Bayona to Sesimbra

Posted at 9:09 PM, Jul. 20, 2005

The high pressure zone is now over us bringing warm weather, clear skies and the northerly trades - water temperature still struggling to make it to 20 degrees though.

From Bayona in Spain we sailed and then motor sailed down the Atlantic coast a further 65 miles to Povoa de Vazim in Portugal - the Spanish courtesy flag we were flying barely had time to get the creases blown out before it was replaced by the attractive Portugese flag. The Portugese coast is relatively straight and most harbours are man-made out into the sea. The Atlantic gales that sweep this coast each year in winter are ferocious with up to 12 gales a year and 7 metre waves hitting the coast - only 1 last year in Vazim but 12 the year before. The marina is closed in winter and all boats lifted from the water.

Povoa de Vazim is, as are all the towns  with a sheltered bund wall built, a fishing port  about 20 miles north of Oporto so the day after our arrival found as training and busing into Oporto for a walk down to the river Duorno (Oporto is built around a steep river gorge) acoss the old double decker bridge to check out the port caves representing names going back hundreds of years. We had a tour through the House of Ferreira  (founded in 1561) tasted and bought. Also saw Crofts, Sandemans and Salem. Discovered the delights of white port, which is something akin to a sticky,and only lasted one night on Savarna!! Fortunately we have a small cellar of port onboard to keep available for  indigestion.

Left Povoa de Vazim on Tuesday 12th for a 55 mile sail to Figueira da Foz another fishing port. The Atlantic coast continues to be just one long beautiful beach with golden sand and few headlands.dotted every few miles with a cluster of red tiled houses/villas. It seems that property developers are opening up tranches of the coast and developing villas for sale to the English and Germans for holiday homes. During the sail which developed into a  motor sail a dense sea fog rolled in and retricted visibility to a little more than 100 metres - thank goodness for the radar, yet again. But no ships horns to keep us alert this time.

Fig Foz, as it is known by some, has a newish marina with decent fingers but provided yet a further test of  manouvering skills as they decided we should be berthed next to the 55 ft search and rescue boat that had lines across the marina we were to go into and about 40 cm each side. We managed to go in astern with great finesse and no marks on the boat but the guy on the police boat was quite unhappy we were there. FF sports a good market right next to the marina so fruit and veg shopping was the order of the day the following morning and a walk around the old town, nearly buying a couple of fold up bikes. The previous evening was a major as we had met up with an English couple (John and Sue from Stromboli who were heading to Gibralter to start in a blue water cruise to the Carribean in their 36 footer double ender) The evening became protracted entirely because of John"s jokes and we decided he must be at least related to Rowan Atkinson as there are significant similarities - except his jokes are even better. At least John admitted to a hangover the next morning!!

Early afternoon of Wednesday 13th saw us set off 2 hours after Stromboli for what appeared from the chart to be one of the few bays capable of anchoring in with decent shelter. It turned out to be a delightful horseshoe shaped bay surrounded by hotels, villas and holiday apartments (with a disco that played until the early hours). Sao Martinho was quite shallow which restricted our anchoring but because of that is reputed to be the warmest water temperature of the Artlantic coast. The following morning saw Pam and Sonia, not to be outdone by John and Sue swimming off Stromboli edge themselves into a water temperature that at best was 19.6. Too cold for the guys!! This activity saw us head off on a late departure for the 65 mile sail to Peniche.

At least we had another quick passage, again with the genaker up, and found Peniche to be a major fishing port. The locals were on the quay, under umbrellas, working their way through dozens of fishing nets, repairing  and packing them ready for loading onto the fishing boats. At some stage a signal must have been fired as suddenly all the larger boats left port, ignoring the 3 knot speed restriction published in large letters at the port entrance, as they all raced out we presumed to get the best of the fishing spots. This activity continued all night and as we were on the outside of the outer pier we got constantly hit by waves - we have discovered that the flat after sections of Savarna provide a great banging when hit by waves from a certain angle which reverberates through the boat - a sleepless night.

Fishing appears to underpin the local economy of many of the villages along the Atlantic coast and is huge. We were constantly on lookout for nets, set lines and pots marked with flags and often it seemed like we were navigating through a mine field. Fortunately as we managed to avoid them all  no-one had to go over the side with a knife and maybe more importantly we did not upset a local fisherman who could not find his gear the next day. Fish markets and restaurants are plentiful and relatively cheap with the fish served simply with salads washed down with  pitchers of local wine. Sardines are the specialty (with rice) and are larger than what we see in tins - Pam threatened to bring some on board several times but mooring up under the occasional fish processing plant with the attendant smells put paid to that idea.

Friday 15th July saw us leave Peniche  for the 35 mile sail to Sesimbra, a small holiday village about 20 miles south of Lisbon. Sesimbra is tucked into the coast a few miles after  Cape Espichel and after another good sail to the Cape with the genaker we rounded the cape into 25/30 knot winds howling off the hills. A 7 mile reach at 10.5 knots under a full main and no headsail finally saw us anchor off the beach in front of the hotels. The wind died at dusk but the roll stayed with us all night - another restless night on board. At least is has not rained since we left England and the weather is getting warmer as we get  further south.

We discovered that Sesimbra is entirely manmade as after the huge seawall was built (with a small marina behind) but sheltered the beach, the sand was brought in and a resort village was created just a few miles south of Lisbon. A first was created the following morning  as we opened the garage door and dropped the dinghy in for the first time, went ashore for an explore and found the local fruit and veg market again - Pam is good at sniffing these out. The beach was crowded and covered with umbrellas by the time we came to go back to Savarna, to up anchor and head further south.