Jobs done, wind's arrived, 538 miles to go

Today is definitely the last at Nazare and we've had a really busy few days. This photo is just a little example of the sort of things that have been filling our days – fitting bungee to the front-opening fridge to stop the contents flying out when we open the door just as the boat rolls! After the 3rd or 4th time it gets wearing to have to retrieve wayward jars and bottles so this little modification will make a big difference to our sanity as we roll across the Alantic.

 

The biggest success of the week, though, was the fitting of a replacement VHF aerial. The makers, Shakespeare / Vtronix in Lancashire, had no hesitation in sending a new unit free of charge when ours failed after 3 years atop the mast (wonderful after-sales service) so hopefully we'll be loud and clear from now on.

 

We were planning to leave this morning but last night we saw a familiar boat name on www. marinetraffic.com (it allows you to follow boats and ships with AIS transponders all around the world – slightly Big Brother but have a look at it and type in 'Maunie of Ardwall' under the 'Vessels' tab to find where we are). Our friends Peter & Heidi in Stormvogel were heading here from Porto after a long and frustrating time in Vigo having a new engine fitted. They arrived at 06.30 after a tiring night sail but plan to go to Madeira too, so it was an easy decision for us to delay our departure by a day so that we can sail in company again. The 'Biscay Alliance', as Peter calls it, is reborn!

 

Whilst we're very much ready to move on, we've really enjoyed our time in this part of Portugal. The marina, thanks to the wonderful Mike & Sally who run it, is a little oasis of calm in a busy fishing port and the costs have been a fraction of anywhere else we've visited. 164 Euros for 14 nights is a very unusual bargain in the sailing world and long may it remain so.

 

So we now face the start of a significant ocean passage in the morning. The distance to Porto Santo, the island 20 miles NE of Madeira, is 538 miles so that'll be at least 4 days and nights – a long time with just two aboard to keep watch. We are therefore slightly apprehensive of rolling sail ahead of us, really just from the inevitable lack of sleep. The forecast shows that we shouldn't get any adverse weather (the wind may be a bit light if anything) and, at least, the fridge shouldn't spill its contents!

 

 

Photos from Lisbon and Nazare

Here is a selection of photos from our Lisbon trip:

The Royal Barge in the Maritime Museum, built in 1778 and last used in 1957 when Queen Elizabeth visited Lisbon. Powered by 80 oarsmen

Our hotel, left, with the Monastery in the distance and the entrance to the Presidential Palace to the right

Sea Otters at the Oceanario aquarium

Back in Nazare, the fishing fleet is busy all around us:

Aboard Maunie we've had a new temporary crewmember helping out. This is Puskin at work:

Checking that the window seal has dried

Supervising the storage spreadsheet

We are getting cautiously optimistic that the favourable wind will arrive on Friday so, meanwhile, it's on with the boat jobs and planning. 



Playing with Photosynth

We try to keep this blog visually attractive so, as well as photos and videos, we've been playing with an app on the iPhone called Photosynth. It stitches photos together into movable panoramas which can then be viewed via the website.

Here's a little test version so see what you think - it was taken in our new favourite Lisbon restaurant and was made from about 14 photos. Click on this link and you should be able to rotate the room around your screen!

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=239c1cbf-e294-4a91-b572-dfefecb0da76

Back in Nazare

We're back aboard Maunie after a wonderful 3 days in Lisbon. The Maritime Museum and the Oceanaria aquarium were fantastic and we really enjoyed the city. We'll upload some photos tomorrow.

We are now back aboard Maunie and still waiting for the weather. The normally reliable 'Portuguese Trade Winds' (northerlies) have buggered off and we are left with light winds from the south west. The strong winds out in the mid Atlantic have left a 2-3m swell here, so the combination of that plus motoring without wind assistance would make for very uncomfortable passage-making just at the moment.We definitely made the right call last week, though. As predicted by the long-range weather charts, Madeira took a battering at the weekend.

So, whilst we a feeling a little bit trapped, the forecast for the end of this week looks a little more promising so we are using the time productively. Dianne has produced a master spreadsheet showing where everything is stored aboard the boat (with options to search by locker or alphabetically) and Graham has removed and re-sealed the forward hatch in the pilot house which had an annoying drip in driving rain and re-sealed the remaining windows for good measure. They weren't leaking but the sealant was beginning to break down in UV light so this was a 'stitch in time' job.  There are plenty more things on the to-do list so, whilst it won't make thrilling reading on the blog, it should mean we get to the Canaries (eventually!) without having too many last-minute tasks.

A short cultural break in Lisbon

It felt slightly strange to leave Maunie to get the very good express bus to Lisbon yesterday morning (about 90 minutes journey for 10 Euros each) and we had a great afternoon wandering around the Belem area by the river. 

