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SailingPegasus.nl - Zeilen met de Pegasus - Blogdetails
Datum: 25-08-2016    Cascais
 Wednesday, 10-08 to Tuesday, 16-09 and Monday, 21-08 to Thursday 24-08-2016
Today we sail from Leixões to Cascais, one of the bigger cities, laying before Lissabon. It is about 167 miles, which means we have to sail through the night. When we leave, the harbour office is still closed and we are in possession of the marina-pass, for which we paid a deposit. Waiting is not an option, so I write a note in English with the request to re-deposit the money, enclose the note with the pass in an envelope and put everything in the letterbox at the office. We leave the marina at 8:30. Because we are out of bread, we bake another bread in our machine. The sea is calm enough, we sail at a comfortable 5 knots, there is enough electricity power and we have all the time in the world. After a few hours, we enjoy our freshly baked bread! Halfway through the afternoon the sky darkens, but fortunately it stays dry. We discover that the autopilot doesn’t work anymore and we are very gutted. It is much more tiring when you have to navigate manually, especially at night! Furthermore it is very inconvenient when you have to stand watch on your own ánd want to get below deck for something. It looks like we have to find a mechanic and in the worst case a new autopilot. We always knew this one was not sturdy(strong) enough for our boat, but up till now the thing worked well. Anyway, there is always a solution for everything, so no worries. After a rather trying night we near (approach)  the bay of Cascais around 15:30, Portuguese time, which we use by now (one hour earlier than in Holland, so an hour more of daylight).

The bay
The Cascais’ Bay is regarded as one of the best sailing destinations in the world, truly a paradise for water sports enthusiasts. There is a magnificent view on the fort, the city and the beaches. Many sailors prefer to anchor rather than berth in the marina. So it is very busy in the bay, for aside from the anchored sailing boats, motor boats, fishing boats and small practice boats, called “little pirates” in Dutch, the jet skis and surfers rush by. By the way, it is not by far a punishment to have to watch these surfers: beautifully tanned and muscular men passing you by over and over again! We can berth our dinghy on a floating pier, near the fishermen to the Westside or at the high quay to the north-west side of the bay, on the right of the beach. On this beach (quay)  you see the lobster cages piled up high, we have put FRITZ and GONNY on top of it for their picture.

The city
Cascais is a charming Portuguese fishing town, which lies at the broad of the river Tagus and the Atlantic Ocean. The “Cidadela de Cascais” is the 15th century fortress, that guarded the western side of the river and the small fishing port of Cascais and was only built to defend Lissabon. The two extreme kinds of people that lived in the city, was the reason for the popular nickname of “the town of the kings and the fishes”.  There also is a direct train connection with Lissabon, which makes this town very attractive for tourists. Cascais has a lot to offer in the architectural field, for instance famous miniature palaces. The old town centre has narrow winding streets that are paved with little black-and-white cobblestones in a wavy pattern. It made us a little seasick the first times we walked on these streets…..
In a small park, with beautiful flowers, we see an old-fashioned merry-go-round. In one of the many streets we find a bookstore, that would leave my eldest son Steven lyrical. High bookcases, filled with antique old and new books, where you can find literally anything you want. When I asked them for books about specific subject, they took me to a cellar that is a proverbial paradise. Effectively thousands of books in high piles on the ground and in crooked bookcases, a true bookworm’s dream. But alas, most of it in the Portuguese language. On the street a lonely mime is making up his face and when we pass him some moments later, he stands motionless and we only see his eyes turning. While Fred is doing the shopping I wait in the shadow on a bench and listen to an especially colourful man, who is singing, while playing the guitar. He talks to the audience in several different languages and plays pretty (well-known) songs. The audience, at first somewhat ‘waiting-for-things-to-come’, later gets enthusiastic and applauds him. When Fred returns, I thank the man for his beautiful music and gives him a little extra. Fred has come back with company in the form of a man, he met on the way back from the supermarket and recognised him as Dutch from the familiar blue bag of the firm Datema in Amsterdam (now Gorinchem). This must be a sailor! We make a date for a drink later in the day.
Our brother-in-law Freek has been in Cascais a few years back and told us we absolutely should visit the ice-cream parlour “Santini”. This one is considered the best ice-cream parlour in Portugal and of course we can’t stand the temptation and we must put the ice cream to the test, mustn’t we? We also learn something about the Festival do Mar. This festival that exists over 50 years has on the one side a religious and on the other side a playful character. The highlight is the traditional procession of “Nossa Senhora dos Navegante” (Our Lady of the Sailors) on Sunday. The statue of the saint is carried from the Igreja Matriz through the village, while at sea several boats sail along with statues in their boats, making their own procession. All around this festival is a range of activities, gastronomies, arts and crafts and music. There is an enormous music pavilion, where a lot of different kinds of music can be heard in the following days. We don’t even have to be on the spot, we can just stay on the boat and hear it well.
In the town there is a large shopping mall, where there is a hairdresser, who works without appointment. I go in and let him cut my, by now, very long hair rather short. After an hour, I leave the shop with a fresh, short-cut head!
On a 30-minute walk from where we berth the dinghy, we see a big logo with a red elephant and a green jigsaw-puzzle-piece (in the NL known as the Jumbo brand, plays and toys), so at first we think it is a toy shop. But it turns out to be a super large Jumbo supermarket, where we can get everything we need. On top of that it is a relief to stay inside a cool space for a while, since the temperature outside has passed 30 degrees by far!

