Leixoes to Figueira de Foz - 5th and now also 6th August
Posted at 10:45 AM, Thursday, August 6, 2009
Not much that's new to report really.
Awoke yesterday to find the fog still around us although visibility has out to maybe 100 yards. Dinghied over the still waters into the marina, then up to the office where we completed (with help) the required Portuguese entry documents.
Despite being part of the EU, Portugal still insist on each visiting boat checking in to every port with both police and customs declarations. They say all part of their battle against drug smuggling. Methinks it keeps more people employed. Can't argue that one.
The big harbour is a busy place, being not just a oil landing spot but also the entry route to get up river to Porto itself. Big ships sedately move move in an out with lamps glowing in the fog, with little yellow and black pilot boats buzzing along in front like bees.
We left around 10 am to motor southward through the mist gradually angling further and further offshore until we broke out into brilliant sunshine around midday. What was even more exciting was finding we were at last in a warm gentle 10 knot breeze from behind us - just what the doctor ordered to push us further on without the engine running.
So with engine and T shirts off, we slid southward under sail all arvo making for Figueira da Foz, some 70 miles below Leixoes.
Figueira is placed on the northern bank of the Foz River, apparently the longest river to rise in Portugal. The name Figueira means the The Big Fir Tree and there are still huge fir forests running off northward behind the long sandy beaches here. It is a modern town with good facilities, depending largely on shipbuilding and tourism. The marina is a short distance upstream from the river mouth, into which we plunged.
Even as we came in over the river mouth sand bar and it was only in moderate swell and 20 knots of breeze from behind, the seas built so that Swagman almost surfed her way in. Seems the then outgoing ebb of 3 knots from the river helped contribute to this danger every day.
As it happens I love that kind of wave action and enjoyed sailing down the wave faces, but a British yacht was lost making this entry in 1997 and one can certainly see how it could easily happen. They report the ebb can run at up to 7 knots if it hasbeen raining inland - so if you ever come in here maybe worth checking if its been raining up country in the few days before? There were big cranes and buckets working even as we arrived, extending the northern mole extending from the entrance. Maybe to give more protection?? Who knows.
Unfortunately as we finished the job of tying up off the police jetty, then having to untie and manouver over to take a berth, with me skipping around the deck like the young sportsman I think I am, I twisted my ankle (like the idiot we all know I can be). Ouch. It hurt.
So now looks like we're staying here for 48 hours to give the swelling a chance to go down. Upside is good internet connection so I can update the blog and leave Sue to the pleasures of shopping alone.
With drugs, luck, and fair winds, tomorrow we should be off to complete a long leg of 105 miles to reach Cascais off Lisbon - from where it is really a hop skip and jump to our final destination of Lagos. We are certainly covering this coast as a pace this time round.
Do you think God via my ankle is trying to slow us down???
Cheers
JOHN and SUE