At my request we put into Ria Potevedra on wednesday and what a place. Similar to a Norwegion Fjord but obviously not as good as Mitch reminded me on bookface, we sailed 10 miles up river to a place called Combarro. A cute little village with a marina but nothing to write home about untill you take a small walk up some small steps and you are into another world. Ancient fishermans cottages and fish drying storage areas hewn into solid granite overlooking the water it was like Disney had constructed the place for a film. Most of the buildings are now used as bars restaurants and tapas bars. We tried the informous green peppers and lashings of beer and just fell in love with the place. If we hadnt got such a mission we probably would have still been there now.
But alas we must push on. We left the next day with the warm sun and wind on our backs and after the stunning sail we had the day before we were looking forward to getting into the fast track trade winds to push us south. Of course the winds did blow from the north as they always do here ...but only 8/9 knots which after hours of trying to kids ourselve swe could sail, meant employing the engine once more or else it would have taken 3 weeks to get to Lisbon. By nightfall on the first night it was clear the new engine would be getting a hammering again. I was a bit hacked off to say the least and wondered when the forecasts would ever get it right. Its not so much the noise but the cost of burning up diesel that is the issue. Anyway sat out glum in the dark on my own listening to the engine whiring away the dolphins came to the rescue again. We have had them a lot, even at night but this time we must have been travelling through some dense phopherescent plankton plumes. These are small sea creatures that when you agitate them glow, and the boat leaves a glowing trail behind it at night. More interestingly when you flush the loo as it sucks up sea water its looks like fairies have invaded the toilet bowel!! As this large pod of dolphins bore down on the boat in the dark they left glowing trails of plankton behind them drawing patterns in the sea around Jon Jon. In my life I have yet to see something as incredible as that. And this went on for about an hour it was magical eerie and mesmirising. In the end I couldnt keep it to myself anylonger and woke up Steve and Kirsty to watch.
By the second night we were starting the feel the strain of 4 hour sleep shifts when the wind picked up and we started to fly. Its amazing what that does for morale as Jon Jon surfed waves and you can really feel the power in the boat. I decided to perk me up on my shift |I would fly full sail no matter what while the Kirsty and Steve slept and was hurtling at 7.5 knots down the swell in the dark having a ball when a loud crack stopped me in my tracks, I had broken a small but significant part of the mainsail called the kicker. I fixed it in the dark but decided to be a bit more conservative in my sail plan after that!
Finally this morning after 48 hours we pulled into Lisbon. The marina is a fab place to chill for a couple of days go explore lisbon and wait for the winds to change for the push to the Algarve. Only 280 miles left to Gib!!!