Bayona-Gibraltar

We went out last night again but I managed to get to bed around 0500 ... I think. So well hung over I'm now leaving Bayona heading for Viana Do
Castelo in Portugal.

Last night was a warm and sad goodbye. I'm going to miss every single one of them. I wish I was able to tell them how much they mean to me ... but it's very difficult to explain those kinds of emotions with my lame Spanish abilities.

I'm now crossing the border between Spain and Portugal. So far the ride is like being trapped in a roller coaster with hangovers. There is a lot of swell but not a lot of wind.

I feel like pizza and video!

Got safely into Viana. 7 hours in the roller coaster ... where's the pizza.

Sailing alone with hangovers needs to be on the never-do-again list.

The weather is beautiful. I'm heading for Leixões near Porto.

Last night I was met by a very confusing Portuguese official. He told me I should go to the office with my passport and papers right away. But
take it easy - no rush, he said, just quickly and then he just stood there waiting for me, stressing me further while he kept saying, no rush ...

After about an hour of no-rush-paperwork (just one form) I searched the city to find pizza and oh, I'll just grab a burger and some fries with that pizza and mind you the look in my face when I realize the burgers in Viana comes without bread? What's up with that?

I fuelled up about 30 litres.

I decided to stop in Povoa instead of getting into Leixões late. It's been sunny all day but I had the wind right in my nose so I didn't move very fast.

This looks like a nice place and I'll be able to get some laundry done with and continue tomorrow.

It looked quite nice from the sea but even though the wind is now about 10-12 m/s I don't feel like staying.

Got a pizza again last night - this time with Danish Mozzarella! The Portuguese Italian was very proud ...

I'm a little worried about going out now because of the wind but the trip is only about 15 nm so I should be able to manage even if it gets rough.

Whoa! Made it in just in time. The wind didn't exceed 12 m/s on the trip but that was enough to keep my attention focused on the sailing.

As I approached Leixões thunder weather neared me from ahead. It looked really nasty and I could see the lightning on the horizon. I just fastened one robe to the quay when a loud bang rang out. Then the rain started pouring and the power was cut in the marina.

I believe it's what you would call just-in-time-sailing.

Leixões marina is situated right in the middle of the industrial harbour. That does NOT add positively to the atmosphere. However I did find a very nice shopping centre? Oh yes, nice shopping centres do exist when you are stuck in traffic, desperate to get out of the rainsoaked wet, crowded bus.

In Leixões I also discovered that Portugal is on a different time zone! I only took me about a week ...

Loa Arrived on Friday and she is staying until next Friday and hopefully we'll make it close to Lisboa before then.

Yesterday we went driving around the countryside and ... well the Portuguese doesn't think too much of road signs. At least the don't use the in a frequently manner like I'm used to, so we spent about 3-4 hours finding our way from Porto to Leixões - a distance of appx. 5 km. But we got to see Porto and it's absolutely digable. At least the old part is really interesting and quite different from the architecture I've seen so far. It's nice - I could see my self in a house alongside the river.

Anyway now we're heading for Figueira Da Foz or whatever we're up for. There doesn't seem to be any wind, so I don't know how far we'll get.

Aveiro does not have a marina for yachts but nearby is a small confinement perfect for anchoring. That's where we are now.

We didn't feel like getting into Fig Da Foz and it's renowned crosscurrents too late so we decided to just go halfway and just spend the night here.

This place is as dead as it gets. I suppose it's better in the summer but at this time of year it's just hibernating.

We'll continue towards Fig Da Foz as soon as I manage to pull the anchor up ... it's stuck.

A little later than expected or might you say a lot slower than expected we have now arrived in Fig Da Foz. There was a lot of current in the marina making it difficult to get into the berth but as always nice Germs were around helping us from the pier ... and this time they'd better since they had blocked every other berth on the visitors pontoon with their silly robes.

As everywhere in Portugal it is now registration time. They have a thing about paperwork.

On our way again. Wanted to fuel up but they didn't have anymore diesel?

I'm sure we have enough so it shouldn't be a problem. It's about 40nm to Nazaré and there seems to be a decent wind in the right direction.

Fig Da Foz was not a great experience ... it's just there along the route.

In Nazaré. Ups!

So we didn't have enough fuel after all.

We had good wind all day but kept the engine going as well because we wanted to get there before darkness. We almost made it but right on our way into the small bay outside Nazaré our engine stops. Good thing we had wind so we could navigate around while I refuelled using the spare and ventilated the engine. Almost hit the pier but only almost ... no damage done - just a little excitement.

On out way here we met the biggest batch of dolphins I've seen so far - it's a good thing to know they are still here.

It's a beautiful day in Nazaré. Saturday and Sunday are expected to be unusually warm for this time of year.

