Porto Shabbat

 Adam

Well finally we did it, we organised ourselves sufficiently to do a Shabbat meal, candles wine challa the whole enchilada. And of course all the prayers. Its not that we have been avoiding the Shabbat its more that we don’t ever really know the days of the week. So sporadically one of us will say lets do Shabbat next Friday and then its Sunday and we have forgotten about it. Anyhow Dawn cooked some chicken soup followed by fresh fish and then profiteroles. Its very easy i think to lose your religion when sailing as there are none of the reinforcements that you have back home. However when you arrive safely in port I think we all privately thank G-d.

Yesterday Dawn and I spent most of the day fixing a pump that removes the waste from the holding tank. When i say waste i don’t mean kitchen waste. Anyhow it was not pleasant though ultimately successful. However for all of you who think we are on a cruise like you see in the glossy brochures youre right we are, its just that we are the crew. Each day brings more chores and passengers (Gabe and Hannah) to satisfy.

Its been a few days our friends the O’Sullivans have left and arrived safely in Cascais, mixed feelings we are glad they are continuing with their journey but we all miss them. The photos of  the pretty white boat is there’s.  As some of you know we are waiting on parts from the uk to fix our autopilot so we are marooned here another week. So we have rented a car and have decided to visit Serra da Estrela, it sounds like the Portuguese lake district, they have a ski resort though i think we are a bit early for snow. Anyhow we have booked into a nice hotel and will blog you later re our trip.

Footnote: We are all constantly learning on this trip. There is an important knot called a bowline pronounced bohlyn that i have had a mental bloc on. Its an important knot as it makes a fixed eyelet that can take a lot of pressure and can be broken easily. Anyhow in 12 months i have had to ask Hannah and dawn to do them for me. Today Hannah taught me how to do it. It meant a lot to me,