September 14 2009 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 can buy every form of fresh food available in this part of the world from fruit and veg, seafood and all forms of fresh and cured meats. Mangoes from Venezuela were highly ... read more

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 - simple - she watched television, well everything except soap operas, she didn’t like them at all. We were to find out that most, if not all television shows and movies that are not produced in ... read more

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 enclosing the 18 hectares of buildings and grounds and now the home of a very impressive hotel and restaurant. Evidently the Monte Real Yacht Club is a big favourite of Northern European Yachtsmen (and women) ... read more

We had the boat well and truly prepared for what had the potential to be a long day trip down the coast. We had set our passage plans to stay quite wide off the coast to stay away from any potential lee shores and try and avoid any fishing nets that might be laid out. We had spoken to quite a few yachties that had come from the south who had had nets caught in their prop and by all accounts, not a good experience and one we always try as hard as we can to avoid at all costs. We left the marina at 8.30am after getting the latest weather forecast which showed we might get a bit stronger winds around the Cape but at least they were pointing us in the right direction. We ... read more

Crossing the Bay of Biscay - Saturday the 25th of July to Monday the 27th of July 2009. Pretty excited getting up about 6.00am to be ready for the 7.00am kick off. We were all up and dressed, had a quick brekkie and checked the boat again and off we headed with Swagman in the lead. We went down the north coast of Belle Ille with the sea in a very calm state indeed. Nikki was at the helm as we motor sailed down the coast and as we turned the corner we were hit with a real tide over shallow water experience and the sea was quite turbulent with short sharp waves with occasional quite large rollers coming in. Nikki took them on with real confidence and determination and rolled the boat over the waves ... read more