23rd – 26th August
I headed out of Cascais marina at 5 a.m. rigged my sails and glided peacefully south over a light swell and under a stunning canopy of stars; I saw about 10 shooting stars all together…..really beautiful. Lisbon is a busy port and freighters came and went as I crossed the mouth of the Tejo. The sun starts to rise about 6:15 a.m. and I never tire of watching this pa
particularly as it brings a bit of warmth to the day.
Sines is halfway between Cascais and Cape St.Vincent, the south westerly tip of Portugal, and it was also the birthplace of Dom Vasco da Gama the famous explorer and navigator who discovered the sea route to India thus ending Venice’s dominance of the trade routes.
Sines is a little town almost untouched by tourism, it’s very cheap it cost me 9E a night in the Marina compared with 24.90E at Cascais and the Marina has a wonderful collection of people who for what ever reason arrived and never left. In this blog I have never really mentioned the positive effect people such as these have had on my trip……….they are of a particular type…..they are very open, non-judgemental, generous and kind and without the help and companionship they have provided my trip
would have been much the poorer. They are the sort who get swallowed up in our society yet here they can live day by day, help you come and go and dispense a little wisdom on the way. When I arrived my friend Mick, from Dun Laoghaire, took me for a cold beer on the terrace of the new Marina office we sat there with 8 others, a Welshman, a Swede, two Danes, two French, a Canadian and an Italian, drinking wine at a 1E for a very very large glass laughing and chatting as the sun went down. The Swede, Magnus, lives on a 50’ boat, he pays 1,300E a year which includes electricity, showers & use of a washing machine……beat that!!!!!!!!
I set off for Cape St.Vincent at 4a.m.; it’s 62NM and I wanted to get round before the strong northerly winds which arrive late in the afternoon kicked in. I had a very peaceful passage accompanied by the biggest pod of dolphins I’d seen yet, well
over 50 of them, until I rounded the cape then I was hit by 25knot gusts which sent me skidding round at 6.5knots. I anchored just around the Cape in Sagres Bay under the cliffs upon which stand the remnants of Henry the Navigator’s original school. Mick arrived in “Blue Falcon” 20 mins later and invited me over to share a steak……I said no…..he’d had that steak a week and I could smell it from here. I’m getting quite good at anchoring now which is a good thing as I had 20+ knots all night and in the morning I had a hell of a workout hauling the anchor up against the wind anyway I waved good bye to Mick and finally turned east heading towards Gibraltar!!!
I headed out of Cascais marina at 5 a.m. rigged my sails and glided peacefully south over a light swell and under a stunning canopy of stars; I saw about 10 shooting stars all together…..really beautiful. Lisbon is a busy port and freighters came and went as I crossed the mouth of the Tejo. The sun starts to rise about 6:15 a.m. and I never tire of watching this pa
particularly as it brings a bit of warmth to the day.Sines is halfway between Cascais and Cape St.Vincent, the south westerly tip of Portugal, and it was also the birthplace of Dom Vasco da Gama the famous explorer and navigator who discovered the sea route to India thus ending Venice’s dominance of the trade routes.
Sines is a little town almost untouched by tourism, it’s very cheap it cost me 9E a night in the Marina compared with 24.90E at Cascais and the Marina has a wonderful collection of people who for what ever reason arrived and never left. In this blog I have never really mentioned the positive effect people such as these have had on my trip……….they are of a particular type…..they are very open, non-judgemental, generous and kind and without the help and companionship they have provided my trip
would have been much the poorer. They are the sort who get swallowed up in our society yet here they can live day by day, help you come and go and dispense a little wisdom on the way. When I arrived my friend Mick, from Dun Laoghaire, took me for a cold beer on the terrace of the new Marina office we sat there with 8 others, a Welshman, a Swede, two Danes, two French, a Canadian and an Italian, drinking wine at a 1E for a very very large glass laughing and chatting as the sun went down. The Swede, Magnus, lives on a 50’ boat, he pays 1,300E a year which includes electricity, showers & use of a washing machine……beat that!!!!!!!!I set off for Cape St.Vincent at 4a.m.; it’s 62NM and I wanted to get round before the strong northerly winds which arrive late in the afternoon kicked in. I had a very peaceful passage accompanied by the biggest pod of dolphins I’d seen yet, well
over 50 of them, until I rounded the cape then I was hit by 25knot gusts which sent me skidding round at 6.5knots. I anchored just around the Cape in Sagres Bay under the cliffs upon which stand the remnants of Henry the Navigator’s original school. Mick arrived in “Blue Falcon” 20 mins later and invited me over to share a steak……I said no…..he’d had that steak a week and I could smell it from here. I’m getting quite good at anchoring now which is a good thing as I had 20+ knots all night and in the morning I had a hell of a workout hauling the anchor up against the wind anyway I waved good bye to Mick and finally turned east heading towards Gibraltar!!! 
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