Getting ready to depart Cascais

The plan is to depart our lovely anchorage at Cascais around midnight tonight (Thu 15 Oct). Whilst we will still have around 12 hours of brisk Northerlies remaining, the wind strength is consistently forecast to reduce to a very pleasant Force 2/3 and the wind is due to back round to the West, eventually becoming Southerly over the weekend. More critically, the weather forecasting is now showing either a horrendous or possibly just horrible storm coming through Biscay, up the Channel and on to the UK on Tue/Wed. By leaving a bit earlier than planned we give ourselves an extra 12 hours to make sure that we are across Biscay and into a safe place to hide when the storm arrives. If we are slow then we will stop in Cameret (near Brest). If we make good time then we will get round Ouessant (Ushant) and possibly stop in Roscoff. All will become clearer over the next couple of days as the forecast becomes more accurate and we know what speed we have made to Finisterre.

In the meantime we have had a relaxing and productive couple of days. Sam managed to strip down the outboard engine, clean the parts and after a few persuasive tugs on the starter cord the engine came to life. We were able to take advantage of our new found freedom and restock on fresh food at the supermarket – so we get a break from UHT milk, and have some fresh bread and fruit on board. I spent yesterday preparing meals for the next week as it might be a bit bouncy across the Biscay. It is much easier to only need to reheat the meal and cook some rice/pasta rather than chop up the onions and veg on a pitching and rolling boat. I prepared 2 x Chilli, 2 x Cassoulet, 1 x Bolognese and an interpretation of Lamb Navarin. That means that we are prepped until we can smell the English Channel.

Finally more boat envy. We thought that Green Eyes at twice our size was impressive, but then Wisp arrived. Wisp at 156ft is around 3 times the length of Valent and too big to enter the marina where they are used to finding berths of 100ft+ boats. Wisp is a modern classic built in 2014 by Royal Huisman, looks lovely and probably costs more to run in a year than the average cost of a house in England.