Figueira de Foz to Peniche

Still full of sardines from the night before, we set off for another 'short' leg of about 55nm.
The race start today was at 8am. Unfortunately, there was very little wind so we had to once again turn on the engine and motor sail for a few hours. In the early afternoon, the wind picked up to about 15 knots and we had a cracking sail for the rest of the way to Peniche. Those in the rally fleet with spinnakers and cruising chutes put them up and it made for quite a spectacular site. Sadly, we didn't see any dolphins today.
We arrived in Peniche at about 6pm and rafted up to the Moonstream.

Rafted in Peniche

After tidying up the boat and hoisting our code flags, we headed into the town.
Our first stop was to find an internet bar/cafe and one that served Guinness. Not such a tall order after all and after catching up on weather forecasts for the trip to Oeiras the next day, it became apparent that bar was getting a little lively. This probably had something to do with the fact that the football match being shown on the huge tv was Portugal vs the Czech Republic.
As it was becoming difficult to hold a conversation, we popped over the road to have one of the best seafood meals we have ever had (Peniche is a fishing port) and towards the end of dinner it became obvious that Portugal had won the game. Locals jumped into their cars and began driving round and round hooting horns and hanging out of windows and sunroofs with national flags. What an atmosphere. We later agreed that Peniche was one of our favourite stopovers.

We retired to bed, not sure what time the car horns stopped blowing but after a day on the water most fall asleep soon after the head hits the pillow.

Tomorrow it's off to Oeiras

Steve and Lynne x

Povoa de Varzim to Figueira de Foz

We set the alarm clock for 4.30am to get the boat ready for the 7am race start. However, re-attaching the newly repaired in-mast furling main sail took rather longer than we expected and we were a few minutes late joining the others at the start line. We started the race under sail only but there was so little wind that we were all just bobbing on the sea not going anywhere. After about 30 mins, Scott from Katerina suggested over the radio that we all motor sail until the wind picked up.  We had a 75 mile passage ahead of us and would never get to Figueira da Foz if we didn't. John also wanted to get there in time for the sardine supper!




Plane Magic, the smallest but prettiest yacht on the Rally

After about 5 hours, the wind picked up enough to sail but the wind strength was still not great, so progress was relatively slow. However, the sun was out and it was warm so none of us minded pottering slowly to our destination. Some of the boats got their cruising chutes/spinnakers out and made better speed. Others just pottered along but it did give us the chance to take some pictures of some of the other boats.

Katerina

Moonstream

Karma Wins

Ailsa

We sailed until about 8pm, when we decided to put the motor on for the last half hour. The marina cafe was laying on a supper of sardines at 9pm and we didn't want to miss out! After we had moored up, we quickly changed and went out for our delicious sardines and a few drinks.

Tomorrow there is a trip organised to Coimbra, but we have decided not to go and have a day to catch up on some sleep and to clean the boat, as we will be on the go again the following day.

Steve and Lynne x