Our hotel is about 200m from the famous Pasteis de Belem bakery (their small tarts - a bit like custard tarts but with sticky filou pastry - are to die for, so we had lunch there with 2 each for pudding!). We walked the riverside so here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the place:

 Torre de Belem

 National Monument to those lost in battle

  Monasterio dos Jeronimos and Bald Head

After an exhausting afternoon's sightseeing we had a glass of wine in a cafe in the park then went to an absolutely brilliant little restaurant that had rave reviews on various websites. The food was superb and the two waiters very friendly and helpful. The place only has about 6 tables and the walls are lines with shelves full of bottles of wine and port - when you ask so see the wine list, they hand you a pair of binoculars!

Today (Friday) we'll visit the Maritime Museum, which is said to be excellent, and no doubt eat well again. I't forecast to be 26 degrees C so there may be a short siesta involved, too!

Some technical success!

We're still in Nazare and Plan B, as outlined in the last blog, is still on.

We've had a good couple of days here with yesterday being a particularly successful one. We caught the bus into town, wandered around the huge indoor market (fresh fruit, veg, bread, fish and meat from stalls all tended by grandmothers dressed in black) for some great (and amzing value)ingredients, did a supermarket dash for other essentials, collected our washing from the laundry and came back to the boat for lunch.

In the afternoon, a flurry of emails and Skype calls to the UK resulted in advice to find an internal fuse in the Sterling alternator controller. Sure enough, it had blown (probably when the alternator failed) so a 30c replacement sees the system restored to full health - marvellous. Equally satifactory was a conversation with the makers of our broken VHF radio aerial - they are sending a new unit free of charge to us.

Finally, Graham climbed into the cockpit locker to replace a broken fitting on the electric bilge pump. The fitting was one we thought we'd never track down in Spain but we were sent on a long walk in Vigo to find a brilliant plumbing / air conditioning wholesalers. We had a wonderful conversation with the guy at the desk (not a clue what he said) but he came up trumps and charged us 70c. So we now have two fully-functioning bilge pumps once again.

Today the sewing machine has been out again and another sun awning made (to shade the side windows of the pilot house) so we're feeling pretty good! We deserve a meal out tonight so have been recommended a little restaurant off the tourist track.

It's actually pretty good to be in a working fishing port as there's lots to see and, when the boats come back in in the evening, it becomes a real hive of activity. Looking at the long term forecasts it looks as though Tuesday might be good to set off for the crossing to Madeira. By then we will have probably exhausted the delights of Nazare but we'll use the time to start planning meals for the Atlantic crossing. That will be a challenge - producing meals for 4 people for around 21 days with no chance of stopping for a shop. Any (easy) menu ideas would be warmly welcomed!!

Waiting for the weather

One thing is certain, in this sailing game you can take nothing for granted. Normally at this time of year the Portuguese Trade Winds are nicely and reliably established - a steady northerly wind, perfect to blow us out towards Madeira. Unfortunately, a hurricane called Nadine, way out in the Atlantic, looks set to spoil our plans.

Nadine has been on the weather charts for a couple of weeks now. Winds near her are up to 85 knots yet her centre is only moving at about 9 knots, slowly up towards the Azores, as she slowly dissipates. Our plan was to leave here today and get to Madeira on about Saturday but the long term chart doesn't look good:

This is the forecast for 06.00 on Saturday, when we'd be approaching Madeira (the little brown dot just to the north west  of the red '1016' triangular pressure contour at the bottom of this picture) - the blue low pressure system would give us strong southerly winds to beat into and then a good blast of rain for good measure!

So we're not going just yet! Plan B looks like a couple of days here in the marina at Nazare to do some boat jobs. It's really a busy and slightly scruffy fishing port with a space for a few yachts in the corner but we quite like its complete lack of pretensions and the fact that it's cheap (about 100 Euros for a week's stay - Cascais marina near Lisbon is about 45 Euros per night!). A mile from the harbour is the town itself - it has a great beach and, once you leave the seaside tat and expensive seafront bars, the old town is quite attractive. There is an amazing funicular railway up the cliffs to the old town with great views to be had (you can see the entrance to the harbour at the end of the beach, sorry this was just taken with my phone so it's not brilliantly clear):

We'll use the time and the good weather (at the moment) to make some more sun awnings and do lots more little boat maintenance chores. We'll probably then leave Maunie under the care of Captain Mike the splendidly piratical harbourmaster and take an express bus into Lisbon (90 minutes or so) to explore the city for a couple of days before seeing what the weather holds for next week.

Plan B will probably change into Plan C, D or E but never mind. We'll keep you informed!