BAIONA TO LISBON

Now in Lisbon after a very windy and rough passage down the coast from Baiona. We called at Povoa/Porto (great visit to Taylor’s Port caves – resisted buying the 1994 vintage but now a fan of Tawny port!), Leixos, Figuera (wonderful visit to Coimbra University – one of the oldest in the world with an amazing library – they keep bats in the library to eat the insects which would otherwise damage the books, some of which date from the 1500’s), Nazare, Peniche (visited an old medieval town inland) and now in Lisbon which we think is a lovely city – great history, lovely streets and a relaxed charm. Friends Peta and Steve joined us in Povoa for the leg to Lisbon. They sailed with us last year in Brittany and it poured with rain and this year when they met up with us it was again pouring with rain! Next year we’ll need to make sure we’re in sunnier climes.

Winds in this section as we sailed down the coast have been from the North and quite strong – up to 28 knots and seas were quite rough with 3m to 3.5m waves. Glad to be in Lisbon for a couple of days rest. We hope the winds will abate a little for the next two legs down the coast – we leave Lisbon on Saturday for Sines then on Monday plan to round the SW corner, Cape St Vincent, to Lagos and the Algarve. Looking forward to it. We’ll leave the boat in Lagos for a week while we go back home to Malta (via UK so hope to catch up with many of you in the UK either 25th/26th June on our way to Malta or 2nd/3rd/4th July on our way back to Lagos). Then we’ll have a few weeks in the Algarve and SW Spain – hope to visit Cadiz, Seville and Jerez.

This section of the Rally has been quite eventful. One boat lost steering in heavy seas and two others tried to tow it but the tow line snapped and so eventually the life boat came to the rescue. There have been a few crew changes – one unplanned as crew and skipper fell out. Several of us have had a Rally tummy bug which is a bit of a knock out for 48 hours! Two crew on another boat have fallen overboard (at separate times!) – luckily both in harbour! And a third person fell in and got a bad infection. The fleet was storm bound for two days but we had gone ahead the previous day and managed to keep sailing. We were lucky to have our friends Peta and Steve with us as it would have been very hard work with just two of us. They did a lot of helming (in difficult conditions) which was a great help. Judging by the smiles I think they really enjoyed it! Today we’ve been catching up with repairs and doing a wall painting (quite a tradition in some ports where lots of passage boats pass through). I hope Helen will post a photo of ALMA’s contribution. One repair I must mention – I asked the sailmaker here to splice a new rope for me (hi tech spectra rope which I cannot splice – need to learn but it seems a miracle to me anyone can splice this type of rope) and he’s just returned it to me perfectly done (I think) at 7.15pm (he should have finished work today at 4.00pm but the Rally has kept him very busy!) and won’t accept any payment for it! I really can’t believe the kindness and generosity we’ve encountered in Portugal – wonderful and amazing.

So now heading for Cape St Vincent and the Algarve. Looking forward to visiting the UK and seeing many of you.
Best wishes
Helen and Iain