Wednesday to Friday 26 to 28 August
David and I visited Cockburn’s port cellars – there’s an awful lot of port here!
They started back in 1815 – a bit of a late starter to the Port trade that began at the end of the 17th century, mostly due to British people falling for the very warming, yummy fortified wine, which ages and travels well.
And we saw Porto in the sunshine for a change.
On Wednesday David and I bought supplies for our 4-5 day, 600nm crossing to Madeira and now there’s food in pretty much every cupboard!
Alex and Will have now joined us and as the weather is still squally we have decided to postpone our Madeira trip start to Friday.
I took the Ocean Crew into town to acclimatise them!
David gave them a foredeck briefing
The following day we left at dawn and were very glad we had delayed as leaving Porto was quite dramatic.
Yesterday we saw the waves crashing over the breakwater, they weren’t doing that today, but as we went out the waves were pretty high and steep as the tidal stream from the Douro met the Atlantic breakers.
.David put our engine revs up as we plunged up and down to get out into the sea which was also choppy but much better.
The amazing thing was that right in the middle of the quite narrow exit there was a man in a tiny boat fishing with a rod – he was bouncing around like a cork!
We enjoyed the drama, but unfortunately the confused seas remained very lumpy and our crew were somewhat worse for wear.
Luckily David and I have our sea legs as we have been on the boat for over a month, but going from nothing into this wild sea was too much for anyone.
After we crossed the continental shelf, the sea got a lot better. And seeing dolphins 3 times in the first morning was very special.
We have our orca deterrent out – we didn’t know when we set off, but there was an attack just outside Porto on Thursday (!) Once into deep water – over 1000m – the likelihood of seeing them is much rarer which is why we went straight out when we left.
We lost the wind and motored for a while but mostly we had 8-10 knots which was enough for 6-7 knot boat speed.
Despite an adequate amount of vomiting, we are all happy to be setting off on this Atlantic adventure. 617 nautical miles to go!
TBC