A few days after trying out Clavadel, the first crew members arrived. Mikolaj Golachowski and Beata Kolakowska are a Polish couple who contacted me early on with an interest to participate. While Beata is a psychologist who had very little experience with boats, Mikolaj is a biologist who has worked the past 7 years in Antarctica. The day after they arrived, we started our trip North. We started with a short stretch from Portimão to Sagres to allow us to get used to the sailing routine. The wind was very weak, but as we have seen earlier, Clavadel is sailing like a dream, and we were able to do around 4 knots until we reached Mareta bay. Unfortunately, due to the southwest waves, this bay was very uncomfortable, and we moved back to Sagres, were conditions were much better.
The next day started early and we had a miserable weather. In the beginning of the crossing, there was still some wind, but it soon dropped and we had to go on engine. The visibility was crap, meaning that cape St. Vincent looked like this:
Photo Credit: Mikolaj Golachowski
The weather did get better with time, but the wind was hard to come by. We also saw the first common dolphins of the season that followed us for almost one hour. This definitely lightened us up and made us forget about the somewhat boring crossing we were having.
Photo Credit: Mikolaj Golachowski
After arriving in Sines we refueled, went for showers and registered with the local police, following the old saying that everyone has to report to someone, even the skipper of Clavadel!
Photo Credit: Mikolaj Golachowski
The stretch up toLisbon was no better. There was some wind, and we had sails up, but the engine had to be on the whole time. Luckily, this is a shorter stretch and had to bear with it for a shorter time.
Crossing the bay of Setúbal
Crossing Cape Espichel
Arriving at Lisbon. Photo Credit: Mikolaj GolachowskiThe story up to Peniche was the same, with the difference that we got some heavy showers on the way. At this point, Mikolaj just kept reminding me of a sentence I wrote to him in an earlier e-mail: "Portugal is a very hot and sunny country."!!!
Crossing cape Roca with menacing clouds above
Next day we set sail out of Peniche to find the waves bigger and the wind stronger than forecasted. With this, I feared the weather might be getting worse, and that we would effectively be unable to enter the next Port (Figueira). In fact, in the present conditions (waves and wind from the West), Figueira is one of the first ports in the country to close. As such, I decided to head back and continue the following day. In fact, in these conditions, we would be unable to sample anyway, so it made little difference. The next day though, we had a perfect sailing day. Although we had to start on engine, soon the wind picked up and we were soon sailing amidst the waves at a comfortable speed of 7 knots. Once we reached Figueira, we realized that my fears of the previous days were warranted. Even in calmer conditions, the entrance had waves over 2 meters breaking along the way.Fortunately, Clavadel is a fine seaworthy boat, and together with the fine helmsman skills of your beloved skipper, the entrance wasn't that dramatic!!
We only need to get to Porto to finish our journey North and start sampling. Margarida Ventura, who also came last year, will soon join us for a few days but it is still unclear exactly where. As I write this, the entrance to the Figueira port is effectively closed, and we cannot leave, even if we wanted to. The forecast is for the weather to improve tomorrow, but it is unclear exactly when the entrance will open. I went and check how it was for myself, and believe me, it was vicious! This weather pattern is very unusual in Portugal for this time of the year, but it is still better to sail up than the famous Nortada, so we need to take this chance to go up. As soon as we do, I will update.
