An eerie sight in the morning and a visit to Lisbon

Nazare has quite a reputation - it claims the largest wave in the world but certainly the largest wave ever surfed - a massive 100' high! Here's a photo of me ripping it up just off the Nazare headland light house, that waves just a tad under 100', pretty exciting!





Happily as we rounded the headland the waves were  not too bad.







We parked up in the rather dilapidated marina where we found this little chap wandering round the pontoon under the beady eye of his parents.

There are some nice beaches here but sadly they are all quite steep and the waves (a little more civilised by this time) were dumping badly on the beach so we couldn't get in for a swim and a play in the waves.
We headed off for a bike ride instead to this rather impressive church and monastery (there seem to be quite a few in this very Catholic country).






On the way back we came across a pine forest with every tree tapped for its sap, a nice smelling sticky substance said to be used for a huge variety of things from sealants and an application to the bows of violins to a treatment to rheumatism and even a laxative!



The following morning we woke to a very eerie sight. The sun  glowed a deep red in a very hazy sky and a quick look around told us that something not good had happened as the deck was covered in what seemed to be black ash. Word soon went round the marina about the terrible forest fire that had happened during the night just 30 miles from us; we were directly down wind of the fire.

Later that morning we jumped on a bus inland for some sight seeing from which we intended cycle back but the road we planned to cycle on was so busy that we aborted and returned to the boat for a quiet afternoon washing the decks and doing a few other jobs.

We have had a spell of completely windless days and the following morning was no different as we headed for Lisbon under motor dropping anchor 5 hours later in Cascais harbour a few miles from Lisbon city centre.
Its getting hot here; it is a wilting 36 degrees on the streets of Lisbon!

Lisbon has the usual eclectic mix of big city architecture and buildings but two stood out as particularly special, a church recently converted into a national pantheon and the Jeronimos monestary. A pantheon, once a collective place for all the local Gods has more recently become a place for a group of famous people and so it now is in Lisbon. Amongst the heros is Vasco da Gama, Portugals hero explorer famed for being the first to reach India in 1500.

Portugal was in the 15th century the first of the  colonial powers of the renaissance which by 1570 extended right through south east Asia to Japan.  Portugal became hugely wealthy on the back of the spice trade. 'Vasco' has always been the nickname for the navigator in my family!
The pantheon, constructed from an unfinished church, was completed in 1960 and is a magnificent space with huge domed roofs and a wonderfully calming and uplifting atmosphere. I'm afraid photos really cannot do it justice.

Jeronimos monastery is quite the most extraordinarily ornate place I have ever seen. Its cavernous church and intricately decorated cloisters are magnificent.
















Tomorrow we will head inland for an explore on our bikes.....

All kinds of fun down the Portuguese coast

We recently had what turned out to be an amusing scare with Woody. Melanie spotted that he had what looked like a huge angry boil on his gum. We got him to a vet the next day who took one look at it, exclaimed in alarm and rushed him off to another room. A couple of minutes later he came back in with a grin on his face and the culprit in his hand. Far from having a huge boil Woody had picked up a red and brown nut somewhere and somehow it had got stuck above his teeth on his gum! All's well that ends well.

 Its windy here! There is a pretty constant north westerly wind that blows along the coast which is then beefed up by a thermal wind caused by the heating of the land by the sun; the result is a pleasant 15knots of wind in the morning that builds during the day, in the summer it is said to regularly reach 30 or 35 knots! Happily the most we have had is 25 knots (force 6) but that has made for some pretty lively sailing. The regular wind makes also for a pretty big sea and it has been quite rolly. It does however encourage an early start - get out there and get back in before the winds really starts honking!

We pulled out of the waves for a few days at Porto, the home of that rather pleasant liqueur. Made from grapes grown further up the river the wine was moved down the river on rather splendid gondolas and taken to the mixing and warehousing areas of which there were many; all the big names flying their flags on the river bank.

Porto is a winderful mix of higgeldy piggeldy houses as the city has grown up from the river bank over the centuries. Lots of colourful tiles on buildings, even the train station is a tourist attraction with the internal walls fully tiled with images of country life in Portugal.

After a day looking round Porto I went home for a couple of days for my Uncle Toms funeral and Melanie stayed on the boat baby sitting Woody as it is very complicated to get him home.

For the last five years Moondance has usually been one of the bigger boats in the marina; in Porto that has suddenly changed with a bang! Moored close by use were two 60' yachts and this beautiful yacht moored up alongside Melanie. Next James Bond came to town in this 160' long creation; we felt rather humbled in little Moondance!