Eating out and drinking
Of course we went looking for a cosy Irish pub, where they always play live music and we enjoy ourselves immensely. And this time we find a small, but very cosy pub, called “Luains” (r.de Palmeira 4, 2750 Cascais), where we sit in a corner, with a view of the small stage. We meet a very friendly couple, Teresa and Dermot from Dublin and we spend the evening together, listening to each other’s life-stories, the music and drinking a pint or two…Fred can order his favourite coffee here, Irish coffee. Most costumers are Irish and English and the owner is certainly not Portuguese! At some moment, a woman, by the name of Yvonne joins in; she can barely stand up straight, because she had a little too much to drink. She is from South-Africa and lives in Cascais for about 20 years. We enjoy ourselves very much and stay so late, that the owner is already cleaning up when we, somewhat tipsy, leave the pub. Some days later we go back there and meet the Irish couple again. Always nice to meet new people and thus I have a few more Facebook-friends! As for the food in Portugal, it's a little bit different than in Spain. We just were used to the habit of getting small tapas with our drinks, here you might perchance get a little bowl of mixed nuts. When you go out for dinner, before you know it, they put a dish with olives, bread and several cheeses on your table, for which you have to pay too! Personally, I find this method rather pushy, but fortunately not every restaurant uses these manners. As a tourist, you always let yourself taken by surprise the first few times, but gradually we find out how it works. You take a seat, order something to drink and when the waiter puts all sorts of things on your table without asking, you tell him what you do and do not want and send the rest back. We adapt quite nicely by now!

The weather
The Portuguese coast is, thanks to its mild climate, the wonderful sunshine and perfect wind a real sailor’s paradise. The Atlantic is sometimes quiet, so we can enjoy a relaxing passage. When you near the coast, the transition between the ocean waves and the shoals along the coast cause a turbulent sea, on which you have to sail with much more effort. From far away you can see the high waves, splashing against the rocks, wonderful for a nice picture! Up till now, we had to deal with not just a substantial increase of the wind when we sail up the river, but also at the end of the day. One day it is even 30 knots (wind force 8), which is quite scary when you are berthed at anchor. This is why we do not go ashore, we want to be sure that the anchor is well fixed. After a few days anchoring, we thought we were firmly attached with our 2-anchor-construction, but we couldn’t be further away from the truth. We slowly drift towards the boat behind us, time for some action. It is after 22:00 and Fred throws out some more chain, but that is not sufficient enough. Than we try to anchor all over again, which is not really easy in the dark, not to mention the strong wind. We sail a little bit up to the coast/the beach, somewhat further away from the other boats and drop anchors again. I am still not reassured and stay awake for a while, sitting in the cockpit in the dark, waiting until I am sure. All the alarms are switched on again and we can go to sleep with confidence.

Boat chores
At a water sports shop, we order a new cap for the outboard motor of the dinghy, that will come in a few days later. Regrettably we cannot find anyone to help us fix the autopilot. After an e-mail to Raymarine in Holland, we get a telephone number of a Dutch dealer in Portugal. To be continued.

Encounters with other sailors
Chiel, the Dutchman Fred met in the town comes over for a drink. He also lays, with his gigantic catamaran “Skik”, in the bay. Chiel invites us in return for coffee and some goodies he bought in town. We admire the space he has on board, because it really is a gi-gan-tic boat, and look around. He has been underway for some years now, together with his girlfriend Loeki, but she has ‘abandoned ship’ and he sails the boat back to Holland on his own. Fred helps him with hoisting, so that he can check the rigging and lubricate the connections on the mast. We wish him a safe voyage.
We talk for a short while with the Dutchman of the “Luna”, who, after a half year’s journey, is on his way back to the Netherlands. We see the “Freya” making an attempt to anchor, but the wind is too strong for the anchor to really take a good grip, so they go into the marina for one night and sail on the next day. Furthermore there are some more Dutch boats, but also English, French, Norwegian and even a boat from New-Zealand.

Various things
We buy a new litterbox for Kit, one that is low and fits under the saloon sofa, so that he won’t have to get from under the sofa when we are underway. One day we see enormous jellyfish encircling the boat, so we decide to postpone our idea of swimming for a while….. Our little yellow anchor buoy is very appreciated by the seagulls, one by one they pick at it. But suddenly it has disappeared under water, punctured by the gulls, sailed over by another boat, stuck under our own boat? We have no idea. Chiel the Dutchman things these buoys are an absurdity, because you can’t stop looking to see where it has gone to, are we before or behind anchor, establishing you are constantly turning because of the wind…Up till now, we didn’t agree with him, but now…. But when we leave, he suddenly ‘pops up’.
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