We loved Cascais, in fact, we stayed longer than we planned. We used it as our base to take other trips. For example, we took a bus north to Sintra to tour the old castles and palaces. We spent a day in the city of Lisbon touring the famous monuments and wonderful Maritime Museum. By train, we visited Porto for an overnight to enjoy the city and the interesting port wine cellars. While in Porto, we visited two port factories where we learned a lot about port wine; it was fun to do a tasting of the various varieties and years; we, of course, had to buy a bottle or two. After ten days in Cascais, we headed under sail (about 55 nm) south to Sines, Portugal, for an anchorage and two days of touring.
As an aside, we must have been loony to plan our first year here in Europe to have expected to make it to Turkey. Well, that went by the wayside and now decided to winter in Barcelona. We are just enjoying each harbor/country too much to rush through them to make Turkey; we will get there next year (maybe!).
From Sines, we sailed to an anchorage off of Cabo San Vicente; the southern tip of Portugal, arriving in Sangres, about 60 nm. We spent the night there on anchor and then left in the morning for Portimao, Portugal. While there, we took a morning boat trip up the river to the popular Silves where we toured the Moorish Castle and the beautiful cathedral. There is substantial archeological digging and uncovering happening in the Moorish castle. From Portimao, Portugal, we sailed to Olhao, Portugal, for an overnight anchorage outside the channel. With an early (5 am after clearing a net from our anchor) departure, we sailed almost 90 nm to the lovely Santa Maria Yacht Club near Cadiz, Spain. As we approached Cadiz we encountered more and more fishing boats dragging nets. There are many shrimp here and seafood in general seems abundant.
We are now 6 hours ahead of NJ time and we have changed from Portuguese money and language to Spanish money and language. We have finally found summer; it is quite hot here. While in Santa Maria, we have planned a trip to Juarez where they make sherry, a trip to Seville for a night or two and to also take in a bullfight, our first. Within 4-5 days, we will leave this yacht club and head for Gibraltar, where we plan to take the high-speed ferry to Tangier, Morocco, in northern Africa. We plan to spend several days there.
We have a nice convoy of US boats that we are traveling with now; Good Company (ex RYC member Marvin and Nancy Day); Equus (Pat and Steve who we met in the US Virgins); Amulet (Nancy and Chris who we met in Horta); Teka III (who we met in Maine last summer). Aside from Equus who is heading for a winter slip in Gaeta, Italy, all of the other boats are going to winter as well in Barcelona.
Marie & Terry - S/V Zelda