Our Route North.
A weather window at last.
Cascais is a really excellent marina but we're ready to make progress North
and nothing can stop us except, well,
how about ropes around the keel and ropes around the prop?
Peniche (22nd April, 38 Miles from Cascais)
The weather had been forecasted as being
OK for a couple of days and when that couple of days looked like starting tomorrow
we started to believe it. So, following an evening conference with Sapphire Voyager,
who get the professional Wind Guru service, we all decided to leave at 0930 once
we had paid our dues at the office. They relieved us of 138 Euros for the 6 days,
(23 Euros/day)
The Passage to Cascais. We left Cascais in virtually zero wind and
motored West. We gave Cabo Roca and Cabo Roco wide berths because, being cliffs,
they can give gusty wind acceleration situations. They gave us a gusty force zero.
Once round these headlands we set a direct course for Peniche and set cruising revs,
equal to a boat speed of 6 knots with our clean bottom. Mid afternoon we sailed
for a few hours but then the wind died and it was back to motoring. Boring.
We tied up in Peniche after 8 hours at sea, with 6 of them under engine. Sapphire
Voyager arrived 30 minutes later. We paid 13.50 Euros for the one night,
and what a night. Being on the outside of the linear pontoon we were to get the
full wake of any careless fishing boat who forgot to slow to the mandatory harbour
speed of 3 knots. Almost without exception they would leave and arrive in the harbour
at full speed with huge wakes.
Nazaré (23rd April, 28 Miles from Peniche)
W e were bounced mercilessly
in Peniche and only Barry had slept, so we were all pleased to leave at 0700 in
the morning.
The Passage to Nazaré. Just outside the harbour, yes beneath the cliffs,
it was blowing a full force 4 and so boded well for the passage. Sadly once round
the headland we had the usual force zero. The sails banged back and forth as we
motored at our customary 6 knots. After about an hour we notice our GPS said we
were only doing 3 knots. Strong tide maybe? No, the log confirmed 3 knots. Looking
overboard, starting at the bows, showed no dangly bits likely to slow us down but
at the stern, just below the water, was a strange thick brown bar-like object which
extended into the distance behind. Then, as we watched it and tried to work out
what it was, a float appeared and disappeared astern taking the brown bar with it.
Once again at 6 knots we realised that we had run over an emaciated pot float and
that it had wrapped around our keel so we must have been towing a whole string of
pots behind us. The Brown bar had been the stout rope attached to the pots and we
had been lucky not to wrap it around our prop. Breathing sighs of relief on we travelled,
this time with us both on lobster-pot buoy watch but we weren't watching for sub-surface
floating debris.
Suddenly the back of the boat started shaking alarmingly, the wheel and binnacle
were a blur, this time something was round the propeller. Using forwards and reverse
did not clear it but it did lessen the vibration such that we could manage 1500
rpm so 4 knots, and with a little wind assistance reach Nazaré.
What a tangle of old ropes.
We tied up on a pontoon at the South end of the fishing harbour most carefully as
we now had no reverse gear so could not stop ourselves. Thankfully the international
double arm wave brought an Irish lady yotty to take our lines.
Alongside now, it was time to dive into the soup of the fishing harbour. "Better
you than me", said the lady, "I know what's in that water". Nevertheless, 15 mins
later we had this tangle of old ropes that had needed cutting off of the prop. (in
the photo is a mobile phone, just to give an appreciation of size)
One major upside to the day was that Keith and Jo had been around to the marina
Club Naval de Nazeré and found that the private marina had 2 vacant berths and that
we could have one each for 6 Euros per day.
Monastery of Alcobaca.
Monastery of Alcobaça
After a couple of days in Nazaré we caught the bus to the Monastery of Alcobaça
and what a fantastic place it turned out to be. Its the biggest church in Portugal
and was built in the 12th century. Inside it must have been renovated because its
as new and shows that monastic life could at least be in a pleasant location. Don't
think I could have handled the silence though.
But rather than describe it why not see the Alcobaca photo gallery? Click the camera.
Town and port of Nazaré.
Waves on Nazaré beach.
One other good thing about Nazaré is that it has an all weather entrance, and even
though the waves pound the beach and all the other Portuguese Atlantic ports are
closed, Nazaré remains open. Not that it helped us, we could leave but we couldn't
go anywhere. Here you see the town, bay, port and original cliff top town of Nazaré.
We had been cycling in the hills one day and took this photo.
We stayed at the Club Naval de Nazaré for 7 days and apart from the one mile long
14% gradient up to the supermarket we enjoyed ourselves in the town and surrounding
areas. We were charged 42 Euros total for the 7 days.
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