We made good progress from Gibraltar and managed to get ourselves about 300 miles closer to the UK. Unfortunately the weather for the next 3 days is forecast to be strong Northerlies – and it is no fun trying to motor/beat straight into it for several days. It makes everyone very wet, sleep is nearly impossible and cooking & eating become survival exercises of their own making. Whilst the forecast is only upto 25-30kts, when you motor into it the apparent wind will be around 35 kts and that starts giving you F8 winds over the decks, a very lumpy sea and waves crashing over the decks. All this is a way of trying to justify the fact that we are now anchored off Cascais, a lovely town just outside Lisbon.
We could have managed another 24 hours before the wind came in, but it is another 300 miles or so until we can get to the next suitable shelter on the Portuguese coast (Porto). We plan to depart Fri morning when the winds start abating, and then at the weekend the wind is going to come from the South. It is looking as though there maybe a storm on Sunday (forecast currently 45kts winds), in which case we will need to hide for a day before tackling the Bay of Biscay. All being well we will have strong Southerly winds all the way across Biscay giving us a quick passage over to the Brest area of France. If conditions are favourable we will keep going.
In the meantime we are doing lots of little jobs and finding a few others to do. We found a leak on the hot water system that was basically causing our fresh water tank to discharge into the bilges. We have now isolated the hot water and restored running cold water to the boat. From now on we just heat any required hot water on the stove (just like Dogmatix). We are now busy trying to get the outboard motor to work with increasing levels of success. I have found why the solar panels seemed to not be charging the batteries (loose connection in the cockpit) and we have replaced the sheets to the headsail with some smaller lines that might actually fit into the winches (Lewmar 65 winches, so gives you an idea of how fat the current sheets were). The electric winches are getting plenty of testing as we send people up the mast to undertake various jobs.
In the interim, we are enjoying the scenery and watching the other boats at play, including this multi million pound example called Green Eyes. She is more than twice the size of Valent. For those that like these things she is a German Frers design and built by Wally. Whilst we were having lunch it appeared that her owner flew in by helicopter, spent a couple of hours on board and then flew off again.
Anyway, the wind has now picked up, the halyards are starting to complain and we have just changed the snubbing line on the anchor to a bridle to give us a bit more security.
We have also found that we can be tracked on VesselFinder.com but for some reason we do not appear on Marine Traffic.
Will
Great to get these updates, even better to know all is ok, sounds like this is proving a really useful shakedown. Found you on the tracker. Actually I have stopped in Cascais myself, I think for about 40 mins while fuelling, often wondered what it was like. Anyway, you all take care and my the winds soon be at your back, God speed. Paul
You are absolutely correct Paul. An excellent shakedown and getting to know Valent. She is amazingly well equipped but lots of things have not been used for a long time. As you well know if you don’t use things on boats they tend to forget how to work properly. As for Cascais we too only stepped ashore to refuel. Considering a run ashore before we depart if only to get rid of the rubbish and buy some more fruit.
How do you land a helicopter on a yacht!?!
In this case not. The helicopter landing pad was by the marina office which is the building you can see behind the yacht. The next yacht that came in makes Green Eyes look small. Must have been 12 crew operating.