Cascais to Sines

A short day run this of just about 55 miles, we left bang on 0700 with next to no wind whatsoever so the engine is going to get a real test today. There were several ships moving in and out of Lisbon but we timed our departure just right and crossed the fairway without having to fret about their movements. We slipped into a simple three hours on and three off routine for the day and it was a relaxing trip down apart from the noise of the diesel thumping away reassuringly. It was also very hot and sunny and was a real struggle to spend the whole three hours off watch sitting in the sun, I’ll have to work on perfecting the art. The dolphins (probably the same ones) turned up as usual but not for very long this time.
The only excitement for the day was off Cabo Esprich where there were hundreds of fishing markers, if you can call them that, there were no flags and some were very small and dark in colour. It was quite a job to weave through these as we had the sun ahead at the time so it was reflecting off the sea where we were trying to look. Other than that we had a straightforward run down to Sines. We motored into the harbour dropped the pick and went to go in reverse but the gear would not go in, we used the main in what wind there was to try and dig the anchor in.
Got up this morning and sorted out the boat a bit better, we also got stuck into the gear problem, nothing major, I’ve had this before it was a broken spring on the outside of the leg, but we only noticed it after we had taken the top off the leg and re-centred the throw for the dog-clutch and been through all the other connections for the gear cable from lever to leg. I should have checked the spring first as I have suffered exactly this problem once before but it had completely slipped my mind what with all the leg problems we have had recently I was convinced it was something more serious. Paranoia paranoia’s gonna get ya.
With all that lot done we are now relaxing once again and about to mosey on ashore to check out the town and find some wifi connection, the local libraries seem to all provide access for free so that will be my first stop.