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.