Lisbon to the Algarve


After 4 days at anchor in CasCais - with winds hitting F8 at times I decide to move to Lisbon  - handier for Pearse to get to the boat. I also want to update my flares as I have been told that the Police Maritime can inspect foreign flagged yachts and hand out fines if you do not have in date flares - I had put off renewing mine because the longer you leave it the longer they last and it is a real pain spending money on flares and not needing them before they go out of date (well, I suppose it is actually better than the alternative, but even so it is a lot of money...)

I had thought of renewing several times on the journey so far, to discover in Spain that you order from chandleries and it can take 1-3 days for them to arrive, I usually think of it on a Friday or Thursday, hence the delays.

I arrive in Lisbon on a Monday, a simple 2 hour trip up the river. I go to the chandlery by bike and am told, they can't sell flares in Portugal, I have to go to a specialist place that services lifeboats and rafts for big ships - Orey Technica is 10 miles out of Lisbon <sigh>

Luckily I have the presence of mind to phone them. They say, they can do flares for passing yachtsmen but I meed a permit from the central policestation is Moscovide in Lisbon.

Tuesday, I cycle to Moscovide Police statiion - it looks like 5 miles, it is more - it takes me an hour and a half in hot hot weather. The police station is cool, I take a ticket from a machine, my turn is number 3 and before long I am sitting at a desk with a nice young policeman who speaks workable English. Oh, he says, we normally just supply permits to Lisbon residents for Lisbon registered boats, but he goes and asks and discovers, yes he can supply me with a permit. Then he says, but you need a letter from the Captainaire of the Port where the boat is. He writes out in Portuguese what the Captain's letter should say and shows me a photograph of the port office where I must go.

Wednesday I go to the Captainaire's office, no problem, the letter will take an hour and cost 5 euro and 11 cents. I then have the wit to go by bus this time to the police station. I discover the ticket machine has a label stuck over my button and ask WTF (politely). I am told that an entire rifle club has come in for its members to get permits for their rifles. Come back at 2:30 and the machine will open again. I know the office shuts at 4 p.m. so I return shortly after 2. At 3:10 the nice policeman comes over and says don't worry, he will process me - just wait. At ten past 4 I am invited to his desk. Right he says with a triumphant smile - just give me your uk income tax reference number and National Insurance number and he can print up the form. I tell him I can give him my National Insurance number - in Belfast these are two letters, six digits and a further letter (a check letter).

He frowns, asks a colleague, who asks a colleague, three people in animation around his computer, one phones a friend, after 30 minutes my tax reference becomes 99999999. Then my NI number - they have an impressive book with copies of tax and NI/Social security documents for over 60 countries. Unfortunately the English ones show 8 digit NI numbers. not like the Northern Ireland ones. <sigh> another policeman joins the melee, then another. The five of them finally decide what to do and at 17:10 the permit is produced with a flourish and waved in front of me, smiles all round. I tentatively reach out but no, not yet, it needs signed by the head of police. A policemen is dispatched upstairs and we await his return. At 17:30 he comes back and.... I have my permit!

Thursday, I fold my bike and take a train to within a few kilometres of Orey Technica, with my new permit, ships papers and my passport.  By lunchtime I have my flares and I ride back to the train station and hence to the boat, just in time to head back out again to pick up Pearse. He has a 3.5 hour, 20 Euro train ride from Faro to Lisbon.

Pearse phones from Belfast to say Easyjet (hardjet?) have delays, then Delays, then DELAYS... I do think airlines should not give out bad news drip by drip. Anyway, Pearse will now miss the train so books a hotel, he is on his own mini-adventure. He picks a civilised afternoon train the next day and I go by local train from near the marina to the main train station - note there are two types of train station near the marina - Alcantara Mar and Alcantara Terre, the latter takes 30 minutes to get to the Estacion Oriente where Pearse is expected at 17:25. (the other Alcantara Mar station has trains that don't go to the Oriente). One hurdle overcome. Then Pearse txts to say the train has encountered forest fires and is stopped, they need (eventually) 20 buses to ferry the passengers from one train to a relief train. Pearse's bus runs into more smoke and has to divert from the diversion. He arrives in Lisbon at just before 11pm, five hours late. I go to get tickets for the local train and (a) the card reader on the first two machines is broken and (b) the coin trays are totally full. By racing aound a really big station I find a third machine, get the tickets but we miss the 23:11 to Alcantatra. Anyway we need to eat so we get a quick snack from the nearby shopping centre and finally get the 23:46 train. After all is said and done we arrive at the boat at half past midnight. <sigh>
 The main train station is Lisbon is massive - it has the stalls below selling books and DVD's




The next day, we have a walk along the river at Lisbon, have lunch and then head 30 miles south to Sesimbra, we anchor here and don't go ashore, next day we head 50 mile south to Sines where we go in the marina, no wind on either day <sigh>
Sines is nice, there is a good cafe with outdoor barbecue at the top of the cliffs overlooking the marina, Simon and Paula from Sylvana had recommended it, unfortunately the only two tables are smoked out by the barbecue - they only have 8 tables and the barbecue is a repurposed half oil drum. Food looks good though! We wander through the town, first half is touristy but not too bad, we end up away from the beach and stumble upon a restaurant full of locals... very good service and food.





