24th Aug to 1st Sept, Lisbon

We have had a wonderful last sunny week of our trip in Lisbon, cleaning and putting Cara Mara to bed for the winter and enjoying the sights of this lovely city.

Cara Mara is now out of the water in across the river in the care of Rafael the owner of the Tagus Yacht Centre, who has a long list of jobs to do before spring.

Pat flew home on the 26^th and Dave and Wendy have had two nights in "The House", a great little boutique hotel, which is in the older part of the city, a complete contrast to the marina, which was in a very modern area developed for Expo 98. Lisbon is a very old city, settled before the Romans, with influences of the Moors; it’s fascinating to wander through areas of really good modern architecture and contrast with narrow Moorish streets. Of course the whole city is dominated by the river and we are looking forward to seeing more, before we set of down it, when we come back in the spring.

Lisbon has a great public transport system, we have used buses, trains, metro, water taxi's and a modern tram but the most fun are these old tram cars which make their way up impossibly steep hills

The castle, the river and one of the many steep hills

Lisbon has many beautiful churches, the Basilica Estrela is very close to our hotel 

Lisbon commissions street art on prominent redundant buildings, much more fun than graffiti

The monument to Portugal's golden age of world exploration, one part of the public riverfront which makes Lisbon such a lovely city 

The Praca do Comercio, one of the largest public squares in Europe is very reminiscent of Venice

This is the last post of the blog of our 2197 mile trip from Preston; many thanks to Michael, Stuart, Paul, Biddy, Darren, Mary, Cleo , Pat and of course our own Chris, who have helped  us on our way  and been such good company.

17th to 23rd Sept, Figueira da Foz to Lisbon

Our enforced stay in Figueira da Foz meant we had time to take the train to Coimbra, home of Portugal's oldest university, in fact until the 20th century, the only university in the Portuguese speaking world.
The storm and resultant biggish seas had all cleared away by the 18th, so we set off 35 miles south down the coast to Nazare, in sunshine and with a perfect sailing wind. we were joined by 8-10 dolphins, who circled Cara Mara for nearly half an hour giving us the best show of synchronised swimming and jumping we have ever seen, it was absolutely magical.
Nazare is in a unique location, where the Atlantic trench almost touches the coast in a narrow canyon. As a result the depth of water is 20M on one side of a headland and over 1000M on the other. In the winter, with strong westerly wind this gives rise to waves of up to 30M. We walked out to the old fortress on the headland, where you can watch a film of an American surfer out on these monster waves. The man is obviously completely mad.
On the 20th we set off for Peniche, via a short stop on a mooring off the Illa Berlinga, unfortunately is was a bit too windy and exposed to stay the night.
The weather has at last settled into clear sky's sunshine, so on the 22nd we enjoyed our last long sail of the summer, 45 miles from Cascais, only 15 miles from Lisbon, the end of our trip. It was a brilliant sail, made more enjoyable by a close fought and very unofficial "race" with another yacht who set off from Peniche ahead of us. They did narrowly win, but only because they went much closer to 2 headlands than Dave was prepared to go.
Today we sailed up river through Lisbon, to a marina where we will stay until next week, when we take Cara Mara to the boatyard where she will spend the winter,

The university Coimbra

Coimbra Catherdral

Pat on the beach at Figueira da Foz

Fish drying on the beach at Nazare

Traditional fishing boats on the beach at Nazare

The beach at Nazare where 30M waves can arrive in winter

This is the most westerly headland on mainland Europe, we had sneaked ahead of our rival but he cut the corner!

Approaching the main suspension bridge going up river through Lisbon  

18th to 23rd Sept, Fig

13th to 15th Sept, Leixoes to Figueira de Foz

After Chris left on Saturday we spent a lazy sunny day in Leixoes. Wendy and Pat went to the beach to find that it the lifeguards had closed it to swimmers due to seriously large surf. Sunday started with the promised torrential rain, despite which we set off for another visit to Porto. Luckily by lunchtime the rain stopped and within 30 minutes the pavements were dry and we had a lovely afternoon to wander the city.

