Lisbon

bayona to Lisbon

Finally, after 37 hours of motoring, we arrived at 08:00 french time to a marina located right under the first bridge (for road traffic and subway). The marina was closed to the point where you had to have a code to get out of the dock area ! So we escaped the noise of the bridge and sailed back to a muche better place, closer to the mouth of the river. We had drinks at Peter Sports bar with the same logo than the one in Horta then lunch at a restaurant on the marina with good "tapas". Then a good nap while Jean-Paul was exploring the nearby town. He came back exhausted having walked almost 9 miles and found nothing in that town. We need a hair dresser, an optician to repair Jean-Paul's glasses. Then Gin and Tonics at Peter and Tapas at the same restaurant. We slept well and this morning the shuttle of the marina is taking us to Lisbon. I hope to take a few pictures.

So we left late morning for Lisbon in the marina's car and we arrived in time for drinks and lunch. We started with a kitttle walk in the old city and stopped at a small open market to sample "Sangria with red Porto wine" . After that we went for a "bacalhau" meal, starting with bacalhau fritters and then main dish with bacalhau (cod). After lunch we walked by to the main square by the sea and hired a tricycle scooter and driver who took us to the  old town for an hour. We enjoyed it a lot.

then we had tp wait for the`car from the marina and`were`driven back to the  boat where we arrived around 6:30. Then it was Gin and Tonic at "Peter Sports bar' and a light dinner of gambas grilled wit garlic. We are now back on the boat Jean-Paul trying to retrieve a picture of Tifille on the tricycle scooter and me getting on with the blog, but I am going to bed soon. Tomorrow we will fill up with fuel and leave for Lanzarote, hoping that we can sail part of the way. See you then. . . . .

Going up south

The diameter of the earth is larger at the equator than from pole to pole.
Thus it could be claimed that when you go south you actually go up. That's
what eh have been doing all day, going south with light winds from the
south. We left this morning at 10 o'clock after taking in 180 liters of
diesel (apprex 43 US gal). We knew we would need a lot of it on our way to
Lisbon where we will refuel again. And we have been motoring all day long.
We should get to Lisbon tomorrow morning at around 8 a.m. Again, we will
have to wait one extra day when more favourable wins are supposed to show
up. Jean-Paul and myself are losing patience with this accumulation of bad
luck with the weather.

A Bayona

Il faut s'habituer au fait que les espagols vivent deux heures plus tard que nous. Nous nous sommes pointes au restaurant du yacht club a midi, etonnes de ne voire personne. En fait les convives habituels sont sortis de table apres 4 heures de l'apres midi. Meme chose le soir ou nous avons dine de Tapas et en rentrant vers 11 heures nous sommes passe devant des restaurants qui n'avaient pas encore commence le service. Ce matin, partis a la recherche d'une possibilite de remplir notre bouteille de gaz, nous avons vu qu'aucun magasin n'ouvre avant 10 heures.Nous n'avons pas pu remplir les bouteilles et nous devrons attendre Lanzarote pour regler le probleme. Nous esperons qu'il en reste assez pour pouvoir continuer a manger chaud. Qui vivra verra. . . . .

Motoring

The terrifying Bay of Biscay in its fury

The traffic off La Coruna

Once in Bayona, I will post a picture of the seas taken this morning at 9:30 which explains why we are still motoring. I will also post pictures of the traffic off cape Finisterre. The screen is full of ships reported by the AIS (Automatic Identification System) but in fact we never saw anything. We now have a better idea as to when we can expect to arrive in Bayona. It now looks like Sunday the 26th early morning. The weather is likely to continue with either no wind or very light wind. After holding it   for two days Tifille finally relieved herself at the bow while Jean-Paul was taking her out there for a walk. Good news for us as we were beginning to worry.

The Bay of Biscay

Tacking, tacking and beating. You would believe that Papy Jovial does not
know anything else. Wherever we are and wherever we want to go, the wind is
invariably on the nose. And the seas are not flat with a long 11 feet
swell. At 10 this morning we still have 363 miles to go. Since we left we
closed on our destination by 87 miles while covering 124 miles on the
ground, Impossible to predict date and time of arrival. From the Maxsea
grib filem it should be in light weather. Maybe it will become possible to
sleep and to go about daily chores. I feel tired, already. be back tonight.

in the Bay of Biscay

Up at 7:30, breakfast then we started the day. Jean-paul repaired the
autopilot by replacing the defective fuse. then we went to town to do
laundry then a little shopping to resupply in chocolate,then to the bakery.
We had lunch on board then had a nap before adding 5 gallons of diesel to
the tank so as to leave with 85 hours of motoring at 200 r,p,m, (actually I
am confusing today and yesterday). We left port at 9:30 a.m. and sailed
past the isle of Sein around 2:00p.m. once we were in the bay of biscay
proper, once again we found a light wind right in the nose and we had to
choose the east side of the course which looks like taking us to Santander
which is not where we intend to go. It is very cold and I guess that we
will have to wait for a few more days before taking the shorts out.

autopilot rescue

we had planned  to get up at 8 o'clock. However, without consulting each other, we both woke up with too much daylight around 9:30. After breakfast, Jean-Paul checked out the auto pilot and as I was hoping for, found that the fuse on the power supply line had burned. He replaced it, tested the system which responded well. We can conclude that it is now repaired. We then had lunch and are planning to go to town for shopping (we are running out of chocolate !) , laundry and then have dinner in a restaurant called "les freres de la cote".
I will take a picture and post it. First we need a nap before we start the afternoon program. The wind which blew at 30 knots max is beginning to calm down. I might have time to do a short posting before we leave.

testing the satphone

This not a post. I am just testing that emailing a post through the
satphone will work.

under way

At last Papy Jovial is back playing her favourites games, tacking. Not our favourite however ! We left Granville on Saturday at 4 p.m. Jean-Paul, Tifille and me. We were going West and the wind was, guess what,! from the west !. Actually we got enough South in it so that we could sail a direct route for the first 70 miles of a 150 nautical miles trip. Almost immediately after we left ang gertting out of a group of boats that were taking the start of a Club regatta, the Autopilot which had started the day doing fine failed again. This time it might be the result of a conflict between the windvane and the pilot and we don't know the exact cause of the failure (broken part, burnt fuse, etc. . .) After Those first 70 miles, as the picture of our track shows we had to start tacking and as a result we covered 226 nautical miles instead of 150 miles on a direct route. We arrived in Camaret in windless weather at 9:36 a.m. on Monday with confirmation that a nasty weather system was going to get through on Tuesday. Consequently we decided to stay put on Tuesday, rest and recover and reorganize the boat to take care of what was thrown around the boat during the passage. This first run was a good test for me. I have difficulties keeping my balance as if I were a beginner, and I got easily tired .Thanks to Jean-Paul who did the better part of the work, especially during the first night when he stayed on deck most of the time. The second night, I had to get involved a little more which was fair and fine.
So, tomorrow will be dedicated to the boat, a little bit of last minute shopping, cleaning and laundry checking again the level of fuel anf filling up if needed. We already know that going to Bayona near Vigo will be mostly motoring. And hand steering as well. Little sleep in the forecast. Next post might be just a test while we have an internet connection to check on the satellite phone set up. I hope to get everything going fine as it did during my circumnavigation.
So long !