Mon 7th Sept - Mon 14th Sept Leixios (Matasinhos) including trip to Foz Coa

We spent our first whole day in Leixios marina and discovered why there was no information on the town in the Portugal guide books, the town is actually called Matasinhos basically the Northern border of Oporto. It is only the port that is called Leixioes and what a busy port it is too, there is a huge lifting bridge which just happened to be opening one of the times we crossed it so the girls loved it they thought it might be their big brother Daniel who was steering the ship through the bridge. After seeing this Ali thinks it is the perfect solution to the ‘fixed link to Bressay’ problem.









The marina has a laundry service which picks up your laundry in the morning and delivers it back at night, washed dried and folded. A pretty good service except that the delivery guy doesn’t work on a Monday so we carried all of our stuff across town to the laundry which would have been a less arduous journey if we had any idea where we were going at all! The trek did however lead us to a lunch experience we enjoyed quite thoroughly. We stumbled across a restaurant where all the clientele sit around a runway where the small owner guy runs up and down at lightening speed serving people and shouting food orders to the kitchen staff with seemingly infinite energy reserves as it was very busy. We just ordered the usual ‘prato da dia’ dishes which were all very good indeed.

We spent a lot of the day just wandering round getting our bearings and finding out about a trip I really wanted to do, a trip up into the mountains to Foz Coa where there is a lot of Palaeolithic rock art. It seemed the only way to go was by hire car so we booked one for the next morning.

We got up early and made a packed lunch etc for the five hour drive to Foz Coa. The hire car didn’t come with a map or much fuel so we set off the direction we thought it would be in and quickly missed a turn off for the area we wanted to go in and realised that at the next service station we were getting fuel and a map to make sure we didn’t end up on the road to Lisbon with no fuel. Once we got the map and miraculously got back onto the correct highway all was fine, until we accidentally passed through a toll booth without picking up a ticket and got fined at the other end! This trip was starting to add up already. The scenery was stunning the road follows the river Douro on and off and other river valleys too as you go East until we turned South and were driving along the upper Douro again. The foliage is much greener and lusher nearer the coast too it is like a desert up in the mountains. If we stopped the car and got out to take photos at the top of the valley then it was astounding the hot wind whistling up at you. Thank goodness the car had air conditioning.

We got to Vale do Foz Coa just in time to go to the tourist info get some hotel addresses (prepared as usual!) and get to the Archaeological park offices and find out we couldn’t book a trip until the Thursday. This meant we had the whole of Wednesday with no plans but the area up near the Spanish border is so full of old castles and history etc that we knew we wouldn’t be stuck. We got a hotel straight away which was also a relief and we took turns in having a bath for the first time in months. I think we would all agree that the trip was worth it just for the bath alone! The lasses spent about an hour in there playing around. We went for dinner in the local restaurant well the only one within walking distance that we could find. Ali felt as though he deserved a glass of vino or two after all the hard driving and we had a pleasant meal.

The next day we got up for buffet breakfast and headed off to find some old castle villages. The breakfast was standard fare except for one thing that amused Ali and I. When we went to get a cup of coffee we realised there was a kettle with coffee IN IT and another with hot milk IN IT and another with water for tea! We were surprised the coffee actually tasted OK.

We set in the direction of the Spanish border on some minor roads which wound up and down the valleys and around the hillsides quite precariously. One of our guide books warned about Portuguese driving and we did see some seriously dodgy overtaking going on, probably because we were going so slow!

We spotted a solitary church on top of a hill so we made it our fist stop and were quite surprised our peerie rental car made it up the cobbled track all the way up the hill! It was quite a view from the top but we did feel sorry for the poor folk who would have had to walk to the top of the hill every Sunday before the time of cars.

Next stop was Castelo Melhor and old fortress on top of a hill again. It is situated in a really old town where people shelled nuts in garages and all the gardens were full of squash etc growing. We walked up to the fort which is entirely planted full of almond and olive trees and there are goat herds in amongst the ruins. We felt as if we were intruding on someone’s farmland so we didn’t stick around long. On the way out of town we saw an old lady with her donkey and we got out of the car to ask if the lasses could stroke her but she shooed us away and said ‘get back in car get back in car tsk tsk.’ Maybe she thought we were looking for a donkey ride or she just gets annoyed at dumb tourists like ourselves who want to look at her donkey - who knows.