A huge storm was forecast to come in from the Atlantic by early Tuesday morning, so Dave was back on Cara Mara by late Sunday afternoon, getting ready for an early morning start. Pat and Wendy stayed in Porto, walking miles down the river to visit formal gardens and the Insitute of Modern Art.

On Tuesday we left at 6am to travel the 65 miles south to Figueira de Foz; yet another lovely sunny day with no wind. We were joined by dolphins for a while, which is always a good compensation.

Today the storm arrived on schedule at 7am, full waterproofs required for the walk to the showers. The storm is heading north, through France to the UK, hopefully it will leave us by tomorrow night, so we will be OK to set off again by the end of the week.

The wonderful tiled walls of the main railway station

Objects of art!

9th to 12th Sept, Baiona to Porto

After lovely days getting to Baiona, the weather heading south to Portugal was rain, drizzle and low cloud. Dave changed the flag as we crossed the border but it was a miserable35 mile motor to Viana do Castelo. The town has some nice older buildings and an interesting museum of the clothing made and worn by women in northern Portugal, so worth a visit. We set off for Leixios, the main port of Porto the next day and though we were motoring for the first 15 miles we did manage to sail the next 20 in bright sunshine.

Leixios is a port town so not that special, but it has a lovely sandy beach and good bus and tube connections into Porto. We spent the first evening being fed and entertained in a local restaurant, where the young keen owner did his best to educate us on North Portuguese cuisine.

Friday was spent wandering round Porto, including a walk over the top deck another one of  of Eifels bridges, (he did good business here in Portugal) and a visit to a local “cave” to learn all about port wine. We now know it can be either red or white wine, where Grappa is introduced to stop fermentation, then aged in oak barrels before bottling. How did we not know this before? Wendy decided the white port was the best.

This morning we said a sad goodbye to Chris as he set off for home at the end of his holiday. Pat Wendy and Dave are carefully studying the weather forecasts, its nice today but more bad weather is on its way tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday.

 Eiffels bridge at Viana do Castelo

Brightly coloured ceramic  tiles, typical of houses in Porto

The Eiffel bridge in Porto, a stiff walk up the steps from the river to get the view from the top deck, but worth it.

Port wine is made 200 miles up river from Porto. Before railways it was brought down river on these boats, it looked pretty exciting on the video we were shown.

Pat and Chris tasting port at the end of our tour

Pat on the beach at Leixios

1st Sept to 8th Sept, Muros to Baiona

Chris, Wendy and Dave left Muros for a wonderful sunny sail to one of the largest Ria's, Arousa, where we stayed 1 night at Caraminal. Ria Arousa is supposed to be the mussels capital of Spain and everywhere you look, mussel farms cover the shallower water. Wendy was delighted to find a dentist in the town who would give her immediate treatment, as she had broken two fillings in the preceding week. Her initial appointment for assessment was at 2pm and to our surprise she was asked to come back at 9pm for treatment. Both the clinic and treatment were excellent so she was really pleased.
The following morning we sailed 8 miles across the Ria to Vilagarcea, where we had arranged to meet Pat, who was joining us for the last 3 weeks of our trip. Pat was flying into Santiago de Compestela, so Wendy and Dave took the train to have a look around the city and the stunning Cathedral. The locals here know how to party, the music from the club overlooking the marina was going all night and the revellers were leaving as we ate breakfast.
The sunny weather continued and with light wind we proudly set the cruising shute as we went down wind from Vilagarcea to Illas de Ons a small island and National Park off the coast. A permit is required to anchor in the National Park, Wendy had spent several hours on line going through this process. Both Illas de Ons and Illas Cies, a few miles south, where we spent the next night are lovely.
This morning we motored 6 miles to Baiona, our last stop, before we head south to Portugal.



One of the hundreds of mussel farms in the Ria Arousa

Dolphins in the Ria

Santiago de Compestela cathedral

 

Wonderful beaches on the Illas Cies

Chris, Pat and Dave sailing south, 6knts wind, 3knts boat speed

News of Columbus landing in America came to Spain when the Pinta reached Baiona.

