Spain 2019

Lisbon

Posted by admin on August 3, 2019

We've been getting a bit behind with the imagery as our experiences outpace our ability to record and document them!  We'll catch up at some stage.

In the meantime, we've had two nights in Lisbon.  Time to recover slightly from the rigours of the passage down from Porto, and to enjoy the city - and there is plenty to enjoy. 

As mere tourists we've visited squares, monuments, castles and viewpoints, walked the backstreets and eaten in small roadside restaurants.

It has been fun and one is regularly reminded of the influence of the sea and the legacy of Portuguese explorers on this city. Tourists we might be but there's a sense of quiet pride in having arrived here by sea.

We left Lisbon on the second afternoon of our stay at the Doca de Alcambre marina - not least because the small and not particularly well equipped marina is the most expensive we've visited since leaving the English Channel. Still, it is close to the centre and main sights of the city.  Our intent was supposed to be for an easy sail - light winds and sunshine around the next headland to the south - Cabo Espichel 30 miles away. And indeed it was - until we rounded the cape at last light for the 15 mile reach in the lee of its headland.

The complacency of a glorious sunset! Thereafter, the whirling dervishes of catabatic winds dropping off the sheer cliffs to our north caused gusts of >35 knots and a short, sharp chop which regularly drenched us on deck.  The last two hours certainly didn't feel like a rest day! We dropped anchor under an old fort in the approach to the massive commercial port of Setubal at midnight and, having towelled off the dousing we'd had on deck, crawled into our bunks.  The next headland we'll round will be Cabo Sao Vicente at the south west tip of Portugal where we shall turn east for the Straits of Gibraltar.

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