. We passed
a couple of yachts at 1/8 mile without seeing them, but Catou's radar was
excellent (it can even pick up lobster pot buoys which are tiny). There
was not a breath of wind, so we motored the whole way. We arrived at 2100
and anchored in the outer harbour.
Monday 12th July Ashore
for showers and introduced ourselves to a rather uninterested harbour office. By
the time we had come out of the showers, one toilet was blocked (from a previous
occupant) and the inlet valve had stuck open (greatly encouraged by
Nigel!), so there was water overflowing out through the door + the
showers had run cold. Finally, after a very late breakfast we caught
the bus into Porto and began a day of sight-seeing in a wonderful city. We
walked and walked and walked. Had a lovely lunch down in the touristy area
by the river, and even managed a 45 mins boat trip up and down the Douro river
underneath the high bridges that span the gorge. In some ways it
is a similar setting to Bristol with it's deep gorge and bridge. We
found a most amazing Baroque church + museums relating to the port
industry, but we saved the port tour until Tuesday. We had a very
late night trip back to Catou, and after successfully getting to grips with the
city's new tram system which took us all the way back to Leixoes port, we
then ended up with a very long late-night walk back to our marina, after getting
off at the wrong stop, and arrived back on board at about
2330.
Tuesday 13th July I woke up at
about 7.45, and lay in my bunk for a while. Suddenly at 0800 there was an
almighty blast/bang, from what seemed to be underneath the boat with an
extraordinary sound (turned out to be the anchor chain rattling/vibrating).
All of us were out of our bunks in a second and in the cockpit.
I thought that someone had run into us and Nigel thought the mast had
collapsed, but we took a quick look about and nothing seemed out of place and no
boats close by. There was a dredging operation going on close by, and as I
looked in that direction we got a second 'blast' just as I saw the sea next to
the dredger lift like a depth charge in those old films. The dredging
operation somehow involved some underwater explosive work - but with no warning
to the anchored yachts nearby!
So, after another late breakfast and showers etc, we
went back into Porto for a day at the Port warehouses. The main Port
companies are all on the south bank of the river. All the famous names such as
Grahams, Taylors, Sandeman, Calem and many others are there. We opted for
Taylors, for no other reason than it had a decent sign pointing us in their
general direction. After a bit of a trek and a very determined Nigel,
we found the Taylors visitors' centre - with a wonderful looking
restaurant. We opted for the restaurant, and Nigel & Helen insisted on
buying lunch for us. It was one of those meals you don't forget.
With a glass of white port as an aperitif, we all had a different fish main
course. It was lovely, with views over old Porto. After coffee,
we left the dinning room - and, surprise, surprise, finished off with
another glass of port, before going on a guided tour of the factory. We
were taken into the warehouses and amongst hundreds and hundreds of huge oak
barrels our guide explained about the port production. It was a very
interesting tour, and - surprisingly, we finished off with a glass of vintage
port before buying some bottles to take on
board 'Catou'.
An early night, since Nigel and Helen are sadly leaving
us in the morning to fly home. |