We carried on to the real goal of the day Castelo Rodriguez which is basically just the same idea but much more accessible and preserved. It was getting pretty ho by this time so the girls were moaning a bit by the time we got up the hill on foot. The whole town is the attraction as some of it dates back to the 11th century and it has been occupied by various groups of people and seen a lot of conflict during its time. There are cafes selling local fare too - thankfully as we were in dire need of a drink of water. After walking around looking at the various bits and pieces we thought it would be a good idea to head back to the hotel and have a really cold shower!


I got one a bit sooner than I bargained for…… There were lots of road works going on along the way and if anyone knows Ali they will know most of his holiday snaps consist of diggers, piers etc etc. The workmen were having to use a water spraying truck to wet down the road fill before they could flatten it so Ali got me to stick my head out of the window and take a picture of the spray truck. Then he said we would just stop and I could get out and get a better picture, which I did then as soon as I got back in the car he drove off past the truck a bit too quickly before I had realised my window was still down! I suppose it was refreshing in the searing heat. Alisha was on the back seat behind me sleeping and was just a tad grumpy after her rude awakening!

The next day was the trip to see one of the rock art sites. Ali had been pretty scathing about going to see some scratches on rocks until we got to the visitor centre. Firstly he saw the landrover jeeps we were to be transported in then our tour guide screeched up in her jeep……. Out jumped Lara Croft aka tomb raider - seriously! She was wearing army combat trousers and a tight fitting vest top, long brown hair tied back into a ponytail. If you have seen the films or played the game you would understand!

The trip consisted of being driven down a river valley close to where the site was and then hiking 1km down to the actual site. The road trip was an experience in its self, especially when we went off road. ’Lara’ changed into four wheel drive and revved up to maximum effect before racing up the dirt track. It was all very Indiana Jones. I think she was a little disappointed when Ali asked if she could stop so he could take pictures of the partially constructed damn that had been halted in the 1990’s when the rock art was found. When we booked the trip we had been warned against taking the girls because of the hike down to the river and back up again. I don’t think they realised how tough our girls were as they took it as a climbing mountain adventure. The only problem they caused was Alisha starting to dig at the ground with a stone just next to a 30,000 year old engraving of a horse. That did get ‘Lara’ flustered for a moment!

The rock art was very impressive - I thought, more impressive however was how on earth anyone actually spotted it in the first place. I can see what they mean when they show you with a diagram but to look at it not knowing it was there is astounding. They have 24hr security guards to stop anyone going there without permission and apparently they are kept quite busy! The engravings we saw were all of deer, horses and aurochs. We didn’t have time to go to the other two sites which was a shame but I think the girls may have rebelled having to look at too many scratches on the rocks!

We got back to the hotel and all had cool showers then set off back to the boat. On the way down we were surprised to see lots of little forest fires although our guide had earlier told us that they were quite normal in that region as it is so dry and hot for months.

When we got back to Leixioes then the girls started hopping up and down because the Canadian boat was there although they had to wait impatiently on deck until the Boags had come back from their walk and they were reunited with their friends.

We spent another few days in Leixioes with the kids running between the two boats. Ali and Olous had a sample of Port one night which consisted of the whole bottle! Lucky it is so cheap here.

We all went for a walk across the bridge to town on the Friday and there was a big market on in a big hangar. There were loads of fruit and veg and ….live chickens and rabbits! One lady took out a rabbit and a chicken for the kids to stroke. I think she was hoping we would buy one, they kill them for you on the spot if you want. We did think about buying some rabbits and liberating them but though better of it! As we were still standing there looking at the rabbit’s a lady came up to purchase a chicken and we herded out all the kids before the squawking began!



We found out that the huge shopping centre in town takes your kids for childcare and we could leave them all and go into Porto on the metro!! On Saturday we duly got up early and deposited all four of them at the day care and headed off into town. Freedom - Yippee!




