We decided to sail the 12 miles into the centre of Lisbon today. Before setting off did an engine check and discovered the diesel in the prefilter was a brown colour. I removed both the prefilter and the final filter and replaced with new, looked in the fuel tank and went through the slow process of hand priming the pumps. This takes about 30 minutes with a small finger pump on the side of the engine which you can reach but not see. Went to start the engine but it would not start! Checked all the filters full and so had to bleed the fuel injectors. This is not something I have done before so nervous about doing it. It worked fine and the engine started first time after we had finished the bleeding. I am now keeping a close eye on the fuel which I have been putting fuel set into as a way of stopping the dreaded diesel bug.
After all this we set off and had a cracking sail into Lisbon with the sun out and the wind gusting to 24 knots.
I met up with Jamie Bridel an old colleague from Lisbon and he took us to an excellent restaurant in the middle of the city hidden behind some disused theatres.
The weather is here is overcast and temperatures in the low twenties., rather like a typical British summer. However this is very untypical for Lisbon and all the locals are complaining.
Nicola leaves tomorrow to return to Kenya leaving Jim and me to sail south to the Algarve. We hope to arrive in Lagos on Tuesday.