After a great farewell party (courtesy of Bravado - loads of goodbyes and all sorts of much-appreciated help from some very good friends, we were joined by Dave's sister Lisa for the long-awaited slip from F32, Gosport Marina, on 14th June. We didn't go very far that day - only as far as Newtown Creek, IOW as it happens - but we had at least made the break. We spent a few days there waiting for favourable weather and in the meantime bumped into some Hardway Rogues on a trip into Yarmouth (Hi Beanie and Jim...) and had the obligatory few beers.....

Our next stop was Weymouth where we had a longer than expected stay due to problems with some newly-installed electronics and, although the guys who installed the kit were disinterested we found our saviour in the form of local Sparky Paul, who was prepared to go more than the extra mile, literally, to help us. In the meantime, along with a few drunken reunions with Hugo, we met some really great people - Myra from Solihull who was on holiday and had just been out sea angling, and Nick and Carolyn who were "locals", although Irish and Scottish respectively. One afternoon, walking down the main street, we came across two elderly ladies, Peg and Ethel, desperately trying to find their coach before it departed without them. After a lot of running around by Dave and Fi trying to give them words of comfort like "we could always take you nightclubbing if you miss it" Dave managed to get them safely aboard and, amidst lots of giggling by them and their fellow passengers, we waved them off and promptly went to the pub to reward ourselves for a job well done.

At last we finally managed to set sail from England and headed for l'Aber Wrac'h, northern France, where we had a few days R&R and an unexpected and pleasurable reunion with Marc who sold us our boat several years ago.

We crossed the Biscay with loads of dolphins, some pilot whales and a real mixture of weather (me no like big waves, no like windy, no like dark clouds....). On watch one fairly unpleasant night and with nothing much of intelligence going through her mind as usual, Fi made up the following (to the tune of the Hokey-Cokey)........

Ya furl yer jib right in,
Ya shake yer two reefs out
In-out, in-out
Yer being thrown about
Yer doin' the Biscay and yer scream and shout
"IS THIS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT?!!"

Ohhhhhhhh, the Bay of Biscay,
Ohhhhhhhhhh, the Bay of Biscay,
Ohhhhhhhhhhh, the Bay of Biscay,
Knees wrenched arms stretched Argh! Argh! Argh!

Which goes to prove that travel doesn't necessarily broaden the mind.....

Our hope of heading round Finistere in one hit was not to be with the wind strong on the nose, so as we were pushed further and further into the Bay we made for Gijon, a Spanish harbour we knew from a previous trip and one where we knew we could safely leave the boat for a few days. With the wind then dying off completely, our final morning saw us motoring towards Gijon with it's spectacular backdrop of mountainous scenery and with the heat of summer finally upon us...

Fi's brother Paul met us there and we had a great time at his place in the mountains for a few days, riding horses and donkeys and walking out with the sheep. It was here that Dave learnt to cook what was to become his speciality - Spanish tortilla - with help and advice from Paul's friend Annette who Fi would like to thank personally as it's delicious! Fi also paid a visit to Paul's dentist for a long-awaited tooth extraction and can highly recommend dental care in Spain, not only due to their expertise and hi-tec equipment but also the charm and good looks of the dentists!

All too quickly we were back on board and travelling slowly along the coast. We anchored in some really beautiful harbours - Cudillero, where we had our only swim so far, Ria de Cedeira where the wind howled and the rain bucketed down but we finally managed a quick trip ashore, and Camerinas where we got to know a few other Brit boats headed our way and had a restful day socialising. "Fiesta" was happening just about everywhere so it became routine to be lying in bed with the feeling we were in the middle of a war zone with loud booms of rockets and canons echoing around the mountains and spectacular firework displays at 2am!

We had to wait a couple of days for good weather to carry on past Finistere which turned out to be one of the best sailing days so far with the wind in the right direction for a change and calm seas. Fi buried her tooth at sea as we passed by and a couple of Finistere dolphins came and said Hi. That night was spent at anchor in Ria Muros then a few days alongside at Portosin marina getting water, diesel, provisions and laundry done. We managed to talk to Fi's niece Becky (in Canada) on Skype and wish her all the best on her wedding day and then we went for a few beers to celebrate with Erin and Rob from Juggler. Infact, going for a drink with Juggler became a bit of routine for the four of us as we spent time cruising down the coast together, swapping peanut butter, honey and the odd story or two. I guess it was inevitable we'd get along - Rob's views on sailing are very much like ours and he enjoys a beer as much as Dave whilst Erin is from Georgia (and Fi thinks quite possibly mad!) but we really admire her as it's the first time she's done any real sailing and she's taking it all in her stride - obviously a born natural!

We stopped off at Bayona which has an old quarter whose character really comes alive at night with lamp-lit narrow alleys and lots of drinking and eating going on. Another evening saw Erin and Fi whitewashed by the guys at table football and Dave went mad and bought not one, but two pairs of flip-flops. We never discovered the reason for all the witches in the shops there (in the form of dolls and ornaments) so if anyone can shed a light?....