It just so happened that there was ‘Redbull’ Air racing on in Porto that weekend. Very impressive to watch. Firstly there was an aeronautical display from a jet squadron turning and spinning all over the city - excellent. Then the real event kicked off. There were two ‘goal posts’ set up in the river and planes had to fly up the river through both sets of posts then pull up as quickly as they could turn over and get down quick enough to get back through the first goal post again roar off and repeat the whole circuit again. The river was lined with thousands of people and there were commentators and music blaring all adding to an electric atmosphere. We had been in Porto before but it was crammed with people all the restaurants and cafes along the river were working their butts off and it was really hot. There were little kids going around with buckets full of ice selling water - or beer! Every one was making a buck from it. I ended up buying a hat from one of the many stalls as it was too bright, I got a cowboy hat but in pink so Ali wouldn’t nick it off of me! After watching a few of the races we thought we had seen enough and went to look around a bit more before catching the metro back to the shopping centre (as much of an attraction if you ask me!!)

We headed off to get the kids earl and thought we would have a coffee on the way in but it was interrupted by a phone call from the day care saying one of the girls was crying and could I please come and get them all. The end of freedom. It was about 11 euros for each child for 6 hours including a snack which was well worth it! They didn’t seem too traumatised when they came out either….

On our last day at Leixioes we all went to the outdoor pool on the beach as Alisha now refuses to go anywhere near the sea. It was a bit of a swizz really. It cost Ali myself and the two girls £15 to get in and all it consisted of was a concrete pool built into the rocks, a section of beach and a little toddlers pool and a concrete toilet and shower block! If you compare that to all of us getting into the Clikimin centre at home for about £6 and having pristine showers, flumes, rapids pools and a huge clean swimming pool you can hardly believe it. Alisha did get in the water for the first time in ages though and so it seemed worth it in the end. The kids spent all afternoon going between, sandcastles and the pools so it was money well spent!

We had a great time in Leixioes, the marina was really friendly and efficiently run but we did find as some of our other friends on boats had emailed us that the air is a little grimy and the electricity on the pontoons is decidedly dodgy! We bid goodbye to the crew of Atmosphere and got ready to sail very early the next morning.

Sailing from Viana to Leixios

Sun 6th Sept - Viana Do Castelo to Leixios

This particular sail deserved a blog entry all on its own even though it was only 32 miles! We probably had the best sail of the entire trip! The unending swell you get here had reduced to only half a metre which was almost amazing, we certainly weren’t expecting that. The wind was behind us and we zipped out the harbour at about 7 knots, so far so good. As we turned to go South down the coast the wind was behind us and we slowed up a lot meaning it was either engine on or spinnaker up. We got the old spinnaker up after a first botched attempt and sailed beautifully at between 4.5 to 6 knots the whole way to Leixios. It was the first time Ali and I had attempted to put the spinnaker up when it was only the two of us on board and I was surprised how well it went.





Other notable parts of this trip was the absence of the Pelamis sea snake. All of our almanacs gave the coordinates to steer clear of and we thought great today it is so calm we will be able to see it really well. All we ever saw was the four cardinal markers where it used to be before it broke up….. Never mind!

The coast of Northern Portugal is basically one long beach as far as we could tell great for surfing etc but not so great for swimming as I think it is pretty chilly by Algarve standards!

We got into Leixios at tea time only narrowly avoiding running over a small yacht who insisted on tacking right in front of us the whole way up the harbour in fairly windy conditions meaning we didn’t have much manoeuvring options either but thankfully a burst of the engine got us past him and into the marina where a friendly marina attendant was waiting to show us to our berth. We went for a pint in the yacht club to celebrate a good days sailing.

Viana Do Castelo Fri 28th Aug - Sun 6th Sept

Fri 28th Aug Baiona - Viana do Castelo PORTUGAL!


We woke up to a fair old breeze and I must admit I had a few reservations about going but I had promised we would sail whatever the weather as it was only a 33 mile trip! The wind was fairly on the nose on the way out to the headland and the swell was about 4 metres which in my book is plenty. It all came OK though as once we got around the headland the wind and swell was going along with us. It was still very roley but not horrifically so. The auto pilot even held out too which was good. We got down to Viana do Castelo which is the first port in Portugal very quickly indeed as we never dipped below 7 knots the whole way there. Getting into the harbour was a bit hairy as there were kite surfers and wind surfers playing chicken with the boat or at least that is how it seemed! We called up the harbour to let us through the swing bridge to the marina but all I got was a ‘no no’. We were just tying up at the waiting pontoon when the harbour guy came on his bike to say he would open the bridge and we would get through. This was all great until we got through and realised it would be our first time of tying up ‘stern to’ with a pick up line. We had a bit of an audience shouting advice which always makes it a bit more stressful! The result being that I managed to wrap the pick up line around the keel! This was actually good though because at first we thought I had wrapped it around the propeller….. TO say Ali was relieved is a bit of an understatement.

