We had a great welcome into Nazare, both by the dolphins and the marina staff, what a lovely team they are. Their recommendation for a one day stopover to walk to the surf museum which is based at the main surf vantage point was spot on. Great views and interesting museum with both world record holding boards on display amongst many others. Interesting fact, the canyon that creats the waves almost reaches the main beach and has been found to have water from the Mediterranean in it.
Another interesting fact is that Nazare is close to the tomb of Prince Henry the Navigator who was married to Henry IV sister and is now the patron saint of pilot book writers. He's worth looking up on Wikipedia.
We treated ourselves to a seafood platter, I never take photos of my food but wow, this was impressive and delicious.
We left Nazare for Cascais, skipping Peniche on the advice of the friendly Nazare marina team and arrived late evening. We anchored outside the marina which has very high rates, discovering why in the morning when we came to lift anchor. The chain was snagged on rocks resulting in an early morning dip into the murky water for Nigel. Fortunately it released really easily, the anchorage is renowned for fouled anchors apparently. After refueling at the marina fuel station we headed off to Sesimbra. This trip was marred by fog for much of it, clearing only for the last 2 hrs and revealing another yacht just ahead. Obviously there was a race to be had!!! Unfortunately the wind didn't last and we motored into our anchorage. And what an anchorage it was. We arrived early enough to go Kayaking around the cliffs exploring the caves eroded away at their base and after a walk along the beach we headed back to Kerensa for dinner and bed.
We left in the morning, again in fog ( 10% of days in July here are supposed to be foggy, I think they are all happening during our journey). Headed for Sines, keeping to the 20m contour added 13 miles to our journey which, when the fog cleared, was along miles and miles of beach. Sines, where im writing this, appears to be a major port on approach, but there's a lovely beach and marina nestled next to the old town underneath a castle in the middle of the Port. We were only going to stay for one night but the forecast for our next leg past Cap St Vincent wasn't looking great so we stayed an extra night and plan to leave early tomorrow. We have lucked out because our visit has coincided with a major week-long food and music festival based in the castle. The town is full of campervans and tents on any piece of ground that can be found. We got the dinghy out to use the showers on the beach at 9am and there were groups of people still partying and smoking......... The last act starts at 5am each morning, so just about when we will be lifting anchor tomorrow.
Tomorrow evening we should be in the Algarve.