Now here was a clash of cultures. As we left the marina to walk up the river we came across a communal washing house; many women stood around big baths of water scrubbing clothes which were then hung out to dry on lines. We were stood on the quay watching something that you only expected to see on the banks of the Ganges and parked just behind was many millions of pounds worth of super yacht!

When I got back to Porto it was time for Melanie to go home to see her Mum so Mike has come to join me for a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately I have got into trouble again, twice in three days! In Porto whilst I was waiting for Mike I ran the boat up on the beach to do some work on the underside of the hull. No sooner had the tide gone out than an official came out to tell me that this was a national park and I couldn't stay here - I had to explain that just at the moment I wasn't going anywhere but I assured him that I would move as soon as the tide came in - job done. 

2 days later mike and I were anchored up one of the canals in Aveiro just south of Porto. Just as the sun was setting over came a rather official looking boat with a blue light mounted in his rigging; we thought he was coming to warn us about the shallow water we were in as he wouldn't have known that we can dry out. To our surprise he told us we couldn't anchor there - it was a national park - is there anywhere in Portugal that isn't a national park?! The tide was very low and although we were still floating at the time we seamed to get away with telling him that we couldn't possibly move in such shallow water but we would move as soon as the tide came in. He looked up the next high tide - 7am the next day - perfect!

 Mike and I left Porto on Tuesday planning to get the boat down to the Algarve where I will pick Melanie up in two weeks time. The rolling as we sail downwind  can become quite tiresome - but we have a solution! The original owner of Moondance kitted her out with something called a Twizzle rig, specially designed for down wind sailing which he bought for the trade wind sailing across the Atlantic. As we have spent the last 5 years beating our way round Europe it hasn't come out of its bag but now is the time. Mike and I pulled out the sail and with the help of Google and a little head scratching soon had this wonderful sail rigged and flying well. It is two head sails sewn together a bit like a spinnaker but attached to the boat at the bottom in the middle. It is flown without the mainsail.


 For the sailors out there the bit that is so different is that the booms are not attached to the mast, they are joined together in front of the mast and are allowed to swing from side to side; it is this that dampens the roll. Instead of the main and boomed out genoa pushing the boat further over as she rolls, whilst the boat still rolls with the waves the exaggerated roll caused by the sail pushing on the mast is no longer there, the rig simply swings to the side of the roll and back again.

 My bete noire for this year (other than the generator which is awaiting some new electronics!) is the radar. Radar is one of those things that most boats have but hardly ever gets used in anger but when you need it you really need it. Fog is the sailors nightmare and radar is the answer. The original sat nav died 2 years ago and was replaced; there was nothing wrong with the radar but they work together and as the new sat nav was digital and the original radar analogue the radar had to be replaced as well (that'll be another £1000 thank you very much sir!) Oh well, all new kit, no problems for years to come...........hmm. Last year it worked fine (and wasn't needed). The west coast of Portugal is notorious for its fog so I wound up the radar as we approached Portugal only to find that the sat nav wouldn't talk to the radar this year. Its wifi which really didn't seam a good idea at the time, if it can go wrong on a boat it probably will so don't be clever - happily as I had a bad feeling about the wifi I also put a cable down the mast so I could hard wire it if necessary. Raymarine the manufacturer suggested updating the software and all sorts of clever stuff none of which worked - I decided to hard wire it, I only had to extend the wire from the base of the mast to the sat nav screen. I didn't have the proper cable but I did have an 8 core ethernet (computer cable) that would do. The connections were going to be a problem because the wires are very fine and I only had the plastic screw in connectors.

 However, an hour later the connections were made and all was well with the the world - for a while. Two days ago we left Aveiro in a nice breeze and blue skys but an hour later down came the fog. No problem - I have eyes in the fog - turn on the radar! Aaargh - no connection! I was pretty sure of the problem, one of the tiny wires had worked its way out of the connector so I headed down below as we sailed south leaving Mike at the helm peering into the gloom to try and fix the radar. On the third time of trying (as I worked on the connectors 2 more wires broke) we were back in business and able to see through the fog. An hour later the fog cleared! My next job is to find some ethernet connectors and do the connection properly!

After a very pleasant 30 mile sail we pulled in to the small harbour at Saint Nazerre.

The western Rias and onto Portugal

And so into the Rias Bajas, 4 big flooded river valleys on the west coast of Spain. They are much hyped up for their beauty and tranquility; sadly we were a little disappointed after all the hype, they were not a patch on the Scottish lochs.

