Lisbon to Porto Santo (Madeira group)

Cascaise still..........

When Sara arrived she brought the fog with her (although she denies this). The weather forecast for the next few days was gales from the direction we wanted to go, therefore we were stuck in Cascaise until Thursday 8 Oct.

Sara and I in Cascaise......and the weather she brought with her!

Sintra

In the meantime we visited Sintra (half hour on the bus) which at least gave Sara a bit of a break before we left on our sailing trip. The architecture of all the buildings was very ornate and the town possessed no less than 6 palaces! We went to the Regaleira Palace and then walked a bloody long way up a very steep mountain to the Moorish Castle at the top.

Regaleira Palace

All of us at Regaleira Palace

Puffed out at the Moorish Castle! View from the Moorish Castle

Keith after the long day!

Cascaise to Porto Santo

We finally left Cascaise on Thursday and had a force 3 to 4 on the beam which took us nicely along on our passage. On day two we were just having lunch in the cockpit when we heard a whoooosh from behind. Casually looking up from my ham roll I couldn’t believe my eyes.......we had a whale following us and he had just blown from his blow hole!

There was a mad scramble to grab cameras and video’s but the whale gave us plenty of photo opportunities. He/She just followed us like a big submarine for a while, then came along beside the boat, so close we could almost reach out and touch it. It was just below the surface and came up every now and again to blow through it’s blow hole. It was about the same length as the boat (36ft), and one point it went just under the boat and out the other side and we had a few moments were we held our breath unable to believe that it didn’t touch the keel or any other part of the hull which could have given us a nasty jolt at best! It stayed with us for about 40 mins before deciding that we were probably nothing worth mating with or it just got board, then swam off into the distance surfacing to blow every now and again. We were all so amazed we could hardly speak of anything else all day. (Keith said I have to say that we were boody gobsmacked not amazed!! (and I suppose he is right, there really are no words to describe the experience).

The more than amazing, gobsmacking whale

It took just under 5 days of downwind sailing to reach Porto Santo a little island close to Madeira where we made landfall around 9.30 on Tuesday morning (thank God for GPS or we might have missed it). The day before we arrived Sara and I made the courtesy flags for Madeira and the Canary Islands. She chose the easy one (Madeira) as the Canaries flag has two dogs on it and I have never been known for my artistic talents. They looked more like what a dog might do rather than a dog, but hopefully it won’t notice when it is flying 15ft up the mast!

Sara enjoyed the experience but found the night watches on her own a little scary (we did 2 hour watches each during the night) thinking she might get swamped by a giant wave (which is possible but we all clip onto the boat at night so the worst she would get is wet), or eaten by a sea monster(still possible I suppose!)

Making flags......I had to draw the dogs!

Sara raising the Madeiran courtesy flag

Porto Santo

On arrival it was glorious weather and being 500 miles further south has improved the weather, we had bucks fizz in the cockpit to celebrate our arrival. One thing that bugged us though was that we planned to anchor off the beach when we arrived but found out that they were charging 20 euros to anchor in the bay which forced boats to go inside the harbour as they only charged 14 euros to pick up a buoy. So, no free anchoring while we are in Porto Santo, and we have heard a rumour that this is probably the case in Madeira also. What a swizz!

Approaching Porto Santo


As we had left Portugal later than planned Sara had to alter her flights to Friday so at least that meant she had a couple of day to enjoy Porto Santo before flying home. It is only a tiny island about 11k long with some high volcanic peaks. We had a look around on the first day then got down to the serious work of cleaning weed off the hull the next day. It was lovely in the water and I dusted off the diving gear and we couldn’t believe that there was a fair amount of line wrapped around the prop which I removed while cleaning the deeper parts that the other 2 couldn’t reach using their snorkels.

Sara working hard scrubing the water line

Removal of the string from around the propeller

Another sight-seeing day on Thursday in which we took a local bus to the north side of the island (and walked back that is how far it was!) The view from the top of the cliffs there was stunning.

The wonderful view from the north side of the island

We had a farewell meal at the marina with Sara (Arlene and Bob joined us). Sara wanted to try grilled limpets but was not impressed! Finally we said a sad goodbye to her on Friday morning.
Keith and I shall leave for Madeira on Saturday morning (about a 7 or 8 hour sail).

The limpet mistake!

We have made some contacts with other people on boats on the same circuit as us and will be seeing them also in Madeira which is really useful for exchanging information and ideas and nice to make new friends whom we will see at certain points along the way.

