Cascais

Mike made a gorgeous chicken curry with sag aloo - yum

Mike loves to go up the mast

I'm very proud of Mike - he is doing so well with the stopping smoking. Its got to be six weeks now and he is feeling better every day!

downtown Cascais

I'm gonna catch a fish if it takes me all night!

result!

He went in on purpose!

Time to go

After 5 nights and all the laundry done its time to head out of town
Still no wind so Captain Mike decided to stop off in Leixoes to fuel up

Leixoes

Dirty smelly industrial port
Spent 200 euros on diesel (1.29 euros a litre - ouch)

We were able to sail with the spinnaker for a couple of hours but the wind kept dying away and it took us 33 hours to get to Cascais which is just outside Lisbon

We saw dolphins on the way but we've seen them so many times before that we didn't bother getting the camera out....

Yes, we are still here....

Woke up this morning to the sound of the fog horn out on the harbour wall
Can't see much beyond the pontoons..........thick fog!
Oh well, looks like we will have to stay another day
Problem is there's no sunshine :(
Robbie has gone off on the marina free bus to the big supermarket out of town with a shopping list of  heavy items such as bottled water, coke, beer
Meanwhile, back at the marina bar we will just sit here and wait for the sun to come back (sigh)

Povoa de Varzim

My friend Mo is gonna give me an aromatherapy massage later......mmmmmm can't wait

Flies are always a problem in Portugal. The fly paper has been up two days but we've so far only caught two of the pesky little buggers!!

My lair

Mike says I've got enough toiletries to open a new branch of Superdrug. When I see the price of them out here though I'm sure glad I brought plenty with me
 

Mike is enjoying fiddling about setting up gps navigation programmes for Colin

Meanwhile I'm up to nothing (as usual)

Miracles can happen......

Joes computer has made a full recovery
Don't ask me how......its a Dell and they are built like the proverbial brick sh*t houses!

Ringer makes a new friend

Colin carries out some essential maintenance

The weather has been lovely here and everything is so relaxed and easy in the marina that we are reluctant to leave.
Forecast is for light northerly winds all the way :)

There's a downside to everything

Forgot about the mosquitos in Portugal didn't I......

Dee catches some zzzzzzz's

Non-functioning piece of equipment of the day for today - Mikes new laptop

You know you're in Portugal when.................

Theres a crab pot marker every 100m
You have to start filling in forms (in triplicate) everywhere you go
You don't get served delicious tapas with every round of drinks :(
You can't sleep at night because of the loud music being played until 3am!!

Separated at birth??

Povoa de Varzim Marina is cheap - 18 euros a night for a 12.8m boat including free electricity, showers and wifi - and just about the friendliest place you could imagine. The staff are delightful and, unlike in Spain, everyone speaks English

Yacht Club Bar

And the coffee is much better in Portugal too!