Cascais, Portugal

Not much fun

After five days in Nazaré the forecast was favourable so we departed for Sines but ending up diverting into Cascais which is at the entrance to Lisbon. The trip from Nazaré was fairly rough, with large swells, breaking waves and rain. While we had good wind and speed for 80% of the trip the last 3hrs we had to turn the engine on, by this stage we were wet and getting cold so decided to stop at Cascais rather than spend another 10hrs in the elements to reach Sines. By this stage the 'fun factor' was low so a night at anchor was very attractive. 

This passage was our shortest so far - a mere 70NM and only 9 hours before we put the anchor down. While motoring in we saw a rainbow but felt cheated as there was no pot of gold at the end of it! 

View at anchor

After the night at anchor, we then moved into the Cascais marina. We knew we are getting closer to the Med when we motored past some super yachts and a helo pad in the marina. Cascais is a picturesque seaside resort town, with a beautiful waterfront and a short walk from the marina to the local shops. 

Pena National Palace

The highlight of this stopover was visiting Sintra which was a magical and historic place.  Sintra is a World Heritage Site with Lord Bryon famously calling this hilltop town a 'glorious Eden' and is absolutely amazing. Sintra was the traditional summer retreat of Portugal's kings and is a fairy-tale setting of stunning palaces and manors. We certainly did not expect to see a Moorish Castle built in 5,000 BC, Palaces for Royalty which look like something from Disney Land with the colours and turrets built on top of the stone cliffs and a virtual plethora of other palaces built for the aristocrats of the day.  It was absolutely stunning scenery with great views from the castle's across to Lisbon. We also stopped at the Cabo da Roca lighthouse en-route to Sintra which is the western most point for main land Europe.  

We considered staying in Cascais for a month as the marina is comfortable with a massive concrete break wall which does a good job of stopping the Atlantic surge and is a good location to the town with miles of scenic paths along the coastline to walk. Our only concern was we may get stuck here for all of winter so have decided to keep going south to Gibraltar where we can stop and rest for awhile.  With only 250NM to go now we are getting close, but it seems to be taking a long time to cover this final distance.  With the limited weather windows at least we are getting a chance to explore a few other ports on the way.  

Below are some photos from around the local area.  We really liked  the pavements made of cobblestone - quite a change from miles of concrete and asphalt at home. 

Moorish Castle - 5,000 BC

One of many local Sintra Palaces

The Pena Palace has the largest collection of stained glass windows in Portugal.  The colours were vivid and bold depicting the stories from the ages - below is an example of a couple of stained glass artwork from the 16th century.

Passage to Nazaré, Portugal

Lighthouse in Nazaré Bay

After a lengthy ten days in Baiona, Spain we finally had a break in the weather to continue south. We had a fast trip to Nazaré, Portugal with 167NM covered in 23hrs. Once we were around the headland it was one tack to Nazaré which made it easy, with an average speed of 7 knots in Force 6 (22 - 27kts) wind with quite a few squalls which meant reefs in the sails, reefs out - repeatedly. Ironically after good speed and wind for this passage the wind died and we ended up motoring the last hour into the harbour.  We had to be careful on this leg with our departure window as there are limited refuge ports on the coast and in a W swell (which we had) many of the ports close.

 

Nazaré harbour entrance

We arrived in Nazaré (an all weather harbour) during daylight hours which was prudent as there are a high number of fishing buoys (and nets) approaching the harbour entrance. A constant look out ensured we never caught any - surprising how quickly the buoys appear between 4-5 meter cresting waves.  Arriving in Nazaré we couldn't raise the marina on the VHF channel and it appeared there was no room for us - this was despite emailing and confirming a berth (sounds like Oostend all over again!). The private yacht club opposite the entrance, Club Naval de Nazaré, had one spare berth that we spied through the bino's so we exercised decisive decision making and took it. We then waited an hour for the office to open to see if we could stay. We are learning in the winter months it is no point arriving before 1000hrs as most places are not open. Thankfully we could remain in the berth so settled in for the next week.


Nazaré is a picturesque fishing town and is one of the most popular seaside towns on the Atlantic coast with beautiful golden sand stretching for miles. We are pleased to be visiting out of season with empty beaches to enjoy.

Miles of golden sandy beaches

Out of season, there is an atmosphere of times gone with the old town quite run down but quite authentic with locals going about their daily activity, including drying fish on the beach.  We certainly enjoyed going to the local markets for fruit, vege and of course fish.  It appeared that most of the apartments were all shuttered for winter - the atmosphere would no doubt be very different in summer.

Surfers waiting to catch the wave

Nazaré is also (now) famous for it's surf beach with the biggest wave in the world surfed - 30 metres by a UK surfer. If you are interested here is video of this amazing feat. Biggest Wave in the World Surfed

The highlight of this stop over was a visit from our friends Jovi and Gedis who are live aboards on their trimaran who we met in Ispwich. They were staying an hour up the coast so came down for a day's visit. It was great to catch up and hear their sailing stories, go out for lunch for the local meal of 'fisherman's stew', watch the surfers then have a relaxed dinner onboard.

John, Gedis and Jovi watching the mad surfers - local entertainment!  

Yes ... it is winter.

A sign outside an apartment block

Next stop is planned for Sines, Portugal.

Down the coast to Bayona, Spain

 MRYC (orange roof)

After a relatively short sail of 20 hours, or 120 NM, from La Coruña we arrived in the well sheltered harbour of Bayona.  Arriving early in the morning showed a huge bay with beautiful sandy beaches with the Monte Real Yacht Club (MRYC) marina situated beneath the picturesque Monterreal Fort. The MRYC is one of the oldest yacht clubs in Spain and was the first to challenge for the America’s Cup. Going into the office to check was a huge portrait of a very young looking Russell Coutts (former NZ America’s Cup Skipper). 