We found we were tied up on the pontoon right next to a bar/restaurant, a bit of luck there we thought but soon realised that night this was not so. A band started playing on a temporary stage about 5 metres from our boat at 10 pm Portuguese time (11pm Spanish time!). The music was of the variety that you used to hear on the ST Clair during the summer months, extreme cheese! We had Steve and Malisa from one of the other boats onboard for a dram and they informed us it was definitely not as bad as the karaoke the previous evening! Thank goodness we missed that one.

The next day we decided to go up the hill to the church at the top to see the view. We decided to walk up after a re-energising ‘Café con Leite grande’ and a cake each (only 3 euros for the lot!) We walked up through the trees and unfortunately it became apparent we had taken a wrong turn when we could get no further than a rabid looking dog and a wall. The girls weren’t too impressed so we took them down to the funicular railway that gets you to the top too. There were stunning views of Viana from the top and it was a lovely day so the hilltop was packed. We had a look around inside the church but there were signs saying silence so we didn’t stick around long with our incapable of silence girls! The church was very impressive and you would think it was at least a couple of hundred years old but it was built in the 1950’s.

We went for lunch at a canteen style café which was also extremely good value the only surprise being that the meat dish turned out to be rabbit, not chicken as I thought I had ordered. It was still good and we told the girls it was chicken.

We went over to Steve and Malisa’s boat for a drink as they were leaving for Leixios in the morning. We had an earlier night as the previous on as there was no band to contend with and therefore no need to drink ourselves into a stupor to get to sleep!

We spent the next few days just wandering around and seeing the sights.

We hired a pedal cart for an hour which I think you were only supposed to drive around the park but we decided to go from one end of town to the other on it. We got some strange looks down around the fishing harbour. We went to the beach on the Sunday to cool down as it was boiling.





We had a very interesting trip to look at the ex hospital ship the Gil Eannes which serviced the Portuguese fishing fleet working the Grand Banks grounds near New Foundland. We followed a route around the ship that took you to each and every part of it even the engine room. There was a simulator you could have a go on for a small fee and Ali tried to take the Gil Eannes down the river into the harbour but failed miserably as there were two little monkey pulling the wheel this way and that!





There was an international folk festival on in Viana whilst we were there too it consisted of dance and music troops from all over the world, Angola, Czech Republic, Greece etc etc. Ali and Alisha went up the first night to have a look and he said he was very impressed especially when the Venezulan ladies whipped off their long dresses to reveal very skimpy dancing costumes!

We thought we might leave Viana but we were informed that the Tulloch visitors that we were expecting in the Algarve at the end of September would not be coming until the first week of October. A quick look through the almanac made it quite obvious that the marinas in the North of Portugal are about half the price of the ones in the Algarve - another reason to hang around here for longer! We also found out that the Canadian family were gaining on us and due to arrive in Viana that week so the girls made us promise to hang around until their (and our) pals arrived.

Friday is market day and it means that impromtu stalls pop up all over the place, which include lots of ladies selling various fish and shellfish out of wheel barrows. We stayed well away from any of them selling mussels as we had seen the day before two guys getting mussels off the marina wall at low tide and I would definately not want to eat them!

The familiar red and white flagged boat Atmosphere arrived on Wednesday afternoon and the girls screamed all the way back to the marina when they realised who it was. It turned out to be Olous’ birthday too so a few beers and some fizzy wine was consumed by the adults whilst the kids ate cup cakes. Vicky had baked the cup cakes on the boat so now Kaylee is feeling really hard done by that she didn’t get a cake when she turned four as I had told her that people didn’t get real parties on boats - oops!






The kids spent the next few days ranting around together from boat to boat and over to the play park.





We went back up the funicular again because we hadn’t realised we had missed the 50 yrs BC
ruins at the other side of the hill. We got there just 15 minutes before they closed for lunch which was a bit disappointing although we realised that all four kids together probably wouldn’t have wanted to look at a pile of old stones for much longer than fifteen minutes!



