Cascais
Innamorata
Steve & Carol
Fri 10 Sep 2021 15:59
With a favourable forecast of light wind from SW going W then NW we decided to head off for an overnight sail down to Cascais, we set off at first light just after high water and expected to motor for a while before we would be able to sail, there were a couple of cruising boats heading past as we came out of the river and on AIS we could see boats leaving Porto and further south we could see a stream of boats leaving Figueira Da Foz, it all got very boring though as each time the wind looked like it may be going round to the west it backed and increased which was very frustrating - like us lots of boats made the same choice and like us everyone was disappointed with the real wind direction 🥺, it did eventually go round to the W then NW but soon dropped to 4 or 5 knots! all in all we managed to sail for all of about 4 hours !! We spent the night avoiding fishing floats and on arrival in Cascais went directly to the fuel berth as we have motored far more than we hoped to and so used a fair bit of fuel, it's expensive here - €1.66/lt so we didn’t fill up just added enough for a while.
Soon we were anchored and recognised a few boats - Walkabout who we met in Baiona, Equus who we met in Leixoes and a few others we have seen along the way. More boats arrived including Ocean Viking who was on the same OCC west to east SSB net coming back from the Caribbean in 2020 with us and who Steve as net controller spoke to a few times and who we have now introduced ourselves to. Intrepid Bear (friends of Walkabout) who Steve has been messaging re plans arrived and anchored as well.
Looks like we will be here for a few days as there is a southerly blow coming on Sunday / Monday / Tuesday. Not the best place to ride it out but it will do - Walkabout and Intrepid Bear are both going into Marinas but as we hate marinas ( don't like to waste money on them) like most of the boats we are going to stay anchored the forecast isn’t for more than 15-20 knots from SE to SW however the sea rolls in here so it may well be uncomfortable and rolly.