Still, our first stop in Portosin in the northern most ria de Muros was pretty, quaint old world cobbled streets winding up the hill.
A big feature of the rias is the mussel rafts, there are thousands of these things lining both sides of the rias, a huge industry here.








Walking up a local hill one afternoon we got a splendid view of the extent of these things, anchored in lines for miles like a huge fleet of small ships.







We had a close shave with mussels just after A Coruna. We found a lovely collection of big fat mussels growing on the pontoon floats in a small harbour. As we collected a big bag full for our tea a local came and warned us off them. Apparently they carry a virus which is prevalent in the area that will make you very sick; the locals leave well alone. A close one indeed but what a shame! It seems the farmed mussels are okay as they are picked when they are young. Mussels have been a staple for us ever since the early days sailing round Ireland, lets hope this virus doesn't carry on down the coast too far!


A common feature in Galicia are the ancient grain stores known as 'horreos'. It seems that most homes in the country had one; note the big stone discs at the top of the legs to keep the rats out!

From Portosin we hopped on a bus to Santiago de Compostella, capital of northwest Spain’s Galicia region. It’s known as the culmination of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes, and the alleged burial site of the Biblical apostle St. James; his remains reputedly lie in the cathedral. It was St James who it was said brought Christianity to Spain and it is his remains that pilgrims come to be close to; certainly an awful lot of people have walked an awfully long to pay homage to him so I hope its true. The routes run in a lattice work all over Europe from as far away as the Baltic coast - that's a long walk!

Santiago is a beautiful old city. Sadly the very grand cathedral front is covered for an extensive refurbishment but we did get inside and were able to see the small sarcophagus that is said to hold the remains. Look what we found down a side street on the side of an ancient building - is nothing sacred?!








Back on the boat having a sun downer we were approached by this rather threatening looking beast - spanish customs -fortunately we were not guilty!







Just south of the rias is the northern border of Portugal and pulling into the harbour town of Viana de Castelo I immediatly felt a difference from Spain. The Spanish towns generally had very little character, nearly all the building being just painted concrete. I do not know where all the old houses have gone. Portugal is a complete contrast, old higeldy pigeldy lanes and houses everywhere, many decorated in the beautiful tiles that are a theme of Portugal, even the smaller houses have some decoration on the outside. The whole atmosphere was helped by the street decoration for an upcoming festival.




























This pretty church at the end of the main street had a stunning tile mural












I am going to like Portugal!

Home of the Armada and azur blue waters

On to A Coruna on the north western tip of Spain, the oldest town in the province of Galicia. A Coruna is mentioned in Irish myth about a Celtic hero (they get everywhere!) by the name of Breogan who came to the Iberian coast and built a tower here. There is in fact a tower here, the Tower of Hercules which dates from Roman times which may or may not have started as Breogans tower!
We weren't sure about the welcome here, it was only 400 years ago that a fleet of 130 ships left A Coruna with the Spanish Armada and got soundly whooped by Francis Drake (once he'd finished his game of bowls at Plymouth Hoe), Drake then popped down to A Coruna the following year and gave the town a good spanking for its cheek!


All was well however although they still required insurance documents, ships papers, passports and a form completed saying where you came from, where you were going, the height of the mast, what the boat was made of.......only stopping short of the colour of the skippers underpants! These they duly copied and filed, never to be seen again. Oh well, jobs for the boys I suppose.
The Tower of Hercules was fascinating. The tower, built by the Romans as a lighthouse lit using olive oil stood tall for 1500 years , quite a monument to Roman building but by the 17th century it was falling into serious disrepair. Even in those days they treasured their antiquities and not wanting to loose the tower altogether they built a 'modern' stone skin around the outside and extended the height by 5 meters for a new light. When you go inside you can see the whole of the inside of the original Roman structure; very impressive.




On one evening that we were anchored in the harbour the big boys were out racing. This fellow must have had his wife on board who wanted to take the opportunity to dry the bed sheets! (An expensive days sailing!)











From A Coruna it was south west and the winds are firmly behind us, quite a treat after 5 years of beating into the prevailing winds. The north west coast is know as the 'Costa del Muerte' - the coast of death - hmm! There are two versions of the name; the first is from the ancients who believed that the west coast was the end of the world and offshore was where the dead folk lived so the coast was the meeting of the dead and the living or, more recently, the coast of death was the home to thousand of ship wrecks on this unforgiving Atlantic coast. Either way - take care! It is rugged indeed but the scenery is beautiful.

