Before we left on Robert and Cindy’s Big Adventure, we were given lots of advice from those who have sailed in Portugal and Spain.  One advice that was common was that we would need to “hunker” down for the Winter.  So we poured through our cruising guide books and the internet trying to choose a good spot.  We met new friends in Horta who actually chose the Azores as their Winter over spot.  The sea walls are well built and high, and the marina prices are dirt cheap, the thought to stay in the Azores crossed my mind as well, but we wanted to reach the Other Side Of The Ocean. 

And so after touring the Lisbon area, and spending a month up the river getting our transmission fixed we stopped at Porto de Recrio, also known as Marina Oeiras before heading south. But we discovered the twisted steering arm, and found Paulo the welder, who wanted to barter his work for a painting. A canvas too big to fit in our boat, which led to the marina staff giving me a room to use. The painting took enough time that we made good friends in Oerias and decided to at least stay through Christmas. Then it was thing after another and before we knew it. we were already hunkered down in Oeiras! 

The normal winter weather here is rainy with big south winds. We had some of this in November. We saw the big south wind driven waves crashing over the sea wall. And I had one umbrella get blown to shreds on the way to the grocery store one day. But lately the weather has been rather nice. No rain, warm days COLD nights, and North winds relatively light. So we decided to take advantage of this and head down the coast in the light Northerly and their not so big waves. We did our big grocery stock up, packed up the studio,made our goodbyes and hugs all around,  and left fairly early last Sunday morning! It feels quite nice to be moving again. But it is still Winter.  We still need to pick our days carefully.

Our first stop was a bit past the town of Setubal (pronounced SHTOObul)  and we anchored off a rather pleasant beach.  Got up early and continues on to a town called Sines (pronounced Sinch) and here we are! This town is far enough away from Lisbon that it truly feels like a small town.  There is the obligatory castle, a beach, a power plant, a shipyard, a fishing harbor  and a boatyard with one (1) boat in it. The old town is up high on a hill, over looking the beach and harbor. It’s a beautiful town! With narrow cobblestone streets and classic old buildings with gorgeous chipping paint and orange roof tops.   It’s not a touristy town, although there are two very nice hotels, and apparently the beach gets busy in the Summer. 

Our marina is at the far end of the harbor, across form the fishing boats. We’ve heard this area is full of Sea Life. We can hear fish eating at stuff on our hull. When we first arrived, I thought “what is that noise??” we turned everything off and listened.   It’s a “tsk tsk klk klk” sound.  This theory was confirmed by our Welsh neighbor Martin.  At least the fish are keeping our bottom cleaned!!

We paid for a week, which Marsu, the guy  in the marina office,  said would be a better deal than paying by the day. I think this town will deserve a week. So this a “hunker down” part 2. It is still Winter after all and the days are short and it gets COLD at night (38 degrees last night).  Good thing we have heat. Now to find a new studio!