38°26.4'N 009°06.1 W Friday 25th September

Boat Frisked!

Had company of 3 Navy Frigates and one auxiliary ship en route from Cascais to a stopover in Sesimbra. A very strange stop. We did not go ashore as late and windy on arrival but understand it is a nice place with huge castelo up on a high ridge. From where we were the town did not look promising though and the wind whistled down the cliff onto us.

At about 10.30pm we suddenly heard some very loud burbling noises - bubbling and phewing and blowing - from inside the boat sounded weird and deafening. At first thought something hitting the hull or a leak or something horrendous was happening. Rushed up on deck and saw torchlight in the water under our boat - there were two divers down there in the dark examining our hull! We got a torch out to shine on them so they knew we had seen them. We reckoned it was a drugs search. We saw 2 ships with strange lights showing about a mile offshore - whether the frigates or maritime police vessels we couldn't tell. The divers must have come from those ships.

We woke up to the smell of rotten cabbages all around. So we left!

It can't be all sunshine and roses.