At long last the parts we needed to fix our winch arrived after a frustrating wait.... and weren't the correct ones. At least not all of them and we managed to get the winch sorted enough to use and await Lewmars comments. At some stage we will have to return the incorrect ones and receive the correct items but at least we are on our way.
The delay put us in a poor weather window and the first 3 days of around 150 miles were all motoring, we couldn't wait as the Schengen clock is ticking. However we stopped at a couple of lovely places, Baiona in Spain was the departure point for Columbus voyage to America. There's a replica of his ship in the marina and I can safely say that I wouldn't cross an ocean in it personally. Hearing that there had been outboard tea leaves around a week or so prior made us nervous about leaving the dinghy on the town dock wall and we only managed a quick walk around.
Next stop was Porto, we arrived late afternoon after spending all day in fog with 100m visibility. The pots and nets were hard to spor and required a good watch. We anchored in the Douro river in 3knts of current and had a surprisingly peaceful night. I would love to have spent time there and seen the Port houses but an early departure was needed.
Figueria Da Foz was the next stop, but was only a convenient rest stop with a walk around a typical seaside resort, one part reminded us of Blackpool.
Finally some wind for our sail to Nazare where we are now. Our wind instruments were talking to Nigel like he does when trying to get his mates out in Lasers when it's blowing. It's only 13 knots they said, the reality as we found out ashore in the marina was 30-35 knts. with a huge swell. Given that it was a sail dead downwind bordered by a long sandy beach and a 20m depth contour intense concentration was required Amanda sid a great job taking the helm in the challenging conditions for a while. We were rewarded by a dolphin welcome as we approached the town.
Nazare is lovely and we decided to stay here for 2 days and will check out the wind instruments and enjoy the town.
