We delayed our departure by an hour because of fog. According to our pilot book the rate of fog increases from 3% to 10% in the month of July, 60 miles either side of Lisbon.

Unfortunately we're motoring again with visibility hovering between half a mile and 3 miles maximum.

Our normal 'lobster pot' lookout was greatly assisted by the radar this time because it actually picked them up - proof that the sea was so calm.

We motored past Naizare, famous for its 100 foot wave and windsurfing:



The waves are formed from the 'Canhao da Naizare' a deep trench which runs close offshore. It certainly looks impressive on the chart plotter.



Regrettably because of the fog we didn't see Ilha da Berlenga islands, a nature reserve with off lying rocks and many seabirds.

We did however have an absolutely fantastic 'dolphin day'. Earlier in the morning we had a brief visit from a small pod of bottlenose dolphins, they were huge but it was only a short visit. A few hours later however we had a visit from the largest pod of common dolphins we've seen to date - probably 30ish. The majority disappeared but five remained and stayed with us for over an hour. We took it in turns to observe their behaviour at the bow as they seemed to 'jostle' for leader of the pack position. We noticed that three dolphins seem to win the right to ride our bow wave duly named scar face, scar back and union jack (due to their markings). We did our normal cheering, clapping and shouting (it's a good job that no one was around to hear us, as they would have thought that we'd lost the plot!) We're convinced thought that these three would have left much sooner without our encouragement.


meet scarface, scarback and union jack!

As the entrance to Peniche approached we were busy avoiding lobster pods and fishing boats of all shapes and sizes that were coming and going. Visitors moor either side on a long pontoon but it was apparent that the inner side was full of local boats. The outer side was already full so we rafted against another British yacht of similar size. The wash from passing fishing vessels and the Ilha da Berlenga tourist ferries who have no regard for the speed limits in the harbour made all the yachts roll violently. So violent in fact that you are advised to keep your masts out of alignment so that they don't collide with each other when you roll together.

Shortly after arriving (we were still tying up) we were approached by a Customs man (Alfandega) who wanted to see ships papers and passports. It was a brief visit and he didn't say much - we didn't even get any paperwork to keep.

Once tied up we decided to have a brief walk around the town before reporting into the office. We concluded that the town just wasn't for us so we paid for the night with a view to moving on first thing tomorrow, weather permitting.

Total distance this season: 903.45 nautical miles