On the final evening at anchor there we were joined on board by Itza Pearla - Caroline and Charles, who we'd met previously. They gave us stacks of tips on Caribbean cruising and are headed there again also so no doubt we'll cross paths in future.

We headed out of Bayona just behind Juggler but quickly lost sight of them as the slight mist turned quickly into fog. We decided to keep a reasonable distance off the coast and after sailing at less than 2 knots for a short time had to resort to motoring the rest of this leg to Povoa de Varzim, just short of Lexios. The fog lifted but visibility wasn't that great all day and the coast, what we could see of it, slowly became less and less interesting. By the time we were about 5nm away from the harbour, all we could see were high-rise blocks and crowded beaches. Entry to Varzim was fairly straightforward but anchoring didn't look like an attractive option so we headed alongside a couple of berths away from Juggler (would they ever get rid of us?!).

The next day the four of us caught the metro into Porto and visited the Cathedral San Fransico with it's incredibly ornate carved wall-to-wall display of alters. After coffee by the river we walked over the bridge and visited the Graham's distillery. Raul, our guide, gave a really informative tour and was overly generous when it came to the wine tasting - we decided we liked all of them - lots! When we managed to drag ourselves away we were walking along the street and this strange, unavoidable sort of vacuum sucked us into another distillery. Unfortunately, the tour and tastings were nowhere near as enjoyable or generous so we left there in a hurry.

Walking back over the bridge some youngsters were climbing onto the bridge structure and egging each other on to jump. It was one of those situations - you know the sort of thing - where you really don't want to watch but can't help help yourself! It was probably something they did on a regular basis and quite a tourist attraction and eventually a couple of them jumped off (about 50ft) into the rapidly moving current of the river below. As far as we know, they survived! We headed back through the old quarter of the City and caught the train back to Varzim for a final drink - well, we had to calm our nerves after all that excitement.....

We left on 1 Sept for an overnight passage to Nazare and were really pleased that we could sail along nicely with "Monica" (the Monitor wind vane) steering. We were just saying how great it was to be having such a fantastic sail and hoping it would last through the night when, sure enough, the wind died so the engine went back on. When darkness fell and we switched off and drifted through the night as there were too many pot markers about to risk catching one in the dark and Juggler said on the radio that they intended doing the same. It was really frustrating night, trying to keep the tiny bit of wind that there was in the sails and the only consolation was that we could see Juggler having the same problem. I think we managed about 20nm in 9 hours so at least we'd moved! When daybreak came and there was still no wind we switched the engine back on and motored the rest of the way to Nazare. In that time we had to dodge the autohelm to miss at least 4 pot markers so realised we'd done the right thing. When we finally got alongside in Nazare (a few berths away from Juggler - would they EVER get rid of us!!) we were all really tired and decided the only thing to do was to have a drink.........

Nazare is a really friendly marina in a busy fishing harbour. Our favourite bar happened to be the nearest and was where all the fishermen drink so Dave felt right at home.

Whilst in Nazare waiting for the wind to do what we wanted we had several walks into town where there's a fantastic indoor market with local farmers' wives selling their produce - vegetables, fish, meat, cheese, bread etc. and all cheap as chips. We had a meal out one evening (our second since leaving the UK!) with Erin and Rob. Dave had locally caught sardines and Fi had the local vegetarian speciality - salad and cold chips. Another day we caught a bus (not an easy feat in itself!) to the Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitoria in a town called Batalha, a classified World Heritage Site. The building is incredible and although I've tried to capture it on film it doesn't do it justice.

We decided to wait a week here as it was 7 days for the price of 5 in the marina and much less expensive that sitting in Cascais (our next stop outside Lisbon) for the weather to cross to Madeira. We bumped into Sue and Dave (Scath) again, who we'd met in Camarinas, and who invited us us all over for a drink on board on Fi's birthday.

Erin and Rob decided to paint the wall of the marina with a symbolic drawing for their boat, as a lot of previous boats have done (and as is the tradition in the Azores), so we just had to do the same or risk bad luck befalling us (not that we're superstitious - after all, everyone knows, it's bad luck to be superstitious.....)

We visited a couple of small towns at the top of the hill out of Nazare, one day going all the way up to see the Fiesta, only to be told by the girl in the information kiosk that it had all finished for the day. To console ourselves we sat and had a drink. Lo and behold, within ten minutes a band had struck up on the bandstand in the square so we're not sure how much information the girl at the information kiosk had been given.....

Each morning Dave would go up to the small marina shop/bar to buy some bread and we would often sit there and have coffee or a beer in the evening with Erin and Rob. Luigi, whose bar it is, seemed to be quite fond of us all and we had a good laugh with him on our visits there. On our last day in Nazare he gave Dave a bottle of wine and Erin and Rob some cider. We were really touched because it's not likely he makes a lot of money.