We woke find ourselves
surrounded by a mass of other cruising yachts in the anchorage we had cruised
into in darkness, we pulled up and left the masses Thursday18th
September at 8:16AM and motored towards Oeiras, a relatively new marina just out
side of Lisbon’s centre 38:40.55N 9:19.05W
The cruise down was
lovely, only five miles but still very exciting coming into a large city, once
again we felt like real adventurer’s.
Just as we made it to the
marina (we were about 500 meters from it) we rounded the last bend to head in
only to be met by the last of the ebb which was running at 5 Knots under us so
we were not going anywhere fast. We were being thrown around like a bath toy in
the rippling water and not moving an inch, so I gave the engine all that it had
and we slowly moved forward. We came into the marina moored up looking forward
to a day out in Lisbon
only to find I had blown the timing case seal out of the engine. There was oil
everywhere, stupid thing, I freaked out a little in fact I felt sick after
having visions of us being stuck here for days and the engine having to be
dismantled etc. I don’t know how superstitious you may be but there are a few
little quirk’s I carry with me and one of them is jinxing yourself. It was only
in Peniche were I was telling our new friends how I have not had to repair
anything on the boat for a couple of weeks. The next day when Fi and I sailed I
was a quite worrying about what I had said even after touching some wood. Well
all was good until we came into this place. I managed to find a mechanic who
could arrange for the parts to be delivered the only problem was it was going
to be a week so I said don’t bother, I think I would rather take the punt with the
wind and sail round the world engineless. Better than feeling trapped waiting
for a gasket. Anyhow after having a chat with this bloke in perfect sign
language I decided to do a bodge job on it. I pulled out a syringe from our
medical kit, sucked up some acetone that I keep for fiber glass repairs and
began to spray down the area, this took some time as I wanted it spotless. I
also had on board some rubber gasket cement, brilliant stuff which I then
pasted along the troubled area creating a wonderful seal. It was left to dry
over night and the next morning after strapping the yacht down to the finger
with a couple of extra ropes I ran the engine for half and hour at 2000 RPM in
reverse to get it nice and hot. There was not a drop of oil to be seen anywhere.
The bilge is now spotless and the engine looks great after a little clean down.
So I am pretty happy once again. There are a few other problems that have the
potential to ruin our trip but I will be keeping a close eye on them until we
make it into Gibraltar, but for now we are
good to sail (and motor if we have to).
The marina we are in is
absolutely lovely, it is small, friendly and very cheap. Well actually it is
30 Euro’s a night but they gave us a 50% discount because I told them we were
doing the ARC which is true just not for another year. Silky was in much need
for a marina berth, it has been some time since she had a good hose down and
clean.
Our journey into Lisbon was a good one, we
caught the train right into town and then hopped on the smallest tram known to
man and went off up into the hills of the old town. The city is rather lovely,
lots of little streets and very interesting old style shops to be seen every
where. It struck me as not a lot of change had happened in this area for some time
as we passed the fruit street then the banking street then the haberdashery
street and so on. I do not know what it is that’s makes Fi and I travel but is
certainly is not the sight seeing however nice it may be. We walked around
town for as little as we could and moaned if the cute little tram was not going
in our direction, we all felt that we could of just sat on the tram and it
would have been enough to put a tick in the box for Lisbon being done. Anyhow we were having fun
but before long we wanted to get back to the boat. You see it has this strange
effect on you, the minute you have been on it for a while you want to get off
but the minute you do you want to get back on I can not explain it.
Getting back to the
whole superstitious jinxing thing it was Fiona this time who said she wanted to
meet another Australian yacht and true to her wish we pulled up next to another
Aussie ‘Collin’ in the marina. Collin had single handedly made it to Lisbon via NZ, Chile,
Mexico,
Azores etc and was on his way home in a lovely 47’ yacht he had built for his
trip. It was fantastic to be chatting about boats with another Aussie and once
again we sat in listening to his amazing stories of the pacific and the far
away places he had visited.
Oh and the beard it was
time to go, Fiona would not come near me and my mustarka was starting to find
it’s way into my mouth.
Special comments by
Fiona:. The marina in Oeiras is by far the nicest and friendliest
marina yet. The staff couldn’t do enough to make you feel welcome, which is
always nice.
The engine was
definitely a worry but I knew Ben would be able to sort it out as he does most
things. However if he was unable to fix it himself, I could think of worse
places to be in if we were to stay and wait for repairs!
Meeting a fellow Aussie
yachtie was also a highlight. Not to mention that Colin has been sailing the
world for 6 years, mostly single handed. His stories were captivating and I am
starting to want to skip sailing around the Med and cross the Atlantic
now and get into the Pacific!
Oh and thank god Ben
clipped off his horrid beard. It suited him but I couldn’t stand the smell of
it after he’d eaten!!! Yuck!
Day 58
Destination – Oeiras
Traveling Direction –
East
Wind Direction – No Wind
Swell – Flat as a
pancake
Average Speed – 4.2
Knots
Top Speed – 6.8 Knots
Through the water
Total distance – 5.1
Nautical Miles
Travel Time – 1.5 Hours
Temperature – 32 degrees
Crew
- Fiona (Loving the friendly and not overcrowded mariner!)
Missing Work – Not Yet
Expenses –Marina Fee
€30, Drinks €16, Provisions €5.85
Next Destination – Sines
