Check out whose driving! This was in Cascais, The most expensive marina so far. The coastal resort for playboys and girls from Lisbon.
I met a cool Brazilian hippy couple who had been in Portugal for a fortnight with little handmade gems and a guitar, We hooked up, played some funky beach vibes and made €20, they were stoked having never made that kind of wedge since arriving. I have a video of William but unfortunately it's too many Megabytes to upload.
I have been meeting so many quality musicians on this trip that I have a dream of bringing them all to England for a tour, maybe one day.
Alrighty then, back to sailing.
The Voyage down as follows, Leiceos, Cascais, Peniche, Sines. It was in Sines that we caught up with an Irish lad 'Dave' who was the fella who gave me a cool beer when I was feeling like throttling my old skipper Paddy in La Coruna, He departed La Coruna a couple of days into my month of babysitting The Lady Fisher. It was cool to catch up with a familiar face, Ian and Myself had been together for a while by this time and another friend to converse with was much welcomed.
We stayed in Sines for about 12 days . The birthplace of Vasco De Gama (the Portugeezer who discovered India, if not for Vasco we Brits wouldnt have corner shops or curries, a VERY important sailor) Sines is a beautiful small town politically overrun with an oil refinery that was installed some time ago, so the authorities are trying very hard to install Culture and Arts and Music into the town to counterbalance the effect of the refinery and the Authorities are winning ! lots of vibrant concerts and exhibitions, theatres and museums it was a cool stopover but inevitably The Lady Fisher was chomping to sail, Onwards, around the Capo De San Vicente into The Algarve. Accompanied by Dave in his ship 'Anasu'
Travelling in tandem with Dave has been awesome, MANY beers and laughs, Dave, Ian and Myself have been like a trio of adolescents. anchored by the beach in Sagres, jumping off the boats into warm sea water, life at anchor is so much more rewarding than staying in marinas, the heightened sense of freedom leads to a healthier soul, even if sleeping patterns are upset through mild paranoia of The Lady Fisher slipping her anchor and smashing us to certain death on the rocks that loom menacingly. Also because of the lack of light pollution, the stars are magnificant, reminding me of how I fell for sleeping under the night sky all those years ago. If only I could understand Sir Patrick Moore.
Whilst at anchor in Sagres, during the night sky performing for the boys, another ship came an anchored close by.
The following day Ian, Dave and I were having a healthy day,trying desperately to reverse the aging process of 3 middle aged men. NO BOOZING, lots of swimming, diving, salads and copious amounts of water (35 degrees hot).
There was no sign of movement onboard our new neighbour flying a German flag.
We wanted healthy,
We really did
At around 4 pm the Deutshlander emerged, a brute of a man rowing a tiny dinghy waving a fourpack of booze 'Hello! I am Johannas. You must take a beer with me!' He cried as he rowed his oversized frame towards us.
How could we refuse, Now we were four, an awesome fortnight with Johannas was to follow-
He liked us.
What a Dude, He had just sailed from Germany solo handed, on the first stage of his two year round the world voyage, to take on the two Capes, Good Hope and Good Horn, many sailors circumnavigate, avoiding the Capes, prefering the gentler routes , taking the canals of Panama and Suez, this is why they were built, to make circumnavigation easier.
That evening we decided to dine ashore, we showered, shaved and donned our finest clobber to woo and wow the local beach bar Hunnies!
A swell was building in the bay as we prepared the dinghies for departure, getting to the beach was going to be tricky as the waves dumped upon the shore.
Dave, Ian, Myself in a larger dinghy with motor, Johannas in his tiny dinghy rowing- rowing almost as fast as we motored!!!!
We reached the shore just before Johannas, judging the swell correctly and beaching ourselves without too many problems.
As we turned to see how Johannas was fairing, a wave picked him up and upturned the tiny dinghy, all we saw was this huge German in His tiny dinghy being launched onto the shore backwards. In his black jeans and black t-shirt , Dumped and turned and dumped again, All because the lady loves milk tray was all I could think of as I rescued his phone, camera and cigars from the sand.
He took it well, undressing, wringing out his clothes, redressing and on to the restaurant. CLASSIC.!
On returning to the anchored yachts we lost Ian to the waves. Negotiating surf in dingies and anchoring in general is alot more fun than marina life.
One more night at anchor and then onto Lagos,
And that will be my next publication
THE NAUTICAL ADVENTURES OF TEXAS PETE IN LAGOS
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