2003 Cruising - Part 2

North-West Spain and Portugal

Camarinias 15th Aug 2003 Recent days have been a bit windless and since leaving La Coruna on Monday we tried to sail a bit from El Ferrol towards Corme but had got only a third of the way before the lack of progress led to a decision to motor the rest of the way. Today promised a slight headwind and so the decision was made to leave departure until tomorrow when there is a chance of a NWesterley and the potential of a sail. Kept busy yesterday re-windowing the sprayhood - more tricky than expected but Conny gave me a hand and gave me the odd idea. Lorraine and Jamie went around the boat scrubbing the waterline which certainly needed it. Also had a swim under the boat, which seemed OK considering the amount of time that Ramprasad has stayed in the water - just some places that only got 2 coats of paint that look like they could do with some attention. The prop had a small bit of rough rope and seaweed around it - well worth while getting off.

 Some interestingly shaped rocks of the Isla Sagres at the Northern entrance to the Ria de Arosa

28th August 2003

We are now in Povoa de Varzim in Northern Portugal. At this time of the year we are supposed to have Northerley winds and fine weather.Now we have SW 4-5 becoming 6-7, Moderate becoming Poor to Bad Vis, West swell 2.5-3.5m increasing 4-5m and it's raining hard with occasional thunder and lightning. At least we are tied-up comfortable in a good, helpful, uncrowded, economically priced marina with good facilities. I last came here on Ramprasad 3 years ago and Joao in reception recognised me and I found my entry in the visitors book with remarkable ease. Many cruisers stop in Viana do Castelo - the first or most Northerley of ports in Portugal and then move directly on to Leixoes from there bypassing Povoa which is only 20M down the coast. We were glad however to stop at Viana which had the finale of an annual 4-day festival to celebrate Nossa Senhora de Agonia on Sunday evening when we arrived. The town was packed with crowds enjoying live music and dancing on temporary stages in the riverside parks - as well as numerous fairground and snack stalls and other attractions such as a tethered hot-air balloon. This event did however make the rather small marina uncomfortably full and did make the beaurocratic checking-in procedure a little more time-consuming. Having been there before on Ramprasad 5 years ago however led the office man to find Ramprasad's details quite quickly on his computer system and so he only had to laboriously input the passport details of the crew! While this was going on he was frequently answering the phone and talking to his colleagues popping in and out which inevitably led to some frustration among members of the queue now building up! The evening finished with a 45 minute firework display of dramatic proportions. The marina is straddled by a low iron double level bridge designed and built by Eiffel (famous for his tower in Paris) - and the display started with a firework waterfall from the full width of the bridge.

Part of the flaming waterfall from the Eiffel bridge in Viana do Castelo

 It then continued with a well coordinated and colourful aerial display launched from small vessels moored in mid-river. I wondered to start with if this would be less noisy than the explosive dominated displays beloved by the Spanish (and already witnessed on this trip in La Corunna and Caraminial) - but we were not to be disappointed. It continued with more and more sky-busts in novel colour combinations and ended with numerous catherine wheels on the bridge and almost continuous electric storm-type sky bursts over us. There was an eery shocked silence from the large crowd at its conclusion before they erupted in applause! Comparison was made with large displays in other places such as London and Cologne for notable events - Jamie thought that this was "on a par " with the Millenium display in London and our German neighbours reckoned that it was better than the major Rhine display which they had seen!

Next day we climbed up the hill to the church of St Luzia which dominates the town. We took an unconventional and circuitous route up and were thoroughly impressed with its architecture inside and out but also with the grandiose hotel behind and the magnificent views - not only from the front of the church but also from the tower above the dome reached by a couple of tortuously narrow spiral staircases.

The temple-church of St Luzia which overlooks and dominates the town of Viana do Castelo

On Tuesday we left there and motored and sailed the 20 miles or so here to Povoa in a very light WSW-SW wind. With an inkling of what was to come I wanted to be somewhere more comfortable than our crowded raft in Viana.

We took a bus into Porto yesterday - the elderly local railway which we took 3 years ago was in conversion to a modern metro track and the temporary replacement bus service did of course get rather more delayed by traffic jams than the old train was or the new metro would be. The bus dropped us off to take the new metro train for the last leg of the journey into town - a new, spacious, smart public transport system but still with the last 3 stops on the line under construction, there were some very big holes in town surrounded by construction site fencing. We had a very fine lunch of extended sandwich in sauce - one of several local specialities recommended by the waiter in a cafeteria style restaurant, climbed up the tallest tower in the city in a church called the Torre de Clerigos, took a walk down to the riverside breaking to look at some azuleros in the booking hall of the main station, then walked over the Eiffel bridge to Guaia 

The Eiffel Bridge and Port wine lighters on the Rio Douro in Porto

  ...  and visited the Offley Port wine lodge where the port is aged in oak barrels for periods of up to 30 years! It was a great pleasure to taste some of the results of this aging process ( - even if not aged for quite this long) before the walk back across the bridge, up a long staircase and back to the metro station.

Part of the long staircase going up from the lower level of the Eiffel bridge in Porto

 I look forward to future visits to this delightful city when rather more of their metro system is complete!

Seagulls appear to patiently wait while fishermen clean their nets in Peniche

... and then it's feeding time!!!

4 friendly Spanish girls in a pedalo at Cascais near Lisbon

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