 

Incoming violent squall ....

We had planned for a short stop over, however the weather has been atrocious on the coast with Force 8-9 gales and huge swells for the week.  Even in the marina it is has been uncomfortable with Sabbaticus straining on her mooring lines as the squalls and hailstorms come on a regular basis and the boat heeling (leaning over) on the marina berth when the gales hit.  While not particularly pleasant at the marina it would be miserable if we were out sailing in these conditions.

Frustrating weather!

Wind in the marina

We turned the wind instrument on during one squall and recorded 44.1 kts and this was in a sheltered marina! The UK marine forecast was constantly 'red' (this means gales Force 8/9) - hence our delayed departure.

 

Bayona is scenic town with a medieval historical center which is mainly a tourist resort in summer. We have enjoyed daily walks around the Monterreal Fort's 3kms defensive walls with it's spectacular views and strolling around the historic town. 

After a few days we had a well formed route to the bakery, fish and fruit /veg shops and then the cafe/bar for John's daily fix - must keep the skipper happy! This was also a good opportunity to practice our Spanish - much to the amusement of the locals.

La Pinta replica

Bayona has a place in history as one of the ships from Columbus’ voyage to discover the New World returned to Bayona in 1493, making the town the first to receive the news of the discovery of America. There is a replica of the ship, La Pinta, in the harbour about 150mtrs from our berth. 

We also trekked up to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which had the stations of the cross on the hill side leading to the statute. The statue was completed in 1930 and stands 50 feet tall with her holding a ship in her right hand. An imposing Mary with amazing views towards the Fort and town.

Spanish Navy Departing

During the week we had three Spanish Navy boats arrive alongside us on the pier. They must have being a trainee crew as it took them about 45 mins to berth, plus the crew looked very young (sure sign we are getting old!).  We were then awoken the next morning when the Navy tanoy system blared out some instructions to all three ships no doubt starting their daily routines.  A couple of hours later they left leaving us to our peace and quiet.


A 52ft catamaran arrived in this morning so John went out to move one of our mooring lines and said ‘hola’ in greeting to the crew. Snuggled up in bed I could hear the response ‘Bloody hell are you Australian - we can speak English’. I had a good laugh at that - it was a South African delivery skipper taking the new boat to the Caribbean.  He was a nice guy and after coffee onboard with us we got a look inside the Cat which was huge inside - ideal for charter work in the Caribbean!

We are now planning to depart tomorrow provided the forecast holds to get further down the coast to Portugal.

View from the deck when it was fine:)

The fortress walk provided the daily exercise

View from the Blessed Virgin towards the Fort

Bay of Biscay Crossing

Lighthouse departing Brest

After waiting a week in Brest we finally had a favourable weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay with light to moderate winds and no big swells forecasted.  Autumn is not the best time to cross the bay but with no fixed schedule we have the luxury of waiting for suitable weather windows.  When completing our final system checks the night before departure we discovered the galley pump was leaking water into the bilges.  Rather than delay our departure to fix the pump, we decided a bucket in the sink for washing all dishes would suffice, and instead of pumping the dirty water out it would be the old fashioned method of throwing the water over the side.  

Light winds in the Bay

On Mon 27 Oct at 0700hrs we departed Brest harbour and put the sails up with a couple of reef's (reduces the sail area) in both the main and genoa sails due to the stiff breeze.  However, the wind was a little fickle and we went through several sail reef evolutions exiting the harbour before finally settling on 70% main and genoa with a 20-25 kt wind on the nose. We made good progress until midday Tue when we started motor sailing.  The next 30 hours was then a combination of motor-sailing, engine off, sails up, sails down as lighter winds prevailed.  Surprisingly the Bay was relatively flat, with a warm breeze and sun shining.  

Another day ends...

The night passages were busy keeping an eye on the numerous fishing vessels when approaching the Sth coast of the Bay which seemed to be zig-zagging everywhere!  While motoring to our anchorage spot in La Coruña, Spain the Port Authority called us up to determine our intentions.  We finally dropped anchor at 0500hrs, tired but pleased we now had the Biscay crossing behind us having logged 392 nautical miles - our longest leg to date.  Our only breakage was the failure of the electric motor on the 64'' port winch which meant manually winding in the genoa for part of the trip.  

Customs visit

Accessing spare parts under our bed

Waking the next day to brilliant sunshine and a warm 23 degrees was absolute bliss. We had literally just opened the hatch's at 1100hrs when Leanne saw the Customs RIB approaching.  This was a low key visit, with our documentation checked no boarding of Sabbaticus required and no passports stamped.  Being at anchor gave us the chance to air the boat, access the spares to fault find the winch failure and also repair the galley pump.  The day finished with a swim - ironic our first swim off Sabbaticus is in autumn.

Marina break water

Cooking the Octopus

We then moved to La Coruña Marina which has a massive sea wall for protection, is adjacent to the San Antón Castle and is only a short 10 min walk to town. We enjoyed our time in La Coruña which  is busy port in the Galicia region with a population of 250,000 and easy city to stroll around with lots of history dating back to the Romans.  We found some good local tapas bars, tasted our first octopus meal which was delicious and enjoyed the local beer 'estrella galicia' which is now in stock onboard.  
  
Below are some of the photo's of the local area ...

City Hall

Tower of Hercules

View of San Antón Castle from Sabbaticus

Local dive shop - not sure if Jaws encourages customers or not!

After a couple of days the warm weather disappeared with wind, hailstorms and rain now upon us with a corresponding swell in the marina which makes for an uncomfortable sleep.  Hopefully our next stop is further down the coast in Bayona, Spain.