Portugal

Well Portugal……. It’s different from Spain, but what exactly? That is a bit difficult to say. Less dogs, more differences in appearance in people (blue eyes, people with obvious roots in one of the overseas territories of Portugal), the many mosaic tiles on the houses give streets a beautiful appearance. Also, less high-rise buildings. But then suddenly between such houses a neglected house and/or a building that is collapsing. In Porto and in Lisbon there’s much graffiti, many bums and beggars, garbage on the streets, and also a lot of tourists, so its busy. And many miserable Portuguese cobblestones like the ones on the Dam in Amsterdam. But also small steep streets, beautiful churches, friendly Portuguese people and many beaches.

At the 1st port we call at in Portugal (Viana de Castelo), the harbor master (smooth spoken, tattooed and pretty good at English) immediately makes it clear to us that the Portuguese have a different rhythm of life than the Spaniards. No late night dinners and no afternoon siesta. We also had to set the clock back an hour, so it gets dark earlier, also because we have reached August by now.

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We spend a day in Porto from a harbor next to Porto (Leixões) with the bus that stops approximately in front of the harbor. We also visit Lisbon. There we visit Castelo de São Jorge and stroll through the streets of the Alfama district. We’ve both been to Lisbon before, but it’s special to sail on our own boat on the Tejo past the Torre de Belém and the Padrão dos Descobrimentos (monument to the Portuguese explorers with the statue of Henry the Navigator standing in front). The Ponte de 25 Abril is the eye-catcher of Lisbon, a red suspension bridge with a railway line below and the road above, which connects the city to the south bank of the Tejo. In Portugal, April 25 is the day of the Carnation Revolution (1974). We sail pass the bridge to reach the harbor.

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After Lisbon we move on to Oeiras, a quiet harbor near Lisbon, where we land after having coped with the noise of the bridge over the Tejo. Unfortunately, there is a disco right next to the marina……. And also a saltwater pool, so until about 7 pm you will hear children’s pool sounds and the whistle of the lifeguard.

In Portugal it is less feasible to anchor, so we call at more ports which are also fewer, especially south of Lisbon. We decide to sail from Oeiras to the Algarve in one go. That is about 120 nautical miles so we sail through the night.

After this night with little wind and thus with the engine helping out, we round the corner at the Enseada de Belixe on Sunday morning, August 29. Here we see a number of boats that we have “sailed” along through the night and decide to drop anchor as well. You have to imagine the “sailing along” as follows: on Vesselfinder you see the boats around you, you know them by name and know their nationality, but you never see them or only dots on the horizon or a light on the horizon at night. If they speed up, it will take hours before they actually overtake and pass you. If boats come closer, we see them on our AIS system and if they get really (too) close, an alarm goes off to indicate that we are on a collision course.

The Algarve is immediately noticeably warmer and less humid than the Atlantic west coast. The water is also a lot warmer (only 1 expert 😉). We visit Lagos, but are shocked by the harbor fees (53 euros per night) and the many tourists and the apparently associated market stalls with scarves, cork bags, etc. and the stalls with all kinds of recommendations for boat trips. We quickly move on to an anchorage nearby (Alvor), where we anchor in the mouth of the river in front of the village. After almost 3 months on the Pantera, in a few days we are flying from Faro to Barcelona for a week to meet with friends and enjoy the company and the luxury of a beautiful house with a pool and a view of the Mediterranean Sea that is within walking distance!