We sailed to Cascais near Lisbon to meet up with our friend Cal and her son Alex who flew out from Dundee on the 9th of August to stay with us for a week. When we arrived we were surprised to find that the Americas cup yacht race was at Cascais all week. The revolutionary new design catamarans are about the fastest racing class boats and they were racing in the harbour nearly every day we were there. On one occasion the start line was very close to where we wer...

Lagos We arrived in Lagos in the Algarve on Tuesday 25th of September following an overnight sail. We anchored in the bay. The rocky coastline was spectacular and we took the dingy and followed the tourist boats for a tour of the caves and inlets. The dingy caused a few problems for me and Alex. I tried to get out against some steps which were slippery and ended up with one leg ashore and one in the dingy about to fall down the gap and go for a swim, al...

Lisbon We (Paul and Alex) left for a few days and caught the train to Lisbon with Chris, a friend who lived on his boat in Povoa. We went to stay with Alex's friend Andre who lives in Lisbon. After going to the wrong station we were eventually picked up by Andre who drove us back to his flat. He drove really fast, braking at the last moment, cutting other people up and hooting his horn. A white knuckle ride especially as there were no rear seatbelts for ...

We came into the marina at Povoa de Varzim at 9pm on Wednesday in the mist and dark, which was a bit worrying since there are lots of rocks. As seem to be the case in both Spain and Portugal, a man from the marina told us where to moor and helped take the ropes. The marina is even better value than Viana at 18 euros for us, with excellent facilities including a free drink in the local club, plus a very helpful lady who speaks English and provided us with a ...

We left Camarinas on Friday and anchored a few miles across the bay at Muxia where there was a Fiesta on for 4 days. We went ashore that evening. There was music and a parade which all the locals followed to the main square where details of the forthcoming events were announced, however our Spanish wasn't good enough to understand much. There were lots of stalls mainly run by South Americans and North Africans, Helen bought a handbag. There was lots of food...