Update from Pete - Nazare to Cascais

Nazare was a bit of a let down, tourist town end of season and dead, the marina was a very long hike from anything at all. We were able to get things done there though, the washing which was beginning to become a priority. I took it upon myself to lay in the sun and watch it dry, well it was blowing very hard and could easily have blown into the sea and needed retrieving, so I started to read a book and had a bottle of beer to keep me cool.
There were several other boats there all heading south, one I recognised from being in Scilly, they said they were there two years ago which is when they started heading south, we have been gone for two weeks and we have now overtaken them! Perhaps I am going to fast and missing out on so much, it does seem at times to be a bit rushed, if only I could guarantee the weather would hold for us to move on as and when we are ready, well it has so far, mustn’t tempt fate.
As I said there were several others there heading south but some seemed reluctant to take advantage of good sailing conditions to get to the next port, instead preferring only to go if it was perfect which in their minds seemed to mean motoring in flat calm. Perhaps it was just Nazare doing that to them, the wind certainly did funnel in there and make it seem as though the conditions outside were awful when in fact they were fine, or it could be the mischievous manager ‘Mike’ who seemed to like to play on their nerves by saying the conditions were bad and that the marinas further on were more expensive, we took no notice and had a great sail overnight down to Cascais.
We had planned to leave late afternoon and take it nice and slowly to arrive in daylight, so once clear of the harbour we hoisted just the working jib and bore away. The conditions were perfect and if it held our timings were also going to be good. We had a lovely moon to sail by through the night and as is now usual, the accompaniment of dolphins from time to time. As the night wore on and the closer we got to Cabo Roca the stronger the wind became, and the faster we went. This meant we would be well ahead of schedule and end up arriving before daybreak and that is exactly what happened. So after rounding the last headland which left us in the lee of the land we dropped sail about a mile from the harbour and waited an hour for daylight to come along, basically sticking to our original plan to arrive in daylight, it worked for us.
Cascais is an out and out tourist town with prices to match, but the anchorage is good and the ‘massive’ supermarket, aptly called ‘Jumbo’ is within walking distance so we stocked up.
Its about the stage where I shoud start to introduce you all to bits of the equipment we have aboard for the trip and which are worthwhile and which are still waiting to earn their keep. So I shall start on that in the next update.
For now I had better write a few postcards for those not wired up.