And then onwards to the Algarve - 65 miles to the corner (Cape Vincent) and then 15 or so up into Lagos - then first marina, it has a train service to get Pearse back to Faro airport.



The cape has tourists and buildings! I think Henry the Navigator had his navigation school nearby (so says Ian the navigator)

A few Dolphins come in and say hello to Pearse, the Collins guide we have highlights personality differences between breeds - these dolphins only stay a few minutes and have a particular dive and swim tactics - the ones in the Irish sea/St Geroges channel usually stay for 30 minutes plus and weave in and out like plaited hair just in front of the bow. Best seen when they are three of them. Mystical. The ones this far south are actually fairly boring.

But always nice to look at. Makes you smile.



Oops, photos out of order here; this is us approaching Cape Vincent


A horde of RVs and burger vans



And we are round - you are supposed to stay more than 5 miles off in bad weather.


A keen fisherman...

approaching Lagos
lots of caves (grottos) and tour boats taking grockles (tourists) into them
Lighthouse with Palm trees! a good sign


We have a busy time getting into Lagos, we arrive at 8pm and discover that a bolt has worked its way out of the autopilot and jammed the rudder, we can turn left a wee bit and right not so much. Luckily we can get to the fuel pontoon where I remove the bolt by hacksaw in a very small place. We elect to stay the night on the fuel pontoon (actually we move to the reception pontoon before 7:30 a.m. the next morning.) Pearse heads off for a 8 a.m. train to Faro and I am left to do the washing, the tumble drier gets the sheets and quilt cover dry so the boat is not too festooned with washing!


The layout in Lagos is interesting, on the West side of the river is a thousand year old town built by the Moors. On the East, on reclaimed marshland, is a marina and marina village (and modern train station). A lifting footbridge joins the two sides. Twee.

Mind you the last time I was in Lagos we walked away up the hill to the old town and a gorgeous wee cafe. This time we walked along the river bank into a pressing mass of humanity - I suspect August makes the town a bit like Portrush...Overbusy and Overpriced - Marina was 54 Euro.

I depart Lagos about noon and head for Faro - I can anchor there and work on the boat until she gets lifted out at "Bruce's yard" in Faro - handy to fly home from. It is much cheaper to get lifted out than to pay to stay in the water - marinas are expensive.

Porto to Lisbon



You try and take photographs of Porpoises and Dolphins by the score and often just get a splash of water. Here is my best yet. A short beaked common Dolphin. Clear enough to be identified using the Collins nature guide "Whales & Dolphins" that Peter Kirby-Smith bought for Shadowmere on her return from Norway to the Belfast - we were spotting Minkie whales on that trip.  The shot above was taken a few miles South of Varzim. I am visited a dozen times on that trip. Maybe they know I an on my own.


 Just a few shots of Varzim - a wonderfully cheap marina  (only 23 Euro a night or245 Euro a month!)  with a nice core of longterm liveaboards - barbecues on Friday night, book swop area - sort of clubhouse feel to it. The town is very much a holiday town, well, it has a holiday beach, the rest of the town is unassuming, shore front it full of restaurants and cafes, back one street and it is an ageless old Portuguese town.
 This little huts go on and on

 On the right are stalls packed with second books - unfortunately in Portuguese


After visiting Porto by train from Varzim, it is time to move on, Originally intended to head to Leixoes not far down the coast or possibly to Figuero de Foz. Simon and Paula on Sylvana report that Foz was a disappointment - 4/10. Marina not great and expensive and town a bit like Brighton (not that there is anything wrong with Brighton - if you like that sort of thing) Anyway as I am singlehanded I am keen to save money - Varzim was great but anchoring is free. Hence I head to Aveiro - a lovely shallow inland sea with an artificial lagoon just off the main entrance river.
I anchor where the Red arrow points! you can also anchor towards the village but there are many moored boats and I am still learning how to anchor - it is difficult singlehanded! I do add a tripping buoy which is a great reassurance - you can see where the anchor lies and get feedback on how much chain is along the bottom and what your swinging circle is. Also if your bitter end breaks you can recover the anchor without diving for it! I stay here for 4 days - swimming every day for exercise, doing some work around the boat and practising my breadmaking - using the slowcooker to save gas!
I am still experimenting - outer skin is a bit too moist - I need to make a trivet to raise the breadpan off the hot water in the slow cooker. I could of course just use prove the yeast in the open air and use the Oven, but gas is precious - the loaf above was made with 20 minutes of a very low simmer on a gas ring, which must use an awful small amount of gas compared to a 25-45 minute very hot gas oven. You then leave the bread in the slow cooker for 4 hours and the magic happens! it tastes great.

