Adios Vigo y Espana, Bom dia Portugal 🇵🇹.

We are feeling a bit jaded this morning after spending our last evening in Vigo on board a yacht next to us with a Swedish couple drinking too many Aperol spritz. A lovely evening but a bit of a late night ahead of our early 7am start this morning.

Today we are finally able to move on & get to Oporto .Strangely we have to put our clocks back an hour and for the first time in ages will be back on UK time.

We arrived safely in sunny Porto after an easy but long 8 hour journey with just a little bit of rolling. Again we had plenty of dolphin action mostly in Spanish waters but a few in Portuguese. This is a lovely marina with really friendly & helpful staff and we even get bread rolls delivered for breakfast each morning 😋.

We love Porto. We have been before for a couple of days and it was definitely worth coming back. \240It’s such an amazing city, built on cliffs down to the Douro River and spanned by several very impressive bridges. The houses are unlike any I have seen before many are covered with ceramic tiles of all styles and colours. It’s really ramshackle in places but charming. Our marina is situated close to the mouth of the Douro River on the Gaia side (Gaia is another city) so to get to Porto we get a ferry and then the wonderful old wooden tram along the river front. We are based in Afurada, an old fishing village where the women do their washing in a shared wash house whilst singing and hang it to dry on municipal shared lines by the fishing port. It’s quite magical.

We spent our first day here in Porto city re-doing the sites. We walked for miles and just enjoyed looking at all the churches, cathedrals and pretty cobbled streets. We also enjoyed our first delicious pastel de nata and the largest ice cream ever!!

Yesterday we took a guided tour to the Douro Valley up river to 3 wine & port tastings and a delicious lunch in the stunning landscape. Our guide Welsh Steve was good fun & we learned loads about Port making & drank lots too. It was a fabulous day. Today we cycled down the coast to a couple of older coastal villages. We had hoped to spend some time on the beach but the problem with this part of Portugal is that it is really really windy so ended up coming back after lunch of bbq sardines.

I have to say that speaking Portuguese is difficult, it is similar to Spanish but the pronunciation is completely different and it sounds like Russian with some very odd vowels! We can only hope to get better at it over the next few weeks!!

Forever to be known as Fig Fog our journey here today was pretty much end to end in thick fog and so very cold it felt more like the North Sea than Portugal. I even had to wear my sailing jacket it was that cold and dismal.

Still we are here and it is now sunny and 23 degrees. We did have the pleasure of hundreds of dolphins along the way making a not particularly nice trip much much better.

We have actually been to Fig Foz before just for lunch with the boys about 3 summers ago. We had a fabulous plate of sardines then so we rediscovered that restaurant last night & enjoyed a fantastic plate of local seafood 🦞. Some of it we have seen since France so it was a nice surprise. We had brown crab, small crabs, whelks, winkles, mussels, percebes and prawns - all lovely and fresh.

Fig Foz is mostly a holiday resort with a huge beach but has some charm & we had great cocktails in the old Fort that the Duke of Wellington once took over when capturing Portugal from the French. In addition we got to see a free gig - a gut called Syro who looks like Jesus & mostly sings covers of what were good songs. Another experience & at least some live music for us.

We are only here for one night and it is a one night kind of place.

We left Fig Foz in bright gorgeous sunshine and arrived here in this anchorage in fog - again!! Most of the journey was pleasant enough with very calm conditions & a few minor dolphin visits. This anchorage is in a horse shoe shaped bay with a narrow entrance and sandy beach around the curve. It looks a pretty town and we will explore by tender later.

We are at the most westerly point (009° 30’.640W) we will ever be on this trip here passing the Cabo da Roca. This is also the most westerly point of mainland Europe. \240The sea is blue and calm, the sky for a change is clear and it is a lovely day here in the Atlantic Ocean. There are shear waters, gannets, gulls & cormorants diving into the seas around us. \240The sea however is still only 16 degrees so it’s unlikely we will be diving in 😀

Now we are three quarters down the western iberian Atlantic coast. Only 1 more stop after this before we turn the corner onto the South coast and closer to the mouth of the med.

At last we have sunshine & clear blue skies & it’s actually warm again - yeehaa. We have arrived here in the holiday town of Cascais at the mouth of the Targus River that goes to Lisbon. We will explore shortly and will report back but so far it looks a lovely base for the next 4 or 5 nights.

Cascais is lovely. Yes it’s busy and touristy but it is very pretty and in a beautiful location. The marina is really well located for the town and is a relaxing place to be albeit one of the most expensive we have experienced so far.

Another little train excursion today on the train into Lisbon. Our first Portuguese train and again cheap & reliable. There was a lot to see in a day & it’s quite warm so we opted for the open top city sight seeing bus tour - the 1 city in one day cheats tour. Even with the bus tour we still managed to do quite a bit of walking.

Our first stop on arrival was of course the market but I failed to take a photo. It’s interesting to me how the markets change from country to country but one thing is consistent, the fish stalls in France, Spain & Portugal are amazing compared to the offerings we get in the UK. France still overall has the best markets with the widest variety of food and the best quality but the markets on the whole everywhere we have been are fabulous.

The bus tour was ok, Lisbon is in our opinion not as lovely as Porto. It is busier and more polluted but there are some amazing things to see. Andrew has been many times before on business and said it wasn’t that lovely but I wanted to see it for myself. I have and now I can say I have been to Lisbon and I am glad we decided to berth in Cascais and travel in by train rather than going up river to one of the city marinas. We did however have a lovely lobster lunch in Belem by the marina.

