Porto Santo - Madeira - Canary Islands (300 nautical miles) We left Porto Santo on Friday the 16th of October, heading out about 10.30am for a very leisurely sail to Madeira, about 30 miles away to the south. We had met up with a couple of Aussies while we were at Porto Santo, Mano and Shelley who hail from Brisbane and we really enjoyed their company and learning from their experiences as well. All being well we were going to see more of them on our trip to the Canaries and across to and through the Panama. It was a beautiful [View Full Entry]

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Lagos to the Island of Porto Santo - 450 nautical miles. We spent our last day at the Sopromar Boat Yard getting the boat readied and the last few glitches with the windows being sorted out at last. Final provisioning was done for what we had anticipated was going to be about a four day passage. Debs has been very busy cooking up lots of individual meals that we just have to slip into the oven and half an hour later, voila!! Instant meal. We tried this out on our Bay of Biscay crossing and it worked a treat and I [View Full Entry]

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SUNBOY IS HEADING HOME Well after getting the boat tied up and sorted Willem and I headed off to one of the local bars that has wi fi to check emails. The very exciting news we received is that Sunboy is now an official starter in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers 2009, along with 225 other cruising and racing yachts. Wahoooo. Our elation was soon quashed when the technicians told us that Hanse had sent the wrong windows and just as I was about to ring up the factory for a few quiet words, Debs rushed up to tell me that [View Full Entry]

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Lisbon (Oeiras) - Sines - Sagres - Lagos - LATE BREAKING NEWS We tied up in Oeiras Marina, smack bang next to a boat called Solitude, a very large and beautiful looking Hanse 54. Small Nest was a couple of boats away and, as usual, saw a few other boats we had shared marinas with since we struck Portugal, a few of them being British and Northern European Yachts heading south to make the Canary Islands for the start of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers which leaves from Las Palmas on the island of Grand Canarias for the 2800 mile crossing [View Full Entry]

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Nazare - Ilha da Berlenga - Lisbon We left Nazare late on the morning of the 13th of September to sail down to the Island of Berlenga, a distance of 20 to 30 odd miles. We dropped our trolling gear over the side, hoping to pick up the odd mackerel. The conditions were incredibly nice for a gentle day sail down to the island and we just enjoyed the casualness of the trip for the first two or three hours. We ended up getting a bit of tide against us and decided that we needed to get to the island with [View Full Entry]

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Batalha, Alcobaca and Obidos. We had to catch the bus to the towns of Batalha and then catch a bus back from there to Alcobaca and of course back to Nazare. The Stellermans are brilliant travellers and Haike is very resourceful as far as her research is concerned so all we had to do was basically sit back, relax and be guided as to when and where to be, too easy!!. We caught the bus from the marina into Nazare town, headed to the local markets which open every day from early in the morning to about 1.00pm and where you [View Full Entry]

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Pavoa de Vazim - Aveiro - Figueiro da Foz - Nazare This blog takes in about 150 miles of the Portuguese Atlantic Coast, incorporating the departure from Pavoa de Vazim heading for Aveiro, Figueiro da Foz and Nazare, all of which we sailed in company with A Small Nest. The reason we did this part of the coast this way was primarily due to the spring tides and the times they are occurring at the moment. Our pilotage books indicated we needed to be able to enter Figueiro da Foz at or just before high tide and to go from Pavoa [View Full Entry]

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Day trip to Porto - Thursday 3 September 2009 Another good feature of staying at Pavoa de Vazim was the metro link from there to Oporto. We walked to the metro station which was about a 15 minute walk and arrived at the station ready to take on the automatic ticket booths. Well they had us nicely confused in about two minutes flat and then we were rescued by a very friendly Portuguese lady who spoke fluent English. Our little saviour had our tickets organised pronto and we enquired as to the source of her command of our native tongue - [View Full Entry]

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Bayona - Ria de Vigo North West Spain Well after getting into Bayona and seeing our old British chum in safe and sound we entered the Monte Real Yacht Club Marina which has to be in one of the most picturesque settings in this part of the world. The Marina is beneath the very impressive Monte Real Yacht Club Building which is perched up nice and high, built of sandstone and smacks of gin and tonics and big fat Cuban cigars and very pukka Spanish yachties and power boaties. All of this sits below the ramparts of centuries old Castle ramparts [View Full Entry]

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Hola Portugal and Pavoa de Vazim. We left Bayona on the 31st of August with the harbour starting to show signs of a big Atlantic fog rolling in. Sure enough it continued to fill and soon we were heading along very cautiously, eyes paying particular attention to our radar, G.P.S and having Luke and Debs up on the bow keeping a lookout with eyes and ears peeled. We got past Cape Silleiro, the western most point of the Ria de Vigo and after clearing the rocks off the cape we turned south to Portugal. At least our course was easy once [View Full Entry]

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