Although the river is busy - there are ships three times this size coming and going I am well protected behind the man made barriers. After 4 nights I decide to move on - a longer leg this time so I leave at 6 in the morning and arrive 15 miles offshore in a nature reserve called Isla Berlenga. I have a pleasant sail for most of the trip, marred by having to dodge lobster pots, marked with very thin bamboos, sometimes with flags. From spotting these until you are upon them takes 90 seconds, which for the singlehander is a bit tiresome I had batches of these every 5-10 minutes for hours, I took avoiding action about a dozen times <sigh>

As you might deduce I am motoring when I photographed this one,

 The islands approach - these are just to the west of Berlenga and have no anchorage
 Berlenga has a lighthouse, I resist its temptation
 Sun goes down at 8:30 - it is dark by 9:30
 Manage to borrow a mooring for the night - you have to anchor in 17m here so a mooring is a better option. This place is described as a fair weather mooring, this part of the world had pretty consistent wind directionsin summer  (Northish) so this is a reasonable anchorage - just a touch rolly



I leave early the next morning for Cascais - at the entrance of the Tagus river that leads up to Lisbon.
This is a gorgeous 35 mile run  - I pole out the jenny and delight in the sailing. Then with 15 miles to go I turn left and head for the coast - a beam reach which shadowmere loves. Suddenly I see a bank of fog extending 10 miles off the coast. Very scarey. I startup the radar, hit the foghorn, and keep my eyes peeled, I eventually start to reduce sail as the wind comes up to a force 5-6. I begin to worry how to anchor in very strong winds, in bad vis - Cascais has a bay that you can anchor in  - just as well as it is a very expensive marina.

As I pass the point the good news is that I sail into a fog free zone. the bad news is that the wind is up to a full force 7, with flat seas though. I drop the mainsail and motor in. Still panicing a bit as to how I am going to anchor in a force 7 (badly I suspect!)  I think through some strategies but as usual you plan for the worst and hope for the best - when I round the second corner into Cascais the wind drops to 5 knots <sigh>

Cascais is very very nice, a delightful town and I stay here another 3 or 4 days at anchor. I go ashore to get gas and groceries on the first day The afternoon and evening winds are very strong and get stronger - so mush so I have to lift the punt onto the deck and cannot go ashore on days 3 and 4. My friend from my (old) work Pearse is coming out and I have to decide where to meet. With shipping forecasts of NW5-6 occasionally 7 and local grib forecasts from windguru mentioning force 8 I decide to move up to Lisbon after the 4 days in Cascais and ask Pearse to get the train from Faro (3 hours/20 Euro)


I am flying an anchor ball - not common
The red hand of ... Cascais!
The wavy lines on the tiles are not as seasick making as the ones in Villagarcia de Arosa. The whole town is paved, clean, full of tourists and is really, really well kept. It is a holiday town for Lisbon I suspect, there is a  good train service. Cascais is hoping to be "best young people's destination town" I hope the worst young people stay away.
The trip up to Lisbon takes 2 hours - last of the flood tide has me doing 7.5 kts
I had been here before with Ian Stevenson and we moored in a marina directly under the bridge, alongside lovely cafes and bars - one of which became a nightclub in the evening and played loud music to 5am. I avoid this marina and go further up to the Doca da Alcantara.
The shoreline of the Tagus is superb - you can walk or cycle right along it - there are 2 or 3 really good memorials.

 The marina to the right usually has no room for visitors

 There is a rather large bridge - 100 foot of clearance, but it still gives me the willies to go under it


arghhh

Anyway, I get to the Doca da Alcantara and spot that the lifting bridge is not (lifted) despite the pilot saying it is kept lifted for yachts... I hover about in the current and try the VHF to no avail (channel 9) I then use the telephone (god bless the EU for getting rid of roaming) I am told the bridge lifts on the halfhour (actually it is kept open - outside office hours). I continue to mill about but it opens 20 minutes early and a police rib comes out at full speed with blue flashing lights, I snuck in after it passes and come alongside the first pontoon I see, I walk up to the marina office and they move me of course. It is blowing 15 knots by now and it takes me two goes to get Shadowmere into the new berth. She is still the same length as when she was made, so that is a good thing.

I have now undertaken three anchorings, one mooring bouy pickup and 3 pontoon moorings singlehanded, my skillset must surely be lurching towards improvement...

My next post will probably be more reflective on how things are going. Also the saga of how to buy flares in Portugal. How Easyjet  complicate Pearse's holiday on the boat and what happens next.