Sines to Lisbon
Mira's Web Diary
Gordon and Catherine
Thu 8 May 2014 10:32
38:41.65N 09:12.26W Sunday – Sines is a small marina in an
industrial area well away from the town, so we decided to press on to Lisbon
while the wind, although from the north, is still light. So, it’s showers and breakfast then back to
passage planning another overnighter before a long siesta in the
afternoon. We slip just as the sun goes
down and, as before, it’s back to motor sailing with the mainsail only, keeping
sufficiently off the wind to fill the sail and meet the waves comfortably. It looks like another uneventful night but
just before 2am the fog comes down. It’s
my watch so I have to call Gordon and we both sit up, fully alert. It’s good that we know our AIS is
working. After an hour we can see on the
chart plotter that a cargo ship is heading for us, although luckily at only 7
knots. We’re the give way boat and alter
course to starboard but then she alters course too and is still heading towards
us. It feels like cat and mouse so
Gordon calls her on the radio to make sure she’s aware of us. Unbelievably they are not monitoring channel
16 and despite several calls she’s still coming towards us, although of course
we can’t see her in the fog. We keep
making course adjustments and Gordon gets me to shine a spotlight on our
mainsail to make us more visible.
Suddenly she looms out of the fog and passes down our port side to our
immense relief.
The fog lifts with the dawn and it’s another beautiful
day. We need to wait for the tide to
turn to motor up the river to Lisbon so we slow down and potter onwards. We’re just clearing up after breakfast when
our shallow water alarm sounds. Shallow
water? We’re supposed to be on the 60m
contour but the answer is delightful.
Dolphins are swimming under and round the boat, causing the alarm to
sound. They must be able to hear it and
we soon have a dozen or so dolphins on all sides of us, diving underneath and
jumping out of the water alongside us. Mira
is clearly their latest plaything and they stay with us for half an hour or so
while we simply sit and enjoy - I think they’re our compensation for the awful
night we’ve just had and I even manage to capture a couple on camera. Eventually they swim off and we concentrate
on getting up the river and into our marina for a late lunch – another 60 miles
under our belt and a total of 356 NM to date.