Round the great Cape Finistere, famed as the most westerly point of Europe, (actually it isn't but it nearly is and makes a good stop for the tourist coaches!) we stopped in at Corcubion, the home of lace making in Galicia. Before the industrial revolution caught up with the cottage industries of Galicia hundreds of women could be found gathered together making all manner of beautiful lace items. With a pattern fixed to a cushion, many lengths of cotton each length wound a spool would be interwoven and run around pins stuck into the pattern. The clacking of the spools as the women fingers flew across the pattern must have made quite a symphony!


We were told by some folk we met in A Coruna that rounding the great cape the temperature would take a significant step for the better. An old wives tale? No, it really did! With jumpers on in the breeze on the north side we were down to tee shirts on the south side with exactly the same wind - extraordinary but rather nice! The sun was out with a vengence for the next few days and we discovered what Melanie had come for, golden beaches and azur blue waters, even warm enough for Melanie to swim!

Engines; who need them?!

The weather has improved as promised AND the second fuel tank has proven to be free from the dreaded diesel bug - all is well with the world!
From Viviero we headed west,  Barquerio, Ortigueria and then onto a gem, Ria de Cedeira - golden beaches, forested peninsulas and beautiful sunshine! Navigation in the rias was however something of a challenge. As they are flooded river valleys the whole estuary looks like it has plenty of water  but much of it is covered by only a few feet of water even at high tide with plenty of depth only in the river channels themselves. We are quite used to this in the UK and simply follow the marked channel keeping the red bouys on your left on the way in. It sounds easy enough, the trouble is that this is not the UK and the Spanish seem to take rather less care of their seafarers! Heading for our anchorage up river and following the marked channel into Ortigueria  I duly rounded one red channel marker heading for the next one along. I had several meters of water under my keel when the depth suddenly dropped, not just a bit - the next thing I knew was we ground to a halt in 2 meters of water - we were on the bottom!  Happily Moondance has a lifting keel so a press on the up button and I was able to back off, scratch my head and consider the situation. There was an unusually small distance between bouys so either the bouy I was headed for marked a significant dog leg or..........

Some hours later we went for a walk along the bank of the river and all became clear. You can see the bouy I turned at in the back of the picture; the bouy I was heading for (in the foreground) was well out of position and a few hours later was high and dry on a mud bank! I wonder how many boats that out of position bouy has put on the putty.















Woody was pretty chilled about the possibility of being stuck on a mud bank.














It was all worth while though, it was a beautiful place.

We decided to spend a couple of days in Cedeira; it was time to tackle the generator.
The generator provides a quiet and efficient source of power giving us 240 volts to run the  battery charger. I had been unable to start it since getting back to the boat this year so we had been relying on the main engine's alternator to charge the batteries.
The generator is run by a small diesel engine, fantastically reliable machines, all they ask for is clean fuel and compression in the cylinder. I quickly established that there was fuel getting to the engine (the generator happily runs off the starboard fuel tank, unaffected by the diesel bug problem), that only left compression. As diesels have no spark plug but relies on the mist of injected fuel being squeezed very hard to cause it to go bang and run the engine.  Pressure was leaking out of the piston so no compression and no bang - almost certainly a problem with the valves not seating properly which let the air in and the exhaust out; the cylinder head would have to come off to take a look.

Sadly nothing is easy to get at on a sailing boat, no nice big engine room for Moondance, just a little hole in the floor for me to squeeze into.

3 hours later, 2 seized bolts removed, 1 set of nuckles skinned and instead of a partridge in a pair tree one sense of humour failure - but the cylinder head was off.









There were obvious signs of corrosion on the valves (the small circles inside the bigger circle in the picture), probably caused by condensation over the years. The valves would have to be replaced and the cylinder head refurbished. A call to the agent and 700 Euros later, Bobs your uncle, a refurbished head on its way. Did I mention that boats were a bottomless pit to throw your money into?! I will pick the refurbished head  up in a week or so and send them mine a bit further down the coast and guess what? Another few hundred Euros to get it fitted and the valves reset, a high precision job and beyond my abilities!
Moondance rolls on southwards.

