General concensus was to head south while the weather was holding—it was anticipated that our luck wouldn’t hold much longer so we set sail for Leixões. We arrived at 12.30 pm and anchored outside the harbour ‘til morning. It was blowing quite hard and I had a real job holding ’Piano’ head to wind while Malcolm up anchored. We had laid quite a lot of chain in the strong winds and it didn’t have much in the locker to weigh it down when it was wound up. This caused the chain to foul on the stripper which meant that the windlass could not be used. Malcolm had to use brute strength to pull it up quickly before we were carried onto a lee shore. With heroic strength he did manage! Another problem to sort when we get in!
Motored round and had help tying up from an English chap with a ferro concrete boat from Essex. He was waiting for a sail to be repaired. Malcolm spent the day repairing as best he could the windlass. He doesn’t like the look of the motor and ‘gubbins’ inside the anchor locker so will leave it until we get somewhere settled to repair. Andy and Ruth came in soon after us.
That evening we went shopping and exploring the old town which was again very pleasant.
Decided to visit Porto the next day and went by Metro. The guy in the marina gave us a couple of metro tickets which someone had left behind. The picture at the top is of Porto. It was a very tiring day on foot seeing all the Tourist attractions of the old town which has World Heritage status . Also treated ourselves to a very tasty Portugese lunch on the river listening to Andean music being played.
Arrived home well worn out. We set sail again after lunch on the 17th to do a night sail so that we would arrive in Nazaré around lunch time the next day. I cooked Mousakka ready for the night trip to save work below that night, and was able to enjoy eating it. I also did a couple of spots ‘on watch’ so that Malcolm could get some sleep. I felt quite good about it too.
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