Lisbon

Cascaise (entrance to River Tagus)

We stayed at anchor in Cascaise for 4 days and did some chores (it’s not all fun you know!) Whenever we are anchored off we have to work out where we can land the dinghy when going ashore were it will be relatively safe to leave. We lock it with a strop to make is as safe as we can (of course it is only a deterrent). Mostly people don’t have any problems, but we saw a Scottish couple who we had seen previously sailing around and they told us not to take the dinghy to the beach as they had had their dinghy stolen from the beach while they were away.

Cascaise anchorage with cruise liner Regatta in background

Rapau in Cascaise anchorage

Keith scrubbing the water line and as far as he could reach below it!

Cascaise is a lovely little place but one of the most expensive we have come across being purely touristy. Jobs were in order so Keith hung out of the dinghy and scrubbed the hull around the water line and as far as he could reach below to try the remove some of the amazing amount of weed that has already colinated the hull and will slow us down on a long passage. This was really hard work for Keith (and I worked hard moving the ropes along honest...it was hot!) I went up the mast and stuck some tape onto the areas which will suffer from chafe on the long passage across the Atlantic were it is constantly rubbing on the spreaders etc. Another small problem with the outboard was sorted and some attention was given to the SSB radio. Then it was off up the River Tagus (Rio Tejo) to Lisbon (not before Keith tried a raid to steal some water from the marina, he was chased by a rigid inflatable from the marina when he took some containers in the dinghy to fill up with water so we could top up the water tank!)

Monument to the explorers and Henry the navigator.

It was amazing motoring up the river passing all the sights of Lisbon. There was the monument of Henry the Navigator which was built in honour of the man who instigated all the discoveries in the 15th and 16th century, the Belem tower which was built in the 15 hundreds to guard the River and the Jesus Christ Statue which is like the one in Rio. The Ponte 25 de Abril bridge (or 25 April bridge), which is the longest suspension bridge in Europe built in 1966, was great to sail under. The bridge was originally called Salazar after the nation’s dictator, but after the revolution in 1974 the name was removed and it was named after the date of the revolution (amazing what you learn on these trips!) We also saw many huge Barrel jelly fish around 1m long so we were put off swimming while we are here. (Oh and by the way we managed to sneak into a marina along the way and finally fill up with water and escape before we were noticed).

Barrel Jelly Fish over a metre long!

Belem Tower built in the 15 hundereds to guard the river

Jesus Christ monument

April 25 Bridge with cruise liner Independance of the Seas

Seixal

After sailing under the bridge we entered a small river and went down a mile or so to Seixal which is a little town just across from Lisbon to avoid the few very small and very expensive marinas in Lisbon. We anchored in a quiet lake type-setting which is very shallow at the edges but the centre of the lake is deep enough and all the boats are anchored pretty much in line. The town is delightful and cheap so suits us cheap skates down to the ground! From here we took a 20 min ferry ride into Lisbon and toured all the sights including the excellent maritime museum which has all the tags on the exhibits in English as well as Portuguese. We went in search of an Indian restaurant which Keith is craving. We found one which looked rather pricey and not very inviting then we found a cafe called the something of India but never had an Indian person or an Indian dish within 100 miles of it by the looks of it! So we just sampled the local beer and vino instead.

Typical Lisbon Street

Siexial garden

Ferry at Siexial to Lisbon

Fishermen fishing for cockle type things


One day Keith ran over one of the enormous jelly fish in the dinghy and mashed it up in the propeller! That obviously does not deter some people as every low tide we were surrounded by men in wet suits up to their shoulders in the water with big poles. They were scraping the mud up and putting the shell fish into bags, they would do this for a couple of hours at a time.

Cascaise

We motored back down to Cascaise so we would be at the River entrance and so ready to sail out to sea as we headed for Madeira. The marina at Cascaise put its prices down from 30 odd euros to 18 as of 1 Oct so we went into the Marina the day before so we could re-charge the batteries, fuel and water ready for the 5 or 6 days trip to Porto Santo which is part of the Madeira group. Sara is joining us to go across to Madeira (I did Dental Hygiene training with Sara in the early 80’s for those who don’t know).

Sara arrived in the fog and does'nt believe it has been lovely weather up until now. In fact we were to sail today (Mon 5 Oct) but the fog, and strong wind from the south west has caused us to delay until tomorrow.