Peniche to Oieras

As soon as we left the harbour, the wind was right behind us, meaning we had a downwind sail nearly all the way to Oeiras. We only had our genoa out for the entire journey. 
Going downwind is not the best point of sail for the autohelm so we gave 'Fred' the day off and took it in turn to hand steer.
It is certainly one of the more exhilarating points of sail made just about perfect with the warm weather.

Usqubae

Just before reaching Cabo da Roca, a rougue wave the height of a double decker bus, picked us up from behind and we surfed over it at an amazing 10.8 knots!!
       
Once we rounded the headland of Cabo da Roca, the wind speed increased considerably and we recorded a gust of over 35 knots. We had to very quickly reef in our genoa and hold on tight until conditions calmed down. The entrance to Oeiras is very tight with strong cross currents and in the high winds it made for a difficult approach. It was a relief when we finally made it on to our berth. This leg was the best sailing leg of the rally so far and for all of us the best downwind sail ever.

In the evening, we were treated to a superb welcome drinks and buffet reception by the commodore of the yacht club.

In Oieras, it has become a tradition for Rally particpants to paint the harbour wall. As none of us are in anyway artistic, we decided to pass on this but some did partake with great results.

Wall art from previous years

Firedrake

Karma Wins

Miss Charlotte

Apologies to the team from Coral IV as we did not realise that they stayed up into the early hours of the morning to paint theirs. All won prizes which was very fair.

Oeiras marina is very posh. We don't know how much the mooring fees would have been here as they are included in the Rally entrance price. The marina is spotless and a good stepping stone to go and explore nearby Lisbon. Instead we opted to rest up, clean the boat and go on a local tour.

Oeiras marina

Our tour took us to a place called Poets Park, a vast free to all park with marble statues of famous Portuguese poets, past and present.

Statue in Poets park

On the way back the coach dropped us off at a nearby supermarket for last minute provisions before the next leg to Sines

Lynne and Steve x

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