Heading for the Med

The boat has spent the winter in Gijon, half way along the north coast of Spain. The backdrop to this old city is some spectacular mountains, the Picos De Europa, so called by the early Spanish sailors because they were the first thing they saw of Europe as they came over the horizon on their way back home.
We flew into Gijon on Sunday 30 April and had a day on the boat unpacking from the winter then set off for 5 days walking in the Picos. The Picos are dramatic; they are geologically very young and made of limestone, being so soft the winter snow melt quickly carves very deep and steep sided ravines in the rock, spectacular indeed. There was still some snow around in early May making for very pretty icing on the cake.
Back at the boat another days work had us back in the water and ready to go. With an excellent forecast of 15 knots of easterly wind behind us and blue skys we set off west for the Rias (river estuaries) of Galicia, a couple of very pleasant days sail a way. It wasn't to be quite like that!

Having left in glorious sunshine the sky soon clouded over and the wind started to increase. Before long we were bowling along with the sails reefed in 25-30 knots of wind (force 6-7) and surfing at 9 knots down the front of the 4 meter waves. Moondance is a very seaworthy boat and, although tiring from the considerable rolling caused by the swell behind us it was pretty exciting, if a little chilly - Melanie had pretty well everything she possessed on, this wasn't quite how the trip had been advertised!
We spent the night in the pretty but rolly harbour of Luarca.

As the Spanish weather forecast had been somewhat erroneous I looked at the British shipping forecast which reaches as far south as the Spanish west coast - easterly (good), force 5-7 locally 8, hmm, a windy day then! Still, that was pretty much what we had had the day before and we had a long way to go - at least it would be fast! Fast it was with lots of surfing and rather too much rolling, 5 hours later we were just 10 miles from our destination of Vivero, the first of the Rias.
With big following seas Henry (the autohelm) did a sterling job of keeping us on course.

It was time to give the batteries a charged so as I have a problem with the generator I put the engine on in neutral for an hour, or so I hoped. After just 20 minutes I heard that sickening spluttering sound that tells you that you have trouble on the way. Sure enough the engine died. That doesn't happen to my engine, well, not I realised since last time - off the west coast of Scotland 5 years ago when the fuel supply was clogged with diesel bug, that thick gloopy organism that grows in the water-fuel interface in the fuel tank creeping up and biting you when you least expect it.
I was pretty sure it would be a fuel blockage which would require me to have my head in the engine bay for 20 minutes. Diesel fumes and a rolly sea would only have one result - a very green skipper - it would have to wait for calmer waters. We had sails, plenty of wind and it would be an easy sail into the calm waters of the Viviero estuary (famous last words!)
Half an hour later I changed course 20 degrees to round a headland and head for the estuary. With the wind dead behind us I would need to gybe (swing the boom from one side to the other). With that much wind it would go with a fair old whack so I hauled in the boom to minimise the swing and put the helm over. The boom went over, whack, just as expected but the whack seemed rather excessive even for that wind and a viscious flapping noise told me that all was not right with the world. The main sail had parted company with the rope holding it to the end of the boom and was now pressed hard up against the mast and rigging - useless.

The loose end of the outhaul

Hmm, 2 methods of propulsion down, one to go, I now only had the genoa at the front of the boat.  I was getting a little edgy with the old saying of bad luck comes in threes. Still, the wind was behind us and blowing us along the coast not towards it. If, God forbid, I lost the genoa for any reason we would not end up on the rocks before at least having time to pour a G and T! Still, Woody was pretty unperturbed  by the whole situation.


Happilly I didn't loose the genoa and we were soon inside the headland of the estuary. We had a couple of miles to go to a calm anchorage but to get there we had to sail through the Doldrums in the wind shadow of the headland, just a zephyre of breeze coming from one side then swinging 180 degrees to the other and back. Tricky sailing but at a graceful one knot of boat speed we slipped quietly into the anchorage and dropped the anchor. First job? A nice hot lunch and a wee stiffener!






Later in the afternoon I stripped down the fuel system and sure enough, the dreaded diesel bug was back with a vengeance. To get this much gloop from the tank in just an hours motoring it must be pretty bad in there. It was so bad that it had blocked the pipework into the filter before even getting to the filter to block that!

I cleaned out the pipework and refilled with diesel from the other tank; it was time to give it a whirl and hope to goodness that the bug had only got one tank and not both. After an hours running I opened up the filter again praying that it would be clean; the Gods were with me,no more gloop had appeared. At first sight the starboard tank is not affected but it will be a nervous few days when the engine is running never sure if I am going to loose it again until the cleanliness is proven.
Watch this space!





In the meantime the weather has taken a turn for the worse, we woke up this morning to a very damp world, the soggy drooping flag somewhat summing up the mood but the sun promises that it is on the way!