The marina in Baiona sits below the parapets of the fortress

 

 

 

 

 

 

29th Aug to 31st Aug, A Coruna to Muros

At last the weather improved and we reached a major milestone on our journey, A Coruna. Wendy and Dave had a lovely sunny day exploring A Coruna, an ancient city with wonderful beaches and busy shops and restaurants, not to mention its most famous building, the Torre de Hercules lighthouse, built by the Romans and still in use today. Chris joined us on Saturday evening for his 2 weeks holiday.

Unfortunately, within 2 hours of leaving A Coruna on Sunday we were in fog, using the radar for only the second time since we left the UK; another day of motoring with no wind and no sign of the sun until 3 miles of our destination, the village of Corme. August ended with a sail to Camarinas in on / off rain, but  at least we sailed. The crew of Cara Mara were getting pretty fed up with the weather in this part of Spain!

The city hall and grand square in A Coruna, weddings every 40 minutes on the day of our visit.

1^st of Sept, at last a lovely sunny day with good wind, giving us a wonderful 40 mile sail to Muros; Chris enjoyed it so much he insisted that we continue sailing almost up the entrance to the marina. On route we passed one of the most famous headlands of our entire trip, Finisterre. Wendy and Dave had heard so many good things about the wonderful Spanish Ria’s; arriving in the Ria de Muros in bright sunshine at last we could understand why.

the Torre de Hercules lighthouse

 

The view of A Coruna from the lighthouse

 

Picasso spent his teenage years in A Coruna and learnt to paint in his parents flat, now a museum  

 

Chris enjoying his first good sail of the year

Cape Finisterre

Muros marina, like most we have been to in Spain is less than half full in Aug.

 

 

 

23rd to 26th Aug, Ribadeo to Cedeira

When we left Cleo in Ribadeo we went to Viveiro, where friends on another boat told us we would be greeted by a dolphin. Much to our delight it duly appeared, just as we approached the marina. Like many we have visited, Viveiro is a very old town with some lovely narrow streets, but depressingly much of the old town seems to be in a sad state with many empty buildings and most of the population appear to live in the surrounding modern apartment blocks. A shame given the sheltered surroundings and good beaches nearby.

The medieval main gate to Viveiro

The Roman back gate

A showery departure for Cedeira

We knew that the weather forecast was rather depressing, 5 days of grey skies and rain. After one day of strong winds there appeared to be a window of 2 days to travel the 60 miles to A Coruna before the winds returned; with a fall back of Cedeira after 30 miles if conditions dictated. 30 miles of choppy seas was enough and we are at anchor in the lovely protected calm of Ria at Cedeira for a few days waiting for the bad weather to disappear, (Friday according to the forecast). So we are being very lazy, yesterdays walk on the beach and reading books in windy sunshine has been replaced by a very long lunch in todays rain.

15th Aug to 22nd Aug, Ribadesella to Ribadeo

Poor Cleo has had the week  0n Cara Mara with no wind. With the exception of a couple of hours on Wednesday the sails haven’t been out and we have just been motoring along the coast. Though less spectacular than at Ribadesella, the north Spanish coast is still mountainous and surprisingly green, not that dissimilar to North Wales.
We were however delighted that the weather has become much less like the UK and as the week has progressed; we have had lovely sunny days. It’s just a shame that the clear skies have come too late for us to see the meteor showers we have been reading about on the internet.
Two of the little towns that we have visited Luanco and Luarca, have had a very similar feel to Cornish fishing villages, small  pretty harbours packed with fishing boats and narrow streets climbing up the steep hills behind. The familiar feel was reinforced in Luarca when we saw the marching bands out celebrating their fiesta.
After a week of "roughing it" without access to showers, we are now in Ribadeo, in a marina on a river, where Cleo will leave us to catch her bus back to Bilboa tomorrow. Wendy and Dave will head off to meet Chris in A Coruna in a weeks time.

Cleo enjoying some sun at Cudillero

Cudillero,

Cudillero breakwater, mountains in background

The packed inner harbour at Luarco

Marching bands, just like home

Cleo at the helm

We were the only customer on the visitors pontoon at Navia. The local yacht club made us feel very welcome with a gift of their cub pennant.

Up river to Navia

Approaching the marina, under the bridge at Ribadeo