We hired go karts for them to race around the park and took them to the beach up river to go swimming and to cool off.


Ali and Olous spent a fair amount of time cycling down to the metal working workshops and both ended up purchasing bits and pieces of metal. Ali got a long pole which he made up into a whisker pole for the jib to help us with the down wind sailing along the coast here. He also says it will be great for the windier bits when we cross the Atlantic, but I know he is only joking! He thinks persistence will win the day eventually.

We stayed in Viana until the weekend when some of the folk festival acts were actually doing street performances during the day instead of only starting at 10pm which is too late for the kids. We went to see the Angolans and the Greeks, the kids loved it some of them even joining in with the dancing.

Viana had turned out to be a great place to spend some time and had been recommended to us by Stuart Owers from Unst so thanks for that! There were loads more museums and things we didn’t go into with the kids but for the culturally inclined it would be a fair enough holiday destination. The Northern Portuguese pride themselves on the fact that it is still the real Portugal unlike the over developed Algarve in the South. We left for Leixios on Sunday morning as soon as the tide had risen sufficiently for us not to ground in the marina!

Corme to Baiona (Bayona) 21st to 28th August

We left Corme straight after breakfast after a fairly rolly night of swell coming around the breakwater; we had also swung around far closer to the rocks. It turned out to be another nightmare journey for Ali, not enough wind to sail.

It was as calm as you ever can get around here with the glassy swell still rolling into the side of the boat constantly. It was Kaylee’s turn this day to suffer from a little bit of mal de mer.

The Northern coast of Spain is really very beautiful and the bits without trees are strangely reminiscent of Shetland. We have been astounded by the amount of wind turbines on the hills, thousands. Most of them are of the older ‘generation’ and quite small, these weren’t turning at all. There are a few of the really big kind which did seem to be turning even on calm days although not very quickly. We wondered if the little ones that didn’t turn (when it was obviously windy) were actually still in commission, and if not why hadn’t they been decommissioned? I must admit that it didn’t ruin the view but it did look a bit strange, like triffids lining the cliffs in rows waiting for some wind. The difference between here and Shetland is that 1. There were miles between groups of turbines so they didn‘t impose on a whole region, 2. They seemed to be on uninhabited sea facing hills, 3. The ones we saw anyway were no more than 30 miles from the nearest big city where the power would be used i.e La Coruna and Vigo this I think is maybe the main point of difference. Anyway enough about wind farms -what will be will be!

We were entertained by thousands of swimming crabs again. We even saw three sunfish lying on the surface sleeping, not as big as the one we saw once in Papa Sound though, he must have been a hardy fish to think that sunning himself in Shetland waters was a better idea than this!

We were very surprised to come across a guy on a jet ski about four miles off of the most North West corner of Spain just seemingly playing around and stopping a lot. We thought maybe he was a drugs runner waiting for a package to come in. Apparently a quarter of Europe’s drugs are smuggled in through Galician coastline. There are certainly plenty of customs and police checks at the marinas, some people have had customs onboard as late as midnight.

We passed Cape Finnisterre - the end of the world according to the Roman’s although it isn’t actually.

Ali’s part!! Yes he has finally decided to add a few words!

It is however a very rocky coastline and I imagine that on a winters day it may look like the world is about to come to an end if you were unfortunate enough to be out in a boat.
Having said that, the locals seem to have no fear of going in amongst the rocks and surf . We saw many small boats fishing in fairly exhilarating locations.

Soon after rounding the cape, we anchored in the very picturesque town of Muros.
The anchoring was quite precarious, the bay shoaling very steep from 16m deep to drying in little more than 100m. Therefore the anchor position has to be dead-on + a little luck. We were lucky, we dragged out the way, but a German boat went in towards the shore. They had gone ashore for the evening., and when they returned their boat was on its side. No harm done thankfully, sandy bottom..

We spent two days in Muros, swimming, strolling around the town, a nice “Tapas” lunch and a lot of anchor watching. We again met up with Andy and Leslie in their yacht Kodiak, this time nothing stronger than a Sunday morning coffee.


