Cascais - sun and warmth at last

22.5.2017

We finally became used to the Atlantic ocean, with its big swell and strong wind near the coast of  Spain and Portugal. It is not unusual to have the kind of wind (F5-7) that we have been experiencing.

We spent so many years sailing in Scandinavia, sheltered from the ocean within the inner lead (Norway) or in the archipelagos of Sweden and Finland. But equally, we haven’t had such wonderful and exciting sailing like we have had recently.

beautiful tiled buildings telling a story

From Leixoēs to Cascais, on the coast outside Lisbon, we just needed the engine to approach the marina in Cascais. We had 27 hours of exhilarating and at times dramatic sailing down the coast of Portugal, with a steady northerly wind of mainly 22-28kn (F6) and the occasional gust of 30kn (F7). Specially at night, the waves look very ominous, particularly when you are running, with the crest of the wave following you until it decides to overtake you. That is the time when you surf down the wave at around 8kn.

The two last overnight sails we have decided not to do our 3 hourly watches, and have stayed up all night. This meant that we were completely exhausted when we arrived in Cascais.It has been a hard night’s day!

jazzy paving

 

We have enjoyed being in Cascais. It is a very pretty town with many beautiful patterned cobble stone streets and very old houses, dating from the 15th century full of history. But most of the time we have spent getting Easy Rider spick and span after the hard work that she had to do for us. 

We also have to deal with a new totally inadequate  reefing line which makes the second reef unusable! Fortunately there is a rigger who will replace the line this afternoon (we hope).

Tomorrow looks like a good day to do another 125NM leg towards Lagos. By then we will have done more than half of our journey towards Corsica and Sardinia.

This will be our last port of call before returning briefly to the UK. We will continue our journey in June for two weeks and the the whole of July, by which time we hope to have reached Minorca or even Sardinia.

George and Carlos repairing the 2nd reef

Carlos  I watching the fleet