It’s Friday 15th May and we are moored in the marina in Povoa de Varzim about 20 miles down the coast from our last stop in Viana do Castelo. The wind is roaring outside at over 30 knots and we have good ‘white caps’ in the harbour itself. Glad we are not out there today although one yacht has just come in, they had a fine old time getting onto a pontoon!
We left at around 7.30 yesterday morning and had a great sail in 17/8 knots of northerly wind, gusting over 20knts towards the last hour of our trip. With a reef in both the main and genoa we made an average of 7knts over the c25 miles (you have to go well out to sea here to pass a restricted zone with a wind turbine and it’s better to go past the entrance and then run back up from the south). Even for us, mooring up in the 20knots was fun as we had to squeeze into a narrow channel then turn into the berth only to find there were no cleats and a bracing bar sticking out on the side we’d rigged the lines. Quick panic but we managed to switch to the opposite side while holding the boat in place with the engines.
The marina here have been very friendly and helpful and it looks as if there’s plenty to do in the town and region. Just as well as the forecast for the next week is lots of high winds so we may be here a while. There are reasonable facilities on site and the main town is about 15 minutes from the marina where there is a good market selling fish, cheese, bread and fruit and veg as well as a medium sized supermarket. There is a Lidl about 1.5 kilometres further but amazingly Carolyn hasn’t insisted on going there (yet). The town itself is reasonable though lacks the architecture of Viana, the old part here is smaller houses and less interesting to walk around.
The marina have managed a ‘first’ for us... it’s the first time we have been fingerprinted in order to get in and out of the site and facilities. Put the selected digit on a red sensor and the door/gate opens. They actually have another record as well in that the fee for a night here is the lowest to date at 18Euros (good news if we are weather bound). There are a number of British boats here on the hard and one other in the water, he overwintered on the hard and is positive about the place. It does look however, as if the original investment in the marina was over hopeful as the buildings are much too large for their purpose and there is lots of empty space both onshore and on the pontoons.
We decided to eat out last night and Carolyn, as usual, used TripAdvisor to identify some targets. We had a few beers in the ‘Naval Club’ (they gave us a token for a free beer in the marina so we had to really) and then had a great meal at Bodegao (Rua Paulo Barreto, no2). The place has been cleverly decorated with old cameras, books, plates, reel to reel tape machines etc making for a smart and interesting environment. The service was good and the food excellent though this is reflected in higher prices than meals to date. We all chose different meat and fish dishes and really enjoyed them though Sandra was somewhat surprised that her ‘meat risotto’ arrived as a good sized rump steak with a side serving of risotto – very good though.
We have spent the day wandering around the sea walls and the town and catching up on the food shopping. Well, food and liquids shopping as the beer and water supplies were getting low. We do drink the water from the tanks on board (and have sterilized them during our prep activities) but like to carry bottles for cold drinks, keeping one in the fridge. Prior to leaving the UK we invested in a trolley which didn’t get much use last year but has already seen action a couple of times lugging heavy items back to Splice. The journey back was about 2km overall and Chris had 12litres of water, 24 cans of beer, 6 bottles of beer and other assorted shopping balanced on the trolley, far more than we could cope with normally. One of our other purchases today was fresh sardines from the fish market so that what’s for dinner tonight, marinated in garlic, olive oil, paprika and black pepper! Got to gut them first though....

Picture shows the marina at Povoa de Varzim in the calmer period yesterday with Splice moored in the centre of the picture.