Had about an hour sailing before having to change course to south east. Wind exactly on the nose. Motor sailed on course rather than making the trip longer.
Next way point we could bear away, then sailed for the next 14 – 18 hours, all through the night. Had one hic up with Ray(auto pilot), not sure if it was Me (Maureen) ie operator error or it was really Ray. I didn’t think it was me but can’t be 100% sure. After that Mark went down for a sleep until the next way point about 2 hours away. Changed course at the waypoint then Mark went down to ANOTHER sleep. I went for a sleep another 2 hours later. Two highlights for the rest of the trip, Mark had to avoid trawler then just after day break we were joined by lots of dolphins playing around the boat – lovely. About 2 hours later more joined us. As the new day unfolded if got foggier and foggier, visibility was down to a few miles.
2/10/07 - Entered Cork Harbour about 2pm, motored up the harbour to Salve Marina. Moored up by 4pm. It was a long journey but we did well, got some sleep although not enough, ate well which makes a big difference to the journey, especially an overnight.
Crosshaven Marina is run by a Dutchman. Very helpful, came and got our lines. Moored behind us is a Baltic 51 (Swedish built). It’s got lots of toys and Mark is jealous! They’re also waiting for the right weather to cross Biscay. He gets personalised weather reports from the States so he’s going to keep us up to date with them, that will be really helpful as we’re still trying to get the Met Office reports sorted out and sent to our phone for the same crossing. Found out there’s Wi Fi access in one of the local pubs so will be off there later to catch up and send emails etc.
There’s no laundry facility at this Marina so had to set to and do a load of hand washing – not my favourite task! The only other option here is to have it laundered at one of the pubs. Had a drink out with Paul and Sonia off Event Horizon(big boat with lots of toys). He’s Irish living in the US and Sonia is from the US. Nice couple, they’re also heading south, eventually to the Caribbean for the winter.
8/10/07 - Saturday - Michael and Eve joined us this evening for the trip across Biscay, good to have them with us. Left Cork around mid morning to set off across Biscay. The dreaded piece of water that needs good weather if not to put you off sailing for ever more!! The forecast – 2 days sailing out to 10 degrees then no wind for the next three. We’ve taken on and extra 45 litres of diesel in Soya Sauce containers due to the light winds forecast. As everyone keeps saying ‘better to be looking at it than looking for it’. Here we go!!
Mark and Michael setting off from Cork
Luckily the weather forecast was wrong but positively wrong thankfully, we had 2 days continual sailing, cloudy but not too cold. Dolphins each day - they are so beautiful swiming around the boat.
10/10/07 - Day 3 had to motor, no wind.
11/10/07 - Day 4 good wind again and sailing. Evening of Day 4 - off Cape Finnisterre - should be heading directly south. Winds got up and up and up. Gale force 7 - 8 (winds 30 knots touching 40 knots during the gusts. Reefed and changed course to run out with the sea to get the smoothest ride. Having said that there will be no sleep tonight.
Michael and Eve enjoying the sunshine on the last day at sea.
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During the day we had a small bird land on the boat and sail with us. It was obviously lost, we were 30 miles from land.After 5 days at sea as we got closer to land we could smell it, a lovely smell of earth and spices.
13/10/07 - We arrived safely in Bayona Spain at 4.00am. We had a really good crossing until the last night when we ran into a gale at Cape Finnisterre. It wasn’t too bad, lasted about 8 hours and we ran out to sea with it for 7 of those 8. Next morning wind dropped to nothing, sun came out and we ended up motoring for the next 14 hours to Bayona.
The dreaded trip was over and I was pleased we made it with no mishaps. As it happened we didn’t need the extra diesel because we had wind most of the way. Best 24 hours 190.6 miles, not bad for our loaded down little house. We saw Dolphins everyday which was a real treat and one day saw a whale clearing its blow hole. It was far enough away not to be scary!
I asked Michael and Eve if they thought they might be seasick but both hotly denied they would and refused any seasick pills. Mark and I took them, me because I knew I would be doing ALL the cooking so needed to be able to stay below. As it happened I took them for the first 36 hours then didn’t need anymore for the rest of the trip. I wish I could say the same for Michael and Eve. Within the first 4 hours they were both feeling ill. I put them on sea sick tablets but the effect is little when taken too late. Michael came around by about day 3 and Eve didn’t feel well until the last day.
Pictures of Biscay here
We stayed in Bayona for 4 days until Michael and Eve caught a flight back to the UK, Michael had to sort out his passport for their trip to India otherwise they would have stayed longer.
Bayona is a really pretty place, obviously not a touristy place because nobody spoke English, no English signs or menus, it was straight into being in a foreign country!
Bayona Harbour
Michael had spoken to the crew on another boat in Cork and when he was wondering around Bayona he ran into them again. They got in later the same day we did. We went for a drink with Dougy and Bev and it turns out they were the committee boat when we had done the police races in the Clyde and Ireland. Small world. Had a pleasant evening. They were telling us about the problems they had coming across with their Raymarine stuff. They were waiting for a Raymarine rep to come and fix it before they could leave. Saw Michael and Eve off the next morning then set off ourselves on the 17th for Lisbon.
19/10/07 - Arrived Cascais (near Lisbon) 1.00am. We’re in our third country since leaving the UK. Tired, didn’t sleep well on the overnight due to the boats motion, we were on a broad reach with a quartering sea which makes the boat roll and the Genoa flap, both make for difficult sleeping. We had a real fright in the night, we nearly crashed into another sailing boat. All that bloody water and we nearly crash!!! They didn’t have a radar reflector or anyone on watch (how ridiculous is that). I couldn’t see him on the radar. His lights showed his port side for ages so I thought we’d pass without mishap, then very quickly I could see port and starboard lights ie he was coming straight for us and quickly. Got Mark up because I was confused, he took the wheel and turned sharply to starboard just in time to duck behind him. It was really close, we haven’t had much closer in the years we were racing. I was glad to get into the Marina and go to bed!! But before we could do that we had to moor up, what a disaster. We turned into a pontoon without being ready and it all went wrong like it does in those situations. Lesson learnt, won’t do that again!!
