39°35.0'N 009°04.5 W Friday 18th September

Nazare, Portugal

A strange couple of days. Pushing south now down the straight(ish) flat, sand-dune coast of western Portugal. This is an area completely open to the Atlantic, with the few harbours we have been into subject to big swells and potentially breaking seas at their entrances. Had a fast rolling sail down, and first stopped in Ria do Aveiro. A complicated system of waterways stretching inland, a bit like the Morbihan in Brittany without the aspect, the prettiness or interest. This contained a huge container port and a military base. We anchored in the Bay of Jacinto, opposite the Air Force base and little else. Sitting out a day of high winds and 3 metre swell, we took the little ferry and then bus all the way into Aveiro (described in the books as attractive with bridges and waterways a bit like a mini-Venice). And so it was, sort of. We spent as much time getting there and back as we did exploring the little town.

Another lumpy day, another dodgy entrance (not as bad as in the pilot books as a new breakwater was being built) followed, to a very expensive marina (not worth it) in a nondescript town. Its only merit was a superb indoor market, best we have seen so far in Portugal.

Exchanged pictures with a French boat we have been sailing in company with for a few days. He lost a halyard up the mast and had to climb it to retrieve it - we got in on film for him.

Today another fast, rolly sail to Nazare, so far looks a strange place. It is run by an equally strange little man from the Isle of Man of all places. But he helped us in and took us through the formalities and is giving us tips on where to leave boats, here in Portugal, and through his contacts, in Spain.

The Portuguese are sticklers for procedure. Not so much further north, but now we are having to produce "ship's papers", passports and the like to the local GNR or maritime police. Drug running offshore is a big problem we hear.

Tonight bumped into a couple we met on the Islas de Cies way back in Spain. They had gone off walking in the mountains for 10 days and blasted down to get this far in a few days, whilst we were doing the tourist bit in Viana and Porto. Small cruising world!

This stretch is in fact a little bit of a slog - a means to an end. Roll on Lisbon and then the south! May even see Marion & Roger in Lisbon - they're going by cruise ship!