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August |
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From Povoa de Varzim we moved south to Aveiro and anchored overnight before a much longer trip down to Peniche. The anchorage was quiet and well sheltered but by dawn everything was covered with a film of ash. From watching the local TV we knew that huge areas of Portugal were ablaze with virtually no defence to be offered by the local services. The imported eucalyptus trees are certainly not a boon when ablaze! Apart from some air drops of water, most firefighting appears to be by beating or throwing buckets of water. Lots of rural housing has been destroyed and it is sad to watch the elderly displaced from their homes. |
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Peniche was an uncomfortable berth after the quiet anchorage and not helped by near gale force winds blowing us against the pontoon. We took the opportunity to travel by bus to the old walled town of Obidos dating from the 14th century. It was very hot but well worth the trip. We climbed the walls and wandered the old streets, taking in a rather slow lunch and the odd cold beer along the way. The return to the Marina brought two more nights when the boat was covered in ash and soot. Even after washing it off where possible it has impregnated running rigging and sails. |
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Despite the dreadful harbour, Peniche itself had a great feel to it and made us think of Brixham with its mixture of old world, fishing and tourism. Like most of these coastal towns it has a fort looking out to sea and with Moorish shades in the design. The old town was enclosed by a wall that was in keeping with the fort and surrounded by a moat that was behind sluices. There was an excellent local market with a wide variety of fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. A great find was a man selling his own crystallised honey! |
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Once the strong winds subsided we set off for Cascais (pronounced “Cashcysh”) and found ourselves the furthest south and west so far. Now 38° 42’ North, 009° 25’ West - we won’t go further west until we head for Porto Santo. The sail down was definitely the best so far with winds up to 32 knots on a dead run under full sail and speeds up to 8.5 knots in rough seas. The new Hydrovane did most of the steering for us except in the last mile where we had to abandon the foresails altogether and probably should have reefed. Fantastic fun and bodes well for the trades when we will use twin headsails and reefing should be a little easier. It proved to windy to enter the marina and we anchored for the night. |
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A daily activity on the dockside was the mending of nets. It appeared that the same group of people might be providing this service to a wide clientele but it could just have been the same extended family working across several boats. The old lady with her back to us was stretching the net with her big toe. |
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Bump gets bigger and Chloe still hunts in our log piles in the Rockies! Aspens look great. |
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Dan (Welsh) and Ria (Danish) are sailing south from Denmark. We have met them several times on the journey from the Rias and they are currently stuck with engine trouble. |