The marina in Nazaré is managed by a former pirate from Isle Of Man and his wife. Very funny and lovely characters both of them. They make you feel very welcome. For the rest of the city this is not the case. I would describe it as one of the best examples of how tourism can ruin everything. Oh a nice little appetizer along with the bread, let me try that. And they end up charging you 11 euros for it, which is 50% more than what the ordered starters cost all together. Hmmm.

Anyway yesterday I went to Lisboa to send Loa on her way home and pick up Jesper who was arriving from Denmark. I also went by the marina in there to check out prizes and availability. Everything looks fine and if all goes well we'll be there in a couple of days.

Right now we're heading for Peniche.

We fuelled up about 50 litres.

So this is Peniche, oh, and here comes the customs-guy. In Portugal you can forget all about port-beer until after registration.

Well well, it looks nice and we had a nice sail here.

We've decided to spend another day here. The weather forecast looks nice so we should have no problem finding decent sailing weather.

It's not the kind of morning we'd expected but we've got to go ... Lisboa awaits us.

Peniche is quite nice even though the marina office is rarely open. Anyways, we fuelled up and are now on our way to Cascais.

Just entered Cascais after 50 nm and you can easily tell that this is a fairly new marina. Everything works! Even the registration process is pretty smooth.

And the pilot said it would cost 24 euros a night but they only charged us 11 ... an added bonus.

We believe we've seen Cascais by now and it's a nice place. It's one of the more popular places in Portugal and it's easy to tell. Portugal in general seems very poor but not here. It's quite a relief that things aren't falling apart everywhere.

We went to see Red Dragon in the local cinema last night, so well prepared we are now on our way to Lisboa.

There seems to be good wind and we look forward to be cruising into the ria.

We checked out at the reception and began the trip to Lisboa. It all started out fine. Plenty of wind and in the right direction and we soon came to the ria. Here the wind got right in out back and we had to dibe inwards. After a while we took down the mainsail, as it was too difficult to handle it in such narrow waters with such big ships.

About half an hour after we took down the mainsail I had the pleasure of finding out that the boat can't sail if it's keel touches the bottom.
Kæstel managed to guide the boat out on deeper waters and it was all over pretty fast.

The rest of the trip went fine and especially passing the bridge was a beautiful experience.

Jesper

Well Lisboa is nothing like I dreamt of. Maybe it's unfair to judge a place by comparison to your dreams but this place just doesn't do it for me. The people here seem to have lost all interest in life around them. You can sit in the metro and sing without anybody even noticing. They seem a bit sad.

Anyways, not everybody falls into this category, of course. I met up with some fellow Internet workers and they were very nice and welcoming. I also met a Brazilian guy called Walter. We've been hanging
out a bit discussing different philosophical viewpoints, "religion" and exchanging ideas and thoughts of life more or less.

It seems Walter saved me from a bad Lisboa experience. Lisboa, you owe Walter a big kiss.

My grandfather arrived two days ago and we expect to be leaving for Gibraltar soon.

As expected of Lisboa one pays for a whole month if one stays more than 12 days. We stayed about 14 and this makes Lisboa one of the most expensive marinas visited. If you take the facilities into account it is just ridiculous.

It basically sums up my Lisboa experience.

We're heading for Cascais to fuel up.

Arrived in Cascais and fuelled up about 25 litres. It's a nice evening and we'll stay here for the night.

It's kind of ironic to see Cascais being all covers in fake snow and pine - they really like Christmas.

It seems there is better weather on the way. Today is a little windy but we'll go for Sesimbra which is just 25 Nm away. Tomorrow should be better as should the day after.

We have a long way to Gibraltar so we better get started.

I went down to check the boat underwater and clean it up a bit. Things grow on it when you're not moving. The keel looked fine even after all the
groundings but a robe was entangled in the propeller. Wonder how long that has been there. I guess it explains all the shaking when going by
engine.

Arrived in Sesimbra. There was a bit more wind than expected and quite a bit more swelling but nothing too bad.

My grandfather came through his first day on the Atlantic with honour.

Sesimbra is a small town, nothing to see, nothing to do.

Sesimbra is a one nightstand you don't want to repeat too often. It's nice if you just need a place to stay but you don't go there for conversation or beauty.

Anyways, now we're heading for Sines.

Sines do, as the pilot said, look a lot nicer once you're in the marina. Looks like a nice, not too spoilt, town but of course the sun shine always adds to appearance.

Sines is just a stop on the way to Algarve. According to the weather forecast we need to be on our way because the weather is getting rougher. The weather forecast hasn't been correct for a few days so I'm not sure we can trust it.

We fuelled up about 20 litres last night.

We didn't even get out of the outer piers and the wind was 9 m/s. Compared to max 6 m/s in the weather forecast something is wrong.

The next leg of the tour is long. 80 Nm without stop. We're trying not to do anything stupid so we're staying and waiting.

At a closer look it turns out that Sines is the appendix of the world and btw the appendix is infected.

