24th - 30 Sept. Updated 5th Oct

Mon 24th - Thurs 27th
The crews of four boats went into Porto on the Metro (Charlie & Alison have already been). Two crews to the port bottling area of town to find out about the history of port and two – ourselves and Seawalk explore the old town. It is a very old town beautiful in parts. There are a lot of tiled houses as well as churches. It looks like a strange mixture of Baroque, Moorish and the modern. On the way back to the metro we pass through the shopping area and see that the styles in the shops are different again (from Spain & France) and more ‘modern’.

Tues
We have checked the weather so it will be another couple of days. It’s very windy. The breakers on the rocks are quite impressive. A day to catch up with jobs, and Carolyn found an internet café. It’s a long walk! Trevor ordered an adaptor that will hopefully help us get better wifi signal. Next day we go to the computer shop and Lidl. There wasn’t as much in Lidl as hoped and the part had not arrived for the computer. We are not leaving until 15.00 tomorrow so there’s time tomorrow.

Thurs 27th
Nocturne leave at 8.00am heading for Cascais depending on the weather. Seawalk leave at 12.00 heading for Cascais. It is 170 miles! Success at last! Trevor has the adaptor and hopefully this will help us get wifi. We leave with Kiara at 3.00pm for the 90 miles overnight trip to Nazare. We managed to get the sails out and engine off for an hour or so in the late afternoon but the wind didn’t last and we were back to motoring. It’s been a bit of a surprise how much motoring we have to do - but rather that than getting hammered by high wind and seas.

Friday 28th
Arrived Nazare just before 10.00 am. It was a quiet overnight sail (well motor ………………… again) Just at the watch change – 12.00 (midnight –ish) - 30 or 40 dolphins came to play. They stayed for ages. Every time the dolphins come we end up with bad weather. It’s as if they come to tell us. When we arrive in Nazare we are told by Captain Mike Hadley to double up all ropes there’s going to be a force 10!

Sat 29th
Unfortunately our mobile phone network has gone off. So, the sat phone has been kept switched on, which is ok price-wise for texting but very expensive to use for conversation. The force 10 seems to have stayed well out to sea but the swell that has developed is far too big for us to go anywhere, so we get the opportunity to explore Nazare which is beautiful. The weather is still good but windy. We took the funicular railway up to the old town at the top of the cliff. The older women here nearly all still wear national dress. Once they are widowed it’s the same costume but all in black. We are about a mile from the town but the buses are fairly often and the taxis cheap enough with four sharing. On Sunday Diana and C cycle into town on the Kiara bikes with the mission of finding internet, and they found an internet café only 1km away. By email we find that Seawalk and Nocturne went all the way to Sines which, if the swell is from the S.W., is apparently quite uncomfortable. We were surprised to hear that they have had rain there for a couple of days.