Below are some photos of our favourite bits of Lisbon.

We are leaving here today in thick fog 😩 never our favourite but sea conditions are good so it’s today or not until next week. A day of intense concentration ahead to ensure we get to Sines without hitting a tanker or fishing boat.

We have really enjoyed it here despite the weather. Last night we had a delicious meal in a gorgeous little restaurant & then managed to find some great live blues in a small jazz club in town. The perfect end to a lovely stay.

We have arrived here in Sines. Our last stop on the Atlantic west coast of Portugal as tomorrow we head around the corner to the Algarve.

Our journey here was half in thick fog, with some quite scary bits around the point at Setabul where a fishing boat decided to harass us by cutting us up twice (not fun). The second half of this 5 hour journey was much better with no fog but chilly so we were driven indoors. Now we have arrived here the sun is shining & it’s lovely & hot - hurrah. Today we passed the 1500 nm since leaving Cherbourg mark so another major milestone.

We would have stayed here a couple of days but the sea conditions are turning tomorrow pm and we want to get around the corner where it is due to be much better & much more reliably sunny. We will be so happy not to see any more fog.

Actually now that we have walked around the town (which is pretty but very small) we see that it really is a one night only place so heading off tomorrow is a good plan.

Wow what a hideous journey here today but what a lovely place to arrive to.

We left Sines at 7.15am in rain & thick thick fog that continued for 6.5 of our 7.5 hour journey. We also had to avoid huge tankers at anchor, yachts with no AIS that appeared from no where and rolling choppy waves. It was very wet & not warm so we drove from inside which meant after 3 hours I felt really sea sick & hideous 🤮🤢. After 5.5 hours we reached Cabo de Sao Vicente, \240in medieval times this was considered the end of the world but now we know better 🤓. Apparently on a normal day this would be a stunning sight with amazing cliffs but for us it was shrouded in fog!! Albeit less fog than earlier.

However as we turned the corner and started our journey eastwards the fog cleared, the sea went dead calm & within 30 minutes it was sunny - hallelujah 😎. At 3pm we finally pulled into Marina de Lagos and are now berthed with a nice cup of tea in hot & sunny Algarve. Which makes the last 7 hours all worthwhile.

Neither Andrew or I have ever been to the Algarve before so this is a totally new experience & so far we love the weather. The town here is very pretty but this being mid August it is heaving with people from all over. The marina is also lovely & well positioned but eye wateringly expensive so we will move onto Portimao tomorrow where we get a 50% discount.

The first thing we love about this place is the weather. For once the forecast shows nothing but warm 25° sunshine for the next 2 weeks with no rain, no fog & no clouds. A huge difference to the last few weeks.

We also like the marina because although it is in the centre of everything we do have a quiet berth, the only downside as I mentioned is the cost.

The absolute best thing however about Lagos we think is these amazing sandstone cliffs, caves and rock bridges with little sandy coves. We explored today on TT Verano Azul (our tender) and took these photos.

We left Marina de Lagos (pronounced Lagooosh) earlier & made the smooth & very quick 7 nm journey here. We spent a lovely 3 days in Lagos but it is time to move on & we are meeting up with friends (the Kennedys) so will be here for 4 days now. Not far but always nice to have a change of scenery & we are looking forward to seeing friends.

We have spent a few days here in Marina de Portimao with the absolutely glorious weather we have been hoping for all summer. It is hot & sunny every day - yippeee!

On Tuesday night our lovely long term friends the Kennedys joined us on board for dinner here. Kate, Mike, Rachel, Zara & Tom are on holiday nearby and we \240enjoyed a very relaxing evening watching the world go by the marina with some food & nice wine. It was lovely to see them.

On Wednesday we did some boat chores & then got the water taxi over the River Arade to the very pretty fishing village of Ferruga.. We had a delicious charcoal grilled fresh Red Bream and had a potter around the village. We spotted this very territorial seagull who was defending his fish with his life!

Yesterday was A level results day for Alex & Seb so the morning was spent waiting on tenterhooks & then after lots of tears (from me) working out the positives with them and a future plan for them both. Needless to say in the cold light of day today I can start to see the positives more & the disaster it seemed to be yesterday is in better perspective today. Life goes on and we learn more from failure than success as they say! After that stress we took an Uber to Armendoiera Golf Resort to have a dip in the Kennedys pool & spend the evening with them in the beautiful medieval town of Silves in the Algarvian Hills. A lovely way to take my mind off the day. The town has a medieval festival so we got to experience all the market stalls and entertainment as well as a delicious dinner in the square.

Below a few photos from the last few days. Today we are off to an anchorage between Faro & Olhao near Culutra island.

A superb 37 nm journey here to today’s anchorage just off the Ihla de Culatra in a lagoon not far from Faro. It is just lovely, the sun is shining the sea is turqoise and we have a light breeze to keep us cool. Heaven :). As Andrew says ‘this is what we envisaged on this trip but has taken a few interesting & fun months to get to it.’

The beach on the Atlantic side of Culatra is stunning with fine sand and lovely sea. The village is quaint with just a few restaurants & shops & there are no cars just tractors on the island so it is very peaceful.

This is our last stop in Portuguese waters tomorrow we move on to Spain again. We haven’t mastered Portuguese (it’s very hard) but have developed a real appreciation of the Algarve despite it being touristy, it has a real charm.

Go to Part 8 - Southen Spain

Mazagon to current location