It's impossible to find Internet access in this town when the post office is closed - and why would the post office be open on a Saturday! I have been asking about 15 places by now but not even the big hotels have Internet access. So I had to call up Denmark to get a weather forecast and it looks like the weather was just a little late. So today is our chance of escaping.

Oh, the washing machine doesn't work and my Portuguese phone company's local store can't charge my phonecard, of course.

We're leaving!

After a very long day we have finally reached Lagos just in time before it got dark. It looks like a nice place even without the sun shining in its advance.

Supposedly there used to be a slave market here and for some reason they are proud of it?

Tomorrow should be quite windy so I expect we'll stay here a few days.

Lagos was a very nice place. More or less like I had imagined all of Portugal, except for all the English sailors.

Now we're heading for Vilamoura, which could be the last Portuguese port we'll be visiting.

I look forward to returning to Spain.

We fuelled up about 18 litres and changes oil and oil filter on the boat.

Vilamoura is a big time tourist location, with all of the benefits ... ?

It's been a beautiful day with sun and just the right mild wind. A t-shirt day at sea in December is always appreciated.

On our way to Spain. That is if we make it. It's a bit of way and we need the wind to help us.

Vilamoura is really everything you'd fear of a tourist place. English pubs, karaoke, ugly hotels, closed shops (cause we're out of season) and absolutely no way of meeting any local inhabitants.

With a little luck we'll have no paperwork tonight cause we'll be in Spain.

Vila Real is reached and we're still in Portugal. Vila Real is positioned up the river that makes out the southern most part of the border between Portugal and Spain. So Spain is no more than a couple of hundred meters away.

After a bit more research I discovered that we might get in trouble depth wise if we entered the port on the Spanish side of the river so it's one more day in Portugal.

There is a strong current running in the river and it changes direction around 9.30 so in order to get out of here we have to leave early.

The town is nothing special even though the city plan is very different from the rest of Portugal being completely american style rectangular.

We're heading for Mazagon at the entrance of Huelva.

Action packed pee-wee! Just as we were leaving Vila Real, I mean just untying the ropes, my grandfather slipped and almost fell in the water where the current runs a good 2-3 knots. He just barely managed to grab on to the boat and drag himself back onboard. Pewh!

Anyways, the exit of the river is more or less impossible to sail for someone who doesn't know the waters, especially heading for low tide. The buoys are more or less useless as the sandbanks move all the time and of course we got grounded. But as before we managed to sail our way out of it. Up with the gip, lay the boat down on the side to minimize depth, a little back and forth and out of there.

And now we're in Mazagon.

Being just another stop on the way, Mazagon didn't have much to offer us. The people are much more relaxed though and tourist crap seems less even though this is a tourist area.

The weather is nice. Sun, sun, sun, no clouds at all and we're heading for Cadiz about 45 Nm further down the coast.

We fuelled up about 33 litres and I now know why we ran out of fuel at Nazaré. The rope we pulled out of the propeller in Cascais have just drained the tank as the engine had to use so much more diesel to move us anywhere.

Well the wind just decided to show off today. The weather forecast said max 8 m/s and it turned into 14 m/s. So it was a bit of a rough ride.

My grandfather just stood through it and now we're in the lovely but by now very windy Cadiz.

Cadiz is a beautiful city and just about 3000 years old. Keeping up fine for such an old fellow. We've spent a lot of time just trawling through it's streets to find the good tapas. I just love tapas!

I think I had a dream last night about going the wrong way - I'm trying to figure out what that was about?

Anyways, on to Barbate, the last stop before Gibraltar.

We can see Africa from here! Somehow that just makes it a much nicer place.

The ride from Cadiz was smooth, almost now wind, so it was just kicking back, reading a book.

On the way we cut a few corners where there was supposed to be some artificial reefs, at least according to the GPS. We didn't see any! Have
you seen any?

Anyways, now we are in Barbate. Looks like a fishy tourist kinda place.

The weather is ok today but according to the weather forecast it should be terrible. By now it should be stormy, yet looking out the window it's hard to see where the storm is. But we dare not cross the forecast. In the weather forecast we trust!

So we are hoping for at better forecast tomorrow. This place is not worth staying in too long - it's kind of a transit place. The marina is far from the all-closed-because-out-of-season city or Barbate and there is only 2 other boats with crew onboard here.

Yes where stranded in the middle of in-between ... but we can see Africa from here.

It's not the best weather forecast but 4 days in Barbate is enough.

Well, well, well, what do you know? I think I need to bring out the shorts. It's sunny, calm and beautiful. About 25 degrees and very hard to believe.

The marina guy is English but lived in Denmark for 10 years.

We were a little concerned about the trip beforehand cause the weather forecast said it would get rough around Tarifa ... but no wind. Sun and tide going our way isn't all bad. It's definitely not what I call rough.

It's Gibraltar ...