Via Inmarsat:

Position n43 31.50 w9 16.237 left muxia 2pm gone 25 miles motor sailing
north waiting for west winds to pick up as forecast. Lots of dolphins. All
good so far!

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Away we go!

Islay Mist is just about to depart Muxia the Free! yes free marina in Northern Spain where we have been waiting for westerlies and they have just arrived, hope to make Irleand by Friday or Saturday will up date positions on Sat phone byeee!

Figuiera to Porto

Figuiera da Foz is a nice enough place but he marina is a bit pricier than some of the others on the coast, the river water is pretty dirty and lastly when you go to an internet cafe for a nice cheap meal and decide to finish it off with a Portuguese liquor then ask the price first before you buy – that’s all I’m saying.....

We waited for fuel at the fuel pontoon which we had booked for 8 but the guy didn’t turn up to serve us so we emptied one of our back up drums of fuel into our tank and set off as it seemed as though a miracle had occurred and the wind was Southerly...

Of course as we got out of the harbour we realised that this was not the case it was just an illusion and the wind was Northerly, blowing quite strongly and there was a lot of turbulence at the harbour mouth for about a mile out.  This certainly woke us all up anyway!  We decided to bash into the waves anyway.  For the first hour or so this looked pretty hopeless and we quickly revised our plans to sail to Porto and plumped for the closer port of Aveiro.  As the day progressed the girls felt a little better with each tack and devised a game call ‘Big Wave Sliding’  This consists of sittin on a pillow on the windward (upper side) of the boat and waiting for a big wave to ‘boof’ them off and slide down into the cockpit.  Although they get a little bruised at least it means they aren’t worrying about big waves, rather more looking forward to them! 

We got into Aviero just as darkness was falling and you have to go a mile or so  up the river to an anchorage which was difficult as the river and tide was against us so we were only making ! knot at some points! 

Our painful tacking course to Aveiro, we sailed 55 miles to get 35...

We anchored had a late dinner, went to bed and got up very early the next morning to set off to the new marina in the Douro river and our Spiritual home of Oporto......

At first it was all calm and then thick fog came down so we had to get the radar on again, thankfully this lifted and there was even a good wind for sailing in the right direction for once. 

The entrance to the river Douro has been improved since we were around here before and also since our computer charts were drawn up to so all the advice in our pilot book was null and void but we got in quite easily following the beacons and tied up in the new Marina de Douro.  It is very new – well actually not finished yet but eh pontoons and electricity and water are here and wifi in the marina office and showers and toilets and a fuel dock so it is all good.  Put it this way we have paid much more for less!  The marina booklet suffers from some translation issues though as it states  -

“Douro Marina is the port of departure for your voyages and the Douro entrance for great emotions.  So that the best of arriving is to sail out again”  ? ! ?

Next blog Porto Pics!

Islay Mist up the Douro

This is a small picture blog of our trip in Islay Mist up to the old town of Porto. Something we always wanted to do and now we have done it!

Oporto Douro Marina

So we have spent 6 days in the Douro Marina you get a 20% discount after 2 nights, we probably would have moved on but we arranged to meet Ton and Ingrid who we spent a winter next to on the pontoon in Barcelona.  It was very good to meet up with people you have met before and we had spent time in Turkey with a lot of people they had known when they were there 6 years ago so there was plenty of news to catch up on.  They are on their way back to the Med after spending a winter in Bangor, Ireland and they think we are mad to take the boat to the cold and the rain frankly sometimes so do we!  Now we are waiting for the fog to lift to go north as the northerlies set in again on Sat and we think there may be a weather window to go over to Ireland starting Sunday so we need to get going. It is a total pea souper out there and we have to cross the very busy entrance to Leixoes harbour which as we already know is treacherous in the fog.... 

Instead of a blog here are some pictures of Oporto, we love it here and do not want to leave!

Feeding marina ducks

Smallest police car in the world

on the bridge

Beers with Ton and Ingrid!

Me and Ali had a peerie accident with our mosquito candle it went crazy!

 The marina is situated next to an old fishing village where there are community wash houses and every day the women come out and scrub away and hang their clothes up it is tradition and there are smaller versions of this big wash house up the hill in the lanes too. 

Every restaurant int he fishing village has a bbq the smell is pretty good, most of the houses cook with a bbq out on the street here too.

Walking up the river to the old town about 4km we did it three times the girls are getting fit!

We went on the cable car tot he top of the bridge

The girls found rose petals left over froma wedding ceremony athe church

Scrubbing duty before tOn and Ingrid came

Sunset over the washing area and the marina.

150 miles in two 'day' trips we are getting there!

The broken toilet.....

