We arrived in Porto on October 1^st after a frustrating light wind sail/motor from Baiona. The fishing pots were far less dense than we feared – I guess once one has sailed in Maine, anything else is just plain tame – though it was frustrating here that while some pots were very clearly marked, others were definitely camouflaged!

Not knowing any better, we’d arranged a berth at Marina Douro – a nice enough marina, but we could have stayed outside the marina on an anchor – or even gone up river and anchored right in the heart of Porto, which is a delightful city. Marina Douro is a couple of miles west of Porto and right at the entrance to the river – which meant that we’d be able to cycle into Porto. One good thing about the marina was that they offered a free Port tasting at Churchill’s!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Porto is a lovely city and we enjoyed just strolling around – but managed a port tasting at Kopke – the oldest Port wine house as a precursor to the following day’s visit to Churchill’s. We also got to spend an evening enjoying a fantastic musical evening listening to Fado. We were treated to a traditional Fado trio of Guitarist, Portuguese Guitarist and a singer in a small cellar environment which turned out to have perfect acoustics for the event. If you’ve not listened to Fado, it’s a somewhat acquired taste – we can’t understand a word of what she’s singing, but are absolutely aware that the songs are totally and utterly tragic 90% of the time! This group did not disappoint in any way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met up with a couple of Dutch boats: Karin and Eric on Mareliefs and Frans and Femke on Skellig. We enjoyed an evening aboard Toodle-oo! and would find ourselves bumping into them again and again as we travelled south.

We only spent three days in Porto – which could have easily been a week – but a weather window opened up with very favorable wind for heading south to Cascais – 170nm or so to the south, so we departed early on the 4^th, followed out of the river by a 44ft catamaran ‘Windwatcher’. With fairly light wind, we wasted a bit of time with a spinnaker for a few minutes, but then decided our code zero would work better and set off with Windwatcher on our beam having caught up during our change of sails. It was like the two boats were on a long bungee cord for the longest time – he’d get ahead then we’d catch up… he finally blasted away from us as the wind strengthened and we were forced to furl the code zero and set a genoa. We lost sight of them during the night, but as we turned dead downwind for Cabo Rasso in the morning, sailing wing on wing, we quickly caught up to Windwatcher and blasted past them as they gybed each way on their way south. As we rounded the cape, the wind died completely and we motored into Cascais and anchored outside the marina among a good crowd of cruising boats.

Cascais is another very pretty town – this one quite affluent and rather more modern than those in the Rias. Simon and Jenny on Fenetia were in the Marina and know Cascais well and were able to act as wonderful tour guides – so we spent the next 10 days there in Cascais – including a couple of nights in the marina while some nasty weather passed over us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We broke out the bikes for a ride along the coast – but unfortunately, the finger piers of the dock are narrow and wobbly and my new Brompton bike ended up in the drink! I dived to get it but couldn’t see a thing in the murky water, but with Simon’s help, managed to retrieve the errant bike with our new dinghy anchor! After a good hose down and liberal spraying with anti corrosion stuff, we were able to get in a couple of enjoyable bike rides.

Our new Dutch friends were also in Cascais, along with another Dutch boat – Blue Beryl, with a  lovely young couple aboard, setting out on a circumnavigation… As I write this, they have already arrived in St. Lucia in the Caribbean! We tried to organize a Dinghy drift in the harbor, but then realized that we’d be violating all sorts of social distancing mandates, so unfortunately scrapped those plans – and instead gave our livers a workout with Fenetia!

We sailed over to Lisbon and took a berth at Parque de Nacoes – a marina built for a past world expo – and stayed a couple of nights only so that we could go into Lisbon (by bus) to rekindle memories of our visit there in 2003. Turns out very few memories remain! We like Lisbon – but it left us with a feeling of being somewhat exposed to C-19 with significant crowds and having to travel by bus – so we decided to make our way south on another overnight sail to the Algarve.

 

 

 

We had a fast and bumpy dead downwind sail for most of the way, but with few other boats around us, so no racing opportunities! We were planning to head to Lagos, but instead saw what looked to be a decent anchorage right after Cape St. Vincent (the southwest corner of Portugal) – called Enseada de Sagres.

Our pilot information said that this anchorage is very rolly, but when we arrived there were other boats there and everything was very calm. We spent 3 nights at anchor, getting off to explore the small village and have a decent clifftop walk – but by the 3^rd night, the wind had swung towards the south east and we were experiencing the heavy swell – so we moved around the corner to Baleeira where we hoped we’d get some relief from the sea wall. It worked, but by morning the wind had come up significantly and there was now a large swell in the harbor breaking dramatically on the rocks just a 100M behind us! Time to leave!

We arrived in Lagos – just 13 miles away – with a strong onshore breeze and swell. As we approached the entry, we were following another sailboat into the harbor – and it was difficult to know what to watch – the sailboat in front of us that had just been rolled broadside in a big roller, or the numerous surfers enjoying the rollers on either side of the harbor entrance!! It took a certain amount of concentration but once we were in the channel to the marina, everything calmed and we were able to easily tie up to the reception pontoon.

We’d stay in Lagos for a couple of nights…