Nazare - Island of Berlengas - Lisbon

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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 enough light to be able to try and pick out an anchorage as we were advised that the holding ground where we were going was not all that great. On came the motor and we motor sailed in for the last hour or so of what ended up being a 30 odd mile trip. We started to hear a very strange knocking noise coming from the stern somewhere and despite close inspections of the engine compartment and steering gear we could not work out what it was until we slowed right down and up floated about 50 metres of long line fishing line, hooks by the dozen and a small found float. Obviously the float had been hitting the hull under the cockpit and that accounted for the strange noise we were hearing.

Lukey Bill volunteered to free the line and as we were by now just near the anchorage and we could see bottom, he was free to do his thing so over he went and fortunately for us, the line had snagged around the keel and not the prop so after a few dives under the hull he had cleared it and we had reaped the bonanza of a whole heap of nice shiny hooks and swivels that added to our hotch potch of fishing gear.

The island of Berlenga is probably about a mile and a half long and half a mile wide and has one of the most amazing youth hostels that you could imagine. An old fort sits out on the coast which was built by monks, in the 13th Century as they were sick and tired of being attacked by marauding pirates. The fort is now the Youth Hostel and here we were being able to anchor up about 50 metres from it!!

The island also caters for visiting backpackers with tents and has quite a few small dwellings on it that can also cater for the vast number of tourists who come here by ferry boat, especially during the high season.

Haike and the kids from Small Nest jumped in for a swim, soon to be joined by Layni but definitely not me as the water was still failing to have any steam rising off it. The anchor chain was giving off tell tale signs that the anchor may not be holding as well as could be expected so we set up an anchor watch for the night with Layni taking the first couple of hours, followed by Nikki and then Luke who was filling in his time by fishing for mackerel. By the end of his (double) shift, he had bagged 5 nice fish which were dispatched to the cooler box for lunch or dinner.

Debs and our crew and Haike and her crew spent the next day doing a big tour of the island while Willem and I kept anchor watch on the boats as they were tending to drag a bit. By all reports, the views of and from the island were incredible. I had a fat time in the afternoon catching mackerel and by the time I had finished, we had enough fish to feed both boat crews and some.

The crews headed over to the ferry berth where there was a diving board and some really nice snorkelling areas and had a ball in the crystal, albeit rather cold water. That night we dined aboard Small Nest having char grilled mackerel from one of our bbq cobs and mackerel cooked in foil a la Willem on the other. The fish and salad washed down with some Spanish white wine was fantastic but our fears of our boat dragging anchor quickly shut the fun factor down and we headed back to the boat and I made a bed up in the cockpit to keep watch.

The anchor alarm was going off for a lot of the night and by the time it came to get ready for our early morning departure to Lisbon, both Debs and I were a tad tired to say the least. Debs finds it pretty hard to sleep when someone is on anchor watch and god love her, she is often up just making sure those on watch, and the boat are all ok.
We had 60 plus miles to get into Oeiras near Lisbon so we had made plans with Small Nest to leave by 8.00am. Willem and Haike were up and away by 7.00am as their anchor was dragging, taking them to the not so friendly shoreline. They got away before us as we still wanted to have our morning cuppa and double check the boat before we headed out.

There was a fair bit of sea mist about and the swell had certainly come up during the night and the Navtex forecast was proving to be rather accurate. Our Navtex is a constant source of interest with weather forecasts covering some many areas with exotic names such as Casablanca in the south, the Azores to the north west and Iceland to the North. I could refine the forecasts for our local area but I like to see all these places appear on the screen as it is a constant reminder of just where we are in the world and how incredible it is to be here.

Our radar was showing Small Nest about 4 miles away and as there was very little wind to start with, we motor sailed on their heading, planning on catching up a bit later on in the morning. The swell was coming from the north west and the tide was running toward that direction so naturally the swell continued to pick up, easily reaching a constant 3 metres with the occasional run of 4 or 5 metre rollers coming through.

Sunboy handles this size swell amazingly well and it will be interesting to see how things go if and when we get involved in some serious Atlantic swells, for the moment however, being in these conditions is just great.

The wind finally came up enough to hoist the main and away we went. Willem and Haike had to hove to to make some gear adjustments and while they were doing so, we caught up with them and headed off together toward Cabo da Roca, the most westerly point of mainland western Europe.

We spent time trying new rig settings and reefing manoeuvres before it was time to get organised to do a bit of informal racing with Small Nest. With our small headsail and no gennaker or spinnaker pole, going dead down wind is a bit of a chore unless there is heaps of wind so we opt to sail off the wind a bit which gives us really great boat speed but of course means we have to sail a bit further to be able to gybe our way to our waypoints.

The conditions were brilliant for a fair bit of the time with 20 to 25 knots from behind us, really good rolling swell and we had a blast, Small Nest was having an equally great time and we both headed past Cabo da Roca in superb sailing conditions and the warm sun on our backs.

We got past Cabo da Roca and the wind picked up as it always does coming down past the capes and we headed into Rio Tejo at full pelt, trying to dodge the fishing pots, nets and lines that seemed to be absolutely everywhere.

We headed south east to miss the shallower water that the Pilot Book advised was ok to cross to head up toward Oeiras but with our draft I didn’t want to take any chances so we kept in the deeper water till we made the shipping channels that were being well used by coastal freighters and cargo ships who at the time were entering and leaving the harbour.

This also meant we had a chance to tighten the sails and close reached for another four or so miles closing the gap with Small Nest to end the day literally yards apart at the entrance to Oeiras Marina. We had had a brilliant day at sea and by the time we got the boat berthed up safe and sound the log showed we had done 65 miles, time for a beer so all the crew from Small Nest came over to chatter about our day, how good the sailing was and how bloody lucky we all were to be able share these days with our families and with friends.

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Photos

Island of Berlengas
Disqualified from the fishing comp

Cabo de Roco
The most westerley point of mainland Europe

Comments

[bevkinchenton]

Hi from the Fords
Hi Debs Al Nik and layni... Hope that you are all well >the blog entries look really fantastic ....we keep up todate with where you are heading and it looks like you are having a ball. much love to everyone Bev John Daisy and Mick xxxxx Very envious from Basingstoke