Departed Sines, Portugal
26 October 2012 | North Atlantic
John
We stayed in Sines for five nights, each one of them with a lack of sleep due to the strong surge that comes into the marina when the wind is blowing out of the south or southwest. This caused us to break three dock lines and rip our starboard aft cleat out of the boat. It is a marina that I would not recommend to anybody unless you needed urgent shelter, as we did.
The above said, the little town is the hometown of the famous Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama. It is also a town with hundreds of small bars and restaurants which, I am sure, do quite well during the summer months but must suffer during the winter months.
As I type this report, we are sailing down the Portuguese coast towards the southern tip called Cabo De Sao Vicente, which we should reach around 19:00 this evening. We then have to cross a few very busy shipping lanes before heading towards Rabat, Morocco, which is going to be our next port of call or refuge whilst we wait for the next big low to pass before we can get under way again, hopefully all the way down to the Cape Verde Islands.
Tonight we are going to have our first fish dinner - Dylan caught a large Bonito just before noon and it is going to end in the pan later. Bonito is not the best of fish, but we really need to catch more and make it a part of our diet to supplement the chicken, beef and pork we have in the freezers.
So, as we maintain the wind just forward of the beam and take on quite a lot of white water over the foredeck, I bit you well for a few days before I post the next blog report. Regards also from Jason, Mark and Dylan - John.