Speeding Down the Portugal Coast

The last time we blogged we had just arrived in Bayona, SPAIN. Bayona is a very popular stopping point on the Atlantic Spain coast just for cruisers. Located just across the border from Portugal it is the last stop in Spain if you’re heading South or the first if you’re heading north. We spent several days tied up at the Bayona Real Club de Yates where we experienced our first of what will no doubt be many Med mooring style slips. For those of you who don’t know what Med mooring is a brief explanation – Unlike slips with finger piers that we are used to in the States, marinas in the Mediterranean offer a completely different style. With Med mooring there are no finger piers – the boats are backed up to the quay “slip” and tied off with two stern ties. The bow is then secured to a permanent mooring. Quite a bit different but once you get the hang of it pretty easy to handle. Also, this style of berth makes a gangplank absolutely necessary. After a few days in Bayona, which included paying our respects to Christopher Colombus
who returned to Bayona in the Pinta after his first trip to North America and once again visiting the forts, sampling the local cuisine and exploring the area we were anxious to head for Portugal. Jennifer, our oldest daughter, was scheduled to meet us in Lisbon on the 21^st. Our original plans were to make about four stops along the Portuguese coast – taking about a week to get to Lisbon. However, once again, the long range weather outlook was not promising. While rains were not predicted after the first day, gale force winds were expected for later in the week. Concerned we might get stuck somewhere north of Lisbon for an indefinite period we decided to do an overnight sail directly to Lisbon.

On May 12^th we left Bayona at 0900 with a light wind on the nose (go figure), scattered showers, and seas of 1 to 2 meters. By 1500 the sun was shining and we had picked up a hitchhiker! We had been underway for a few hours when out of nowhere a small black bird decided to join us. He hitched a ride with us spending most of his/her time at the helm and even flying into the cabin once or twice to check out the accommodations below! After a few hours we guess the bird grew tired of our company or we had reached his destination because off he flew not to be seen again. We motor sailed almost the entire trip. We had one period around 0700 the next morning where we sailed, but it only lasted for about an hour before we restarted the engine in order to arrive at the Porto de Recreia Yachting Harbor Oeiras at 1440 in the afternoon. Our guide book said this was a marina with staff that spoke English and were very helpful. That is not an understatement. Everyone we interfaced with at the marina did everything they could to help us and their English was generally very good. The facilities were first rate and we felt comfortable when we left the boat for a couple of days to land tour later in the week. We also received a 50% discount on the slip fees because we are participants in the ARC and they are a host marina for the Rally Portugal and ARC Europe events. It also turned out to be a good decision to head for Lisbon. Within 24 hours of our arrival the predicted gale force winds arrived and pummeled the Portuguese coast for seven days. However, the entire time the skies were clear and sunny. The most sun we had seen since arriving in Europe!

Since this was our first port of entry in Portugal we were anxious to clear in so we could start flying our Portuguese courtesy flag and we filled out the appropriate document at the marina office and waited for a visit from the authorities. We were still waiting to clear in when we left 10 days later on May 23^rd. We did enjoy seeing the Coast Guard go in and out because they had a slip for their 53 foot boat two down from us, but we were apparently of no interest to them. Finally on May 21^st we determined that we were not going to be visited so we started flying our courtesy flag below the yellow Q flag. Why, you ask, were we so interested in flying the flag? We also wanted to also fly our Texas flag and Seven Seas Cruising Association flags on the port spreader and felt it would not be appropriate if we were not also flying the courtesy flag on the starboard spreader. Anyway, even we this new configuration we were still not visited. However, we had a proper welcome flag for Jennifer when she arrived on May 21^st.

Jan was fighting a cold so we were low key for the first couple of days while she recovered. Then on Monday (May 18^th) we rented a car and did some land touring, checking out some of the sites we missed on our speed trip down the coast. We drove to the Douro valley in northern Portugal for a 2 day stay. The Douro Valley region is the area where Port wine is made. The valley is quite beautiful with steep, green mountains dotted with quintas, the wineries where the grapes are grown. After a visit to a few quintas (“farms” or vineyards)
where we learned the methods used in making port, sampling the end result, and a 2 night stay in an 18^th century posada we headed back to the boat to prepare for Jennifer’s arrival.