Our Journey: 2015

The first legs of our navigation in Portugal have gone well without any difficulties. We  often had clear sky and no rain. We did of course make several stops along the way, the  first in Povoa de Warzim followed by Porto where we stayed for 10 days joined by our  friends Jean-Pierre and Anne. After Porto we sailed south towards Gibraltar with stops in  Figuiera do Foz and then Nazaré. The trip to Nazaré was more agitated as we had to cope  with a swell of 2 meters that made both the captain and Anne sea sick.  After we arrived in Nazaré, we had to stay there for 3 days due to bad weather and even  when we left we still had a swell of over three meters. The captain decided to try his new  weapon against motion sickness, a pair of special glasses that are supposed to protect you  from motion sickness. I agree that from the aesthetic point of view, they may look like  they are made for frogs or hippos, but despite the big seas, the captain was not affected  by motion sickness. Their effectiveness was later confirmed on susequent navigations.  Close to Lisbon, we passed Cabo da Roca cape, the most westerly point of continental  Europe. At about 5pm that day we turned left into the river to the of Cascais marina were  we had a very cold welcome. The next day we decided to go up-river to the expo marina.  On the way we passed many Lisbon monuments, such as the Belem castle, the Vasco de  Gamma monument, the 25 th of April suspended bridge as well as the famous Plaza de  "Commercio".   Continuing our leg we saw two big passenger ships off-loading more than 3,000 passengers each into the city for the day. The expo Marina welcomed us very well and after 2 days our friends  left the boat to continue their journey to France. After Lisbon, we moved to Sesimbra where  we had a few surprises. The first was an encounter with a group of Globicephale dolphins.  These dolphins are different from your classic ones as they don't have a long nose. The second  surprise followed one hour later when we suddenly caught in short time 3 bonitos on our fishing  line. Once again, thanks to Corinne and Pierre for giving us this fishing gear, but the reason we  caught them was that we were sailing at a speed lower than 5 knots.   When we arrived in Sesimbra we were followed in by a German boat which we found out was  doing the same trip as us. We sailed together for the next two days. After Sesimbra came  Sines followed by Lagos. In the evening around a glass of Porto the German told us that he had  been fined twice the week before. The first fine was for anchoring in an authorized zone but  unfortunately for him, too close to the shore. Despite the map clearly indicating that you can  anchor right up to the beach, the police did not agree and fined them 400€. The second fine  was for not having paid the Portuguese beacon and lighthouse tax. The tax is only 2€, but the  fine is 100€. Needless to say that the morning after, I went to pay this  tax thinking that the  cost of collecting the tax is greater than the amount collected. The officer took at least 20  minutes to complete the various papers the administration requires, but all was done in a very  polite manner and I got plenty of stamps showing that it is serious business.