The winds calmed a little overnight but were back to 25 knots as we saw Jeff and Sandra off in their taxi to the airport on Tuesday morning.
We then had a day of shopping, washing and sorting out various boat bits. The forecast is for strong winds possibly through to next Monday...................we are sitting tight here! The wind achieved a new record in the early evening topping 39 knots!
Martin and Jean from a nearby British boat ‘Freedom too...’ came across for a drink before dinner at about 6.45pm. As often happens on these occasions we were still talking at 8.45, lots of things in common and sharing experiences of different harbours takes a while to cover – and the odd bottle of wine to sooth the throat! Our late meal was delicious salmon steaks bought from the market and marinated in olive oil, freshly grated ginger and soy sauce. Re-heated potatoes from the other night (with cheese on top as required by Chris), salad and red wine made up the menu. We both commented on how much more flavour there is in wild caught salmon than those in the UK supermarkets – presumably farmed.

This morning (Wed) Martin and Jean had organised for the marina mini-bus to drop people off at the large supermarket (Pingo-Doce) a few miles away and collect us 90 minutes later. Large place with the stock in a somewhat confusing order (we found Twix biscuits in with the cleaning supplies!) We did manage to shop for some of the heavier goods needed but found this place quite a lot more expensive than the local shops/market and deferred fruit, veg etc to another time. We will still have to make the trek to Lidl for things such as muesli but an interesting exposure to the things the Portuguese buy. We also squeezed in a coffees and two’ Pastel da Nada’ (that’s what is sounds like but we can’t find the actual spelling). This is an open custard tart with flaky pastry, often topped with nutmeg or cinnamon, very tasty and goes well with coffee. We have been able to get good quality ‘grande cafe com leite’ in most places here. Our attempts to say a few words on the local language are usually met with smiles and an answer in English but, hey, we are trying and I think they do appreciate it.
At midday Wednesday the wind is back to ‘Scream-force’ and the forecast could mean us not sailing until Monday next week - start planning more trips out.

Picture: the Portuguese love tiles, they are every where, often blue and white. The exterior of many houses are covered with them. This is one of the rail stations in Porto covered in traditional tiles depicting historical and mythical scenes