21 days later I have finally made Lisbon, or to be more precise Cascais. Hopefully my insurance papers will show up. I’ve been playing mail box bingo with them since leaving Kilrush. Tony and I are anchored off the beach. The marina was 27.50 a night and one of the main reasons for staying there was the ease with which we can provision the boat. Today was the first day we really noticed the heat. We even went swimming off the boat and now I am a bit sun burnt.
Severall days earlier . . .Actually there is a bit of a story to tell about the passage cut short to Lisbon. On our departure from Porto the engine over heated. It looked as if there was a problem with the water intake but on restarting the engine there seemed to be the normal amount of water being expelled from the exhaust. I decided to press on though cut short our passage to the next port about 50 miles south of Porto. We got in all right. It was a little surreal as the local football team had won the championships and all manner of mayhem was breaking loose in the town.
The next morning we ran the engine to see if it would over heat but everything seemed fine. We concluded something must have been blocking the intake on the engine though it is hard to see how or what was causing the obstruction. So far, fingers crossed, we’ve been fine. One thing about the Med, is you want to have your engine as a back up as the winds are not that reliable. So it has been a slow start to our voyage south. That did not stop Tony from looking for fishing tackle. Nor me from having a beer while I sat at the counter and photographed the general scene. Oil is changed in the engine and we are off for Lisbon tomorrow morning. Can't wait to get out of Figueira da Foz.