There was one other unfortunate incident I forgot to mention which occurred as we rounded Cabo Sao Vincente – the toilet seat broke!  All I am going to say on that matter is that the boat was really heeling over and crashing about when the person with the biggest bottom onboard went to the toilet and somehow managed to break the seat from the bowl.  You can also be assured that the other three people with smaller bottoms have had a great deal of fun over this incident for a few days now and the joke is getting pretty old........ ;-)

A different kind of boating the reward for steel polishing

Food stalls

There was a music and food festival on whilst we were in Sines and it continues until the13th August.  It was quite good – well the food bit anyway not to sure on the music we heard!  There were lots of food stands selling all sorts of food from different regions of Portugal we had some Madeiran food and Cape Verdean food too as we thought we should since we wouldn’t be sailing there this year after all and very good it was too.  Sines is a nice place, very homely and when all the locals came down at night to the festival then it got oh so much more like home than you would believe.....  I think it must be because Sines is a big fishing port and you get all the characters hanging around that you would expect in a fishing community.  A few drunks and best of all was the local ‘ladies’ having a bitch slapping fight whilst queueing for their food, great entertainment whilst waiting for the band to start!  Just like a night in the Thule Bar, Lerwick!  I would have taken their picture but they just looked a bit scary especially the big one......

The stage

Sines has two big oil refineries on either side and a flare stack that belches out a flame and a cloud that stretches for miles and I presume is responsible for the farty smell you get for miles down wind....

So we left SInes on Monday morning knowing the wind wasn’t in our favour, but happy  that  there was none at all for the first few hours.  It was supposed to be a sailable direction for going around The Cape West of Lisbon and we had planned on an overnighter but when the wind did come up it was in – as always – the wrong direction and we spent the whole day tacking back and forth and so when we were coming up South of the Lisbon area we looked in the pilot and decided to anchor at Cascais.  We thought as it was only a few miles away we would get there in day light but that was not to be. We were actually making good progress sailing and outstripped a couple of other boats heading in the same direction but the wind died so we got the motor on and headed directly to our destination.  We hadn’t taken into account the tide around Lisbon where the river Tejo empties out and we were down to 3 miles an hour making our ETA well into darkness.  It isn’t nice coming into a place in the dark unless it is a very well lit harbour with no hazards and also we already knew how littered the whole Portuguese coast is with fishing buoys.  The freakiest thing ever about this night was the hot wind that started blowing off the land the girls said it was like a hair drier and it was a 20 knot on the nose hair drying wind.  The only other place we have felt wind like this was in Sicily and that was the Sirocco blowing straight up from the African desert but this was coming from the North and being a Shetlander the North wind usually cools things down instead we were starting to take layers off again!  We were a little confused as we got closer to the shore as there were lots of funny lights so we got the radar on and saw there were lots of big boats anchored between us and where we wanted to go but we got through them all and got the anchor down and were in bed by just after midnight.

still 10 miles to go......

And up again and heading away from the anchorage by 6am.....

We could now see better what all the boats were, there must be a tall ships festival on in Lisbon just now as there were about 15 lovely big old boats all anchored outside the harbour in amongst a couple of container ships and a big motor yacht or two.  Here are some pictures...

We rounded Cabo de Rasa and Cabo de Roca in flat calm which we both agreed (for once) was definitely better than trying it the previous night tacking into the swell and wind.  The swell was still there but at least it was smooth.  And this was the beginning of a very long and boring motor 100 miles the whole way up to Figueira da Foz,  where we are now.  We had intended to go to Peniche or maybe anchor at Nazare but since the seas were pretty flat we pressed on.  Nothing much at all happened we managed to sail for about an hour or so just off Peniche where we saw 1 dolphin and dodged about a million buoys or so it seemed. 

Cabo de Rasa with Cabo de Roca behind it far calmer than when we rounded it on the way South 3 years ago with the Spinnaker up doing 8 - 10 knots!

The girls doing Kaylee's reading book apparently Alisha is the best teacher on the boat now...

As it got dark you just have to hope for the best that you won’t hit one, thankfully we haven’t – yet!  The approach to Foz harbour is not really to be recommended in the dark at all – think background lights, harbour lights not where you expect them, lots of little boats zooming around the harbour entrance fishing only switching on their lights when they think you might hit them, a river current pushing you south and lastly and strangest of all as we were in the outer harbour basin trying to pick out where the inner entrance was the whole town had a power cut for a few seconds so there were NO lights – really freaky!  The river wasn’t strong thank goodness and we got into the marina to be hailed by the Maritime police who wanted to check our papers right there and then at 4am!  We have been resting and cleaning today and are off out to the internet restaurant to post this check weather again and got to the big play park with the girls who really need to burn off some steam before another whole days sailing tomorrow.  45 miles to Porto, we have heard there is a new marina actually on the Douro so if we can find out any more info we will go their rather than Lexioes harbour.  The nortada is supposed to be blowing again tomorrow and so Ali is hoping for a whole days sailing. I’ll be looking forward to the bottle of Vinho Verde I have chilling in the fridge for when we get in...... 

In Figueira Da Foz on the internet feeding their Moshi Monsters who are apparently not very happy with their owners just now...