Still enjoying Portugal Atlantic Coast

Cascais to Sesimbra

We headed off early for a short trip to Sesimbra expecting a windless morning but luckily we had wind and sailed the 35 miles.  We were also treated to dolphins visiting us twice. The water was amazingly clear at over 200m and the dolphins loved our bow wave. The scenery on route was spectacular with huge cliffs and amazing rock formations – quite similar to the Jurassic coast in Dorset.

We really loved Sesimbra the marina was small, friendly, cheap and clean. We arrived on a Sunday evening (26^th June) and there were lots of locals packing up there boats after a hot weekend but we were then left with peace and quiet.  We were about 30 minutes walk into the town but after a first walk in we decided to get the bikes out to make life easier.  There was a lovely long sandy beach and some of the old town lined the seafront with small shops and restaurants.  At the other end of the promenade there were a couple of large hotels but they were not too intrusive (like finger of fudge!) mainly for Portuguese tourist although we did see 4 English people!

We also had a bit of an adventure catching the bus into Lisbon from Sesimbra, takes about an hour and had been advised by marinas further North that Lisbon marinas were likely to be full with bookings and we knew they would have cost about twice as much. We had a busy day sight seeing in Lisbon trying to cover as much ground as possible on the underground and the trams.  Lisbon is the capital of Portugal (in case you did not know) and was bigger than we had anticipated, to make the most of it you could do with more than a day.  The main town was full of spectacular buildings and squares and old cobbled streets it was difficult to know where to go first! Plus it is on the bank of the Tejo River which is huge.

Tejo River

We also took at tram out to Belem a district in the west of the city with it interesting maritime history oh and we had McDonalds! We don’t even do that at home but starving and nowhere else to eat so had to be done! We firstly visited the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos which was built in 1500’s and was built to demonstrate Portuguese’s wealth after Vasco Da Gama reached India in 1499.  This was a hugely impressive building, where Vasco Da Gama is buried in the main chapel and then there are various other museums that are housed in the buildings.

We also visited the Monumento Dos Desombrimentos which was built 500 years after the death of Henry the Navigator and depicts many of Portuguese explorers.

Next stop was Torre De Belem again built in 1500’s to defend entrance of river, was once in middle of river but earthquake in 1700 moved the river bed! Quite an impressive building and how did it remain standing in the earthquake!

The only time I sat down all day!

Mark looking like a tourist

Another windswept day!

The final stop for the day was the Maritime Museum, bit of a shame we did not manage early in the day as we were both shattered and did a bit of a whistle stop tour but was huge and interesting that Portuguese had been such big explorers  - India (first trade route) Madeira, Azores, Madagasger, the list went on.

Legs were aching by the end of the day but our excitement wasn’t over for the day, when we finally managed to get back to Sesimbra one of the restaurants had the catch of the day on table outside – 10ft Swordfish, never seen anything quite like it.

National Park Arabida

From Sesimbra we headed East to a national park which had been recommended to us by a guy we met at Viano de Castello. It is a land and marine national park and has a pack of wolves living in the forested hills, there are a few houses along one end of the shore owned only by the very wealthy and the windy road along the mountainous shore is famous for appearing in the Bond film “On Her Majesties Secret Service” where Diana Rigg gets shot at the end!

Anyway he was right, it is a beautiful place, navigation into the anchorage was not easy as it is protected from the open sea by shifting sandbanks, so the only way in was to use a tidal channel 100ft away from the towering rock cliffs and with depths as low as 3m I had to brush up on my tidal calculations.

Once in and anchored we had a pleasant day relaxing and swimming to the beach (well Mark did, the water was too cold for Amanda). We were the only boat there and overnight we could hear the wolves howling from the towering cliffs above us.

Next day we inflated Daisy dingy and were going to head for the beach, when we were boarded by customs officials who checked our papers and then informed us that we had to move as we were too large to be anchored in the park boundaries. Luckily we only had to move about 200m further out and the water was still shallow due to the protective sandbank. The moving process would have been easier if we hadn’t hooked what looked like a massive rusted metal frame from the sea bed on the end of the anchor !

We had just moved and ensured we were safely attached to the bottom, when we could hear thunder in the distance. There was nothing in the forecast about rain, but rather than head to the beach as planned we decided to wait and see…….10 mins later we were hit by 40knt + winds and even with the protective sandbank the waves quickly built up, next came rain with the intensity of a hail storm. 

We had nowhere to go for better shelter and the visibility was too poor anyway so we had no option but to sit it out and keep our fingers crossed that our anchor held (whilst watching the people on the beach running for cover! ) It did and about an hour later the thunderstorms blew over and the sun came out again, by now the sea was to bumpy to stay where we were so we motored the 7 miles back to Sesimbra and had a night anchored off the beach being serenaded by a Portguese pub singer who warbled on for half the night !!!

Sesimbra to Sines

Nice little day sail of about 30 miles we left late to ensure the wind had swung to the Nth as forecast.

Cracking sail with a good breeze although as always the Atlantic swell built and built and gave us a few sweaty palm moments entering the harbour.

We anchored off for the 1^st night to save cash and then entered the marina 1^st thing in the morning to get our moneys worth !  Lovely little view.

Fort & too small to see statue Vasco Da Gamma

Sines is famous as the birthplace of Vasco da gamma (yes him again!) and we had a couple of days there food shopping, swimming and we even had a run !

Not a huge amount going on here but they did have the best pedalos in the world !