Back to me authoring

We have been trying our best to be eco friendly on this trip and we were quite disappointed when we had to resort to chemical warfare whilst in Muros. We bought our first aerosol in years to kill the dreaded mosquitos off that have been biting us all for the last few nights. We found a wonderful ‘ferretaria’ that sold nearly everything you could want in Muros. We bought wire and mosquito mesh to make hatch covers so we could still breathe at night and keep the little blighters out. This was our main employment in the two evenings we spent swinging around on the anchor. The shop also sold rope which we needed for our broken lazy jacks at a quarter of the price we paid for some in Thulecraft at home! Ali being Ali he bought sixty metres.

Ali’s second contribution

Our visit to Muros was cut short prematurely also. We were on our way ashore in the dingy. Linda said to me that our boat appeared to be moving- this I of course dismissed with impunity. However, almost as soon as we set foot ashore and took a “mead” it became horribly obvious that Islay Mist was away on her own. A quick dash in the dingy, praying that the Honda 2.3hp would not run out of fuel, and soon we caught up, thank god! ( the wind had gone from calm to 24 knots and 180 deg. shift )
Needless to say I did have to eat humble pie!!
So that was the decision made to move on to our next harbour, only across the bay to Portosin, a safe marina for a change.

Back to me again

We spent two nights in Portasin including a trip into Noia, the next town which was apparently having a fiesta but it seemed it would only get going after the last bus went back to Portasin so that was a bit of a non-event.

Portasin is a nice little town with a great marina, very clean showers - always a big plus especially after some of the horror stories in France!

The weather was still good and we decided to horse on down to Baiona on Tues 25th of August. We had an extremely calm motor with only the incredibly poorly marked buoys to look out for as usual and a few swimming crabs. We decided since the sea was so flat we would anchor off the Islas Cies for a night. The Islas Cies are two small islands just Northwest of Baiona, one is a nature reserve which you have to get a permit to land on. They are absolutely beautiful, which is probably why the boat was continually bobbing around in the bow waves from ferries taking tourists to and from the bigger island.
Ali and Kaylee rowed ashore for a dip whilst Alisha and I got the dinner on. Alisha has gone off going ashore since the Muros escapade -racing back to the escaping boat where the girls got completely soaked at the bow of the dinghy! She also refuses to go to the beach with Alistair as he always throws her into the sea to encourage her to swim…. It was a beautiful sunset, there were about six or seven yachts anchored. It stayed calm all night but the swell did creep in around from the north so we felt like we were still sailing when we were sleeping.
We woke up in the morning and decided to have a run ashore before we left for Baiona. This seemed like a good idea until when I tried to jump ashore and pull the dinghy up the steep beach managing to fall in to the surf bottom first. It was however amusing for some. I was so soaked I had to take my breeks off and go around in my pants. We were treated to a police air and sea demo when a helicopter and fast rib launch were whizzing around the island, at least we think it was a demo!
The wind had picked up considerably by the time we left so we had a short hop over to Baiona going between the rocks to shorten the route.
When we arrived in Baiona we found Thomas and Mjaia still there suffering from the after effects of the night before and so we thought maybe it was lucky we anchored! We went for dinner as it was our last time in Spain and had a nice meal, and realised we were really no better at speaking the lingo than when we arrived in Spain almost a month ago. Thomas and Mjaia came over for a coffee and chocolates as they were leaving in the morning.
The next day we went exploring and went aboard a reconstruction of the Pinta, the boat that brought the news back to Europe in Baiona of the discovery of the ‘New World’ by Columbus. They are very proud of the fact that the news came back to Baiona first and they have a big celebration in March every year to commemorate the date. The ship itself was excellent, it had models of all the people and food that would have been onboard down to the natives they took home, crocodiles, parrots and yams etc. We also went for a walk around the rounds of the Castillo Monte Real on the harbour which was impressive too the girls loved it running around the walls pretending to be princesses and knights.
We found some English boys to fish with at the pontoon which was all a great fun until one of them fell in. We had an early night as we were sailing to Portugal the next day and it was going to be around Force 6 with ‘considerable’ swell - yippee! Spain has been really great and we were sorry to be leaving but we also knew that if we didn’t get a few more miles in we will never reach all the bits of the Med that we want to in two years - remember we only travel at an average five miles an hour.