Cascais town
Cascais is a lovely town, about the size of Bradford. A mixture of very old, the original properties surrounding the port and the modern. It’s difficult to recognise Portuguese style, but what is evident is the influence of the Moors in some of the buildings, particularly the tiling on the outside of the buildings. The modern has been integrated in the main with a good deal of sympathy for the old and there is little clash. The little old streets surrounding the port are filled with lovely old buildings, mostly housing now, but in some instances the government buildings are still located in beautiful old buildings. The town has some beautiful boutique hotels. Some set away from the port and some right on the water side. Some areas of the town towards Estoril are still undergoing new building works. Along the coast northwards from Cascais, there’s package holiday land, nowhere near as pretty and there are no beaches along that coast, it’s very rocky.
23/10/07 - Sonia and I went to Sintra. Amazing place. It’s about 40 miles up in the mountains north of Cascais so the trip in the bus was very windy and a steep climb all the way there. Expected it to be small villages on the way and for them to be fairly poor. Not sure why I had that impression, perhaps because when I went inland from Lagos a couple of years ago it was very poor, mostly subsistence farming. Anyway it couldn’t have been more different, lots of new houses and pretty prosperous looking most of the way. Sintra itself is a bigish sprawling conurbation nestling around the mountain top where the last royal palace of Portugal is situated, another surprise because I was told it was an historic old town, so I expected something small.
We took the bus straight up to the Palácio da Pena, the palace on top of the mountain. From the bus it’s quite a walk up the last bit of steep mountain side to the palace. It was a stunning place, began as a monastery in the 16th century, was taken over by the royal family in the 17th century and restored and extended and used as the royal residence in the summer times. The castle has never been taken in any war as far as I know and I can see why, by the time any army got up there they would be too exhausted to fight!! It’s a real mixture of styles, stunning limestone carvings everywhere and the views 360° of the surrounding area and to the west out to the sea. Unfortunately it was a really hazy day so not good for photos. The inside is a museum, when the country went republic the royals handed the palace over to the state. All the rooms are still furnished as the royals left it. Some rooms are decorated completely with tiles, walls and ceilings. Some are painted, one in particular is such a good 3D painting you can hardly tell the painting from the actual stone relief. One room has silk covering on the walls and ceiling, no money spared there then! The influences in style range from Moor to Indian to Victorian, some is beautiful and some is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
From there we walked through the surrounding park which has been totally planted by the royals, the hillside was originally barren and plants have been bought in from North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. One area is totally ferns and Punga’s, it was lovely. The park walk was a gentle downhill walk to the exit.
From there another up hill climb to the Moor fort. Built in the 9th century, but why there, who knows? It does say they could control the water through a system of reservoirs and wells to sustain the fort in times of war but it’s difficult to see why they would be warring out there, they couldn’t control the coast from there and boats couldn’t come into the land there anyway its way too rocky. Anyway when we got there it’s a HUGE climb up the stairs around the battlements, you almost needed oxygen when you got up there, there were some people looking like they were close to heart attach status when they were only part way up – all my running is paying off! Again the views were amazing, further down the valley where the most stunning properties, houses, but very very big houses, all different styles, but obviously belonging to the elite who were probably friendly with the royals when the palace was still used by them.
There is a path then from the fort down into Sintra old town. The rate of descend wending your way down this path is staggering, real mountain goat country. I’m glad we didn’t walk up it as Sonia suggested we might! (mental note to self – beware Sonia’s short walks). When we finally got down into the old town we treated ourselves to a glass of red wine, some lovely local bread and olives. It was to recover from the experience of those amazing heights! We explored the rest of the old town and in one of the tiny back streets we were looking over a wall into a lovely garden which had a tobacco tree – I was telling Sonia its other name was Datura and the woman who owned the property was just arriving home and started chatting. She’s English and runs a B&B. What a beautiful spot. She’s lived there 7 years, her husband is an engineer over here. While chatting she told us about another place to visit in Sintra, which we’d overlooked when reading the book, but it really needs at least half a day so it was too late to go then – definitely worth going back and doing it though, it sounds like a real adventure in itself.
Off to the bus for us then and back to Cascais. Coming down the mountain at sunset, a most spectacular sunset, over the water.
Finished the day off with one of Marks currys – lovely.
28/10 - Were supposed to be leaving today but spotted Swiftwing across the marina - we met them in Bayona. They did say they weren’t coming here so it’s nice to see them. Went to say a quick hello before we left, got talking and Mark ended up spending the next 6 hours fixing their Raymarine stuff because it broke again coming down from Bayona. They had paid €411 for the Raymarine rep to come out only for it to go wrong again. By way of payment they took us for an Indian and gave Mark a bottle of Springbank 100 proof whiskey.
So we were set to leave Sunday and the weather forecast was for F6-8 with 3 metre seas. Not good. So Tuesday we went into Lisbon for the day. The old city is lovely, view from the Castle brill. Had a nice day walking our legs off. Checked weather forecast and it’s still 3 metre seas but wind has dropped. It was only 20° by sundown, got jumpers on and think it’s getting chilly!!
Lisbon
Wednesday – cleaning the swim platform this afternoon and fell in the marina!!
