Cascais
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Wed 28 Jul 2010 18:40
Following another early start, which was a bit of a shock to the system especially as we had been up drinking with Karen, which usually leads to an epic hangover on my part, John got all kitted up in full diving gear, although he decided to be tough and go in without a wetsuit - he made very sure the holding tanks were closed first though! After a few minutes he reappeared having found his glasses - first result of the day!
We left and set off for Peniche which was described as a charming seaside town with lots of restaurants which sounded like a good place to take our guest. We had about 50 miles to do so would have time to look around and go for dinner in the evening. Today, winds so light, Ocean like a millpond, and hazy so you could hardly see where the sea and sky met. Karen and I took our turns 'on watch' and kept a good lookout.
About lunchtime there was great excitement on deck as we had dolphins swimming next to the boat! However Portuguese dolphins are a bit like Spanish dolphins in that they appear and then disappear very quickly, they stayed about 10 minutes. We went back to the serious business of girly catching up and sunbathing. Post lunch, great excitement for the female members of the crew at least, when we approached by the maritime police in their launch, they only asked for our last port but really we wouldn't have minded at all if they had wanted to board the boat!
We then arrived in Peniche only to be told that the marina was closed, and we could pick up a buoy on the other side of the harbour - we decided against this as they were quite small and set of again to do the final 40 miles to Cascais - we should arrive about 10pm. In the end we entered the Marina in the dark which was very difficult, dodging anchored boats, and a million and one lobster pots and tied up and headed for the pub - we got tied up so quick and off the boat that the bow thruster hadn't even turned itself off (this takes about 10minutes max!).
After a long day and a very hard entrance, we needed alcohol and food, in that order and headed for the bar. Post food, when we all felt a bit more normal, cocktails were the order of the day and we eventually landed home about 3am!
Karen left the next morning to fly to the UK and we had a very lazy day sorting the boat out as we have Frankie & Georgia arriving tomorrow. We are staying here for the week as the town is lovely and there is loads to do.