38°41.9'N 009°24.9 W Wednesday 23rd SeptemberCascais & LisbonLeft Nazare on Sunday with another British boat Kodiac, to try and visit some an offshore island called Berlenga - just a huge lump of rosy granite looming out of the ocean. We got there first and anchored, but it was very rolly with big swell and we could hear our anchor grumbling and rumbling on rocks 9 metres down on the sea bed. We really didn't want to leave the boat to go for an explor...

Nazare RevisitedWe did Nazare an injustice, perhaps we were tired! The port is a distance away from the town which is a local tourist spot, partly because of the great beaches, and partly because of the little local sites. It's split into 2 sections, the main town spreading inland from the beach and a clifftop village, Sitio, accessed by road (steep, ok by car) or by funicular.The town has streets of cobbles, mostly limestone with patterns of a black rock - man...

39°35.0'N 009°04.5 W Friday 18th September Nazare, PortugalA 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 ...

Leixoes Sunday, 13th September - Red Bull DayFog finally lifted and we set off for Leixoes on Saturday. Sunny again, no wind though so motored the 12 miles down. Leixoes is an enormous container port, much bigger than expected with lots of big tanker traffic. The marina is tucked in a corner, is fine but smells a bit of oil. The facilities a bit basic, the people very nice and contrary to expectation, it is very cheap and has good wifi - Margaret, we can stream ...

Porto (Oporto), 9th September 1 of 2 uploads today see Povoa prevGot up early (for us!) and took the Metro as planned. Like Spain, the transport system is superb - clean, frequent, well used, easy to use and very reasonable. Why can't we do it too? 45 minutes and into the centre of Porto. What a place! We walked for 9 hours, up and down, up and down, winding in and out, along the riverfront, to most of the monuments - churches, towers, markets, the station, m...