“38:44.109N 9:31.284W”

1281 Miles since leaving Sandwich

Peniche to Cascais 1-4 October 2022

The wind was half decent for a change and we made good time on the 46-mile trip down to Cascais departing Nazare at 0720 and arriving by 1430. At the end of the trip just after we had turned the final corner and headed for the marina entrance we got a bit mixed up with some fast-sailing catamarans. Well to say mixed up would be a bit of an exaggeration, they screamed past us tacked and screamed past us again. Considering each one had a RIB in attendance which appeared to be going flat out I can only guestimate their speed to be about 20 Knots. As I sipped my tea and poodled along under auto pilot I did notice that they were crewed by very fit looking young things who ran around a lot, I think it’s safe to say that they won’t be poaching any of my crew any time soon.

I thought they were in a rush to get somewhere but they then turned around and rushed back again, very strange behaviour.

We arrived at Cascais in glorious sunshine and were soon tied up to the reception berth while Norma went up to the office to complete the necessary paperwork. Boat insurance, registration, last port, next port, dimensions, passports et al. As always, we asked if we were entitled to a discount for being Ocean Cruising Club members and as usual the answer was “no” but you have to try, don’t you? The fee was €52 per night which is a bit ouchy. The last time we berthed here, 2014, we were given a complimentary bottle of wine but no such enticement this time. That said they were very friendly and helpful giving Norma a pile of things to do leaflets and a harbour map. As we waited for Norma to come back a couple walking a dog that looked remarkably like a fox had a great deal of trouble keeping it away from Spectra. It was determined to get aboard and finally the lady said, “You have a beautiful boat I think the dog wants to stay with you”. I was glad Norma wasn’t aboard as we might now be the proud owners of a foxy looking dog. Any hew, I digress, we were soon on our berth stern too and settled in for the stay.

I like Cascais, it has that French Riviera feel about it, nice modern marina overlooked by a castle all set against the backdrop of a very well-kept town littered with old style mansions and mini palaces. The first evening finished with a spectacular sunset over the harbour.

Cascais marina as the sun went down on day 1

Although the sunset was spectacular and very soothing to the soul the rest of the night wasn’t. At 2 O’clock in the morning I was awoken by loud music which seemed to be coming from close by. Norma woke up as well which can be very dangerous in the early hours. We both lay awake until 0341, I know the time exactly as that was when the young couple on the sunseeker three boats down met an angry Paul. They were sitting on the front of their boat with the music blaring out the back in a crowded marina, bloody ridiculous! Which strangely enough was exactly what I said to them after banging on their hull to attract their attention. On a positive note, by 0342 peace had descended on Marina Cascais and we all went back to bed.  I don’t know whether it was what I said or the fact that I was in my underwear, but it had the desired effect.  Of course, that was a minor blip on an otherwise great stopover and the young couple did look rather sheepish in the morning (that could be the underwear thing again of course). It certainly wasn’t all angst and we made friends with another OCC boat, a Moody 50 odd something called Vision, that was moored behind us. Tommy and myself gave the owner a hand folding up his huge and heavy foresail which he had ripped on the way down and needed to be sent away for repair.   They are heading the same way as us and I’m sure that we will meet up again. We had many nice meals and good times ashore during the 4 days that we stayed and will leave with fond memories of Cascais.

Cascais from the marina morning of day 2

Initially we hadn’t intended to stay that long but on the first morning I got a very positive response at the local chandlery about my request for a refrigeration engineer, remember my freezer is still broken. He couldn’t come down until Tuesday or maybe Monday, but it was worth the extra stay to get things looked at. On Monday we stayed in until 1300 in case he turned up but then went out for lunch, of course when we came back there was a note saying that he had called and we weren’t in, Grrrr! Tuesday morning the refrigeration chap turned up; he didn’t have a word of English but using the international sign language of pointing at things we got along famously. Now the bad news, he had soon identified why the compressor had failed, there was water in the system. Unlike a home freezer which has a grid or plate at the back to dissipate heat the boat uses a copper pipe that is coiled inside a special seacock allowing the sea water to remove the heat rather efficiently. It would seem that the copper coil has developed a hole which allowed coolant out and sea water in. This water then travelled around the system killing the compressor and the cooling plate in the freezer itself. Long story short, I need a whole new freezer which will definitely be over £1000 plus will require half the galley worktop to be removed. After shedding a manly tear, I was actually quite philosophical about it, at least now we know what is needed. We couldn’t get this fixed in Cascais in any reasonable timescale as apart from ordering the parts we will need to be lifted out in order to replace the seacock. I have started an email exchange with Isotherm in Italy and the Spanish dealership who also cover Portugal. My thought at the moment is to try to organise everything to come together in Lagos and we can get lifted there also taking the opportunity to check out things below the water line and add another layer of antifouling. Anyway, more of that later.

One stop off of note was a roof top terrace bar run by a Korean family. It was very shabby chic and stylish plus they mixed a rather mean sangria. Another bonus was that the height of the roof top seemed to keep us above the ever-present flies that had been bugging (excuse the pun) us all day. It was so very nice drinking in the sun that Norma and I had a second jug of Sangria and then tried to walk down the stairs which had definitely developed a wobble that we hadn’t noticed on the way up.

Solid on the way up definitely wobbly on the way down!

Orca attack reports have been coming in thick and fast. On Sunday 6 yachts were attacked between here and Sines one after the other over a 5-hour period which is a bit of a worry as that is our next route. Monday had another two reports and so it is with some trepidation that we are planning our next leg which will start on Wednesday morning. I will let you know how we got on from Sines in the next thrilling adventure of Spectra and the intrepid 4.