Bali Hai - Return to the UK

The original plan had been to cross the Bay of Biscay and stop at Falmouth.  However the weather forecast was now showing potential strong winds in the Channel and particularly around Falmouth at the weekend, so the decision was made to do the whole journey back to Swanwick in one go, which could take up to 5 days.  Also, after six weeks on the boat, most people were quite keen to get home. It would be a tiring journey with four hour overlapping watches, in which there are two people on watch at all times.  The primary person is on watch for two hours, supported by someone else who would then take over as primary watch after the two hour period.  To complicate matters but to ensure that people are on watch at different times each day, there are two one hour "short watches" at four and five o'clock in the afternoon.  This is how it went: 10th July 09:30 Filled up with fuel; diesel, bread and croissants 09:50 Departed Combarro 09:55  Navigation system in cockpit stopped

We had the next day to explore Porto but unfortunately the day did not start well as I looked in the bilges and found that they were full of water.  On investigation, it turned out to be the old Moody problem of the rear lazarettes not sealing properly and, with such a large quantity of water over the deck during the last few days, much of it had found its way into the boat.  It had not been an issue in the calm, flat seas of the Mediterranean but back in the Atlantic and UK it is going to be a problem again.  I ended up removing about 40 litres of water from various compartments in the bilges and then tightened up the lazarette locks, so hopefully we can get back to the UK without any further leaks. Sadly, there had been a bit of an incident on the boat a couple of days earlier when Greg and Richard went shopping and decided to buy just three beers.   They came back to the boat, put one of the beers aside for me and then went straight up on deck with their drinks and a packet of cri

The next three days to Porto were to be characterized by unpleasant motoring into the wind and swell, with overnight stops at some friendly marinas and some really excellent seafood meals. We had decided to leave Cascais the next morning.  Aside from the weather we were still concerned about the orcas.  There was a group in front of us that had already attacked several yachts and another similar group behind.  If we went too fast we would catch up the first group but, if we stopped somewhere too long, the second group might get too close for comfort.  Fortunately, there is a great community on social media looking out for yachts; publicising the location of orca sightings and interactions.  The first group is tagged and so there is a better idea where it is but for some reason the Portuguese authorities (unlike the Spanish) will not allow the location of the tagged group to be made public.  So there is an individual calling himself after a well known pirate who secretly communicates

With the wind howling for the next couple of days the plan was to stay in Cascais the first day, clean the boat and explore the town and then visit Lisbon on the second day.   A very easy proposition, as there is a regular train service from Cascais to Lisbon. The streets of Cascais Cascais is a very beautiful small town and it is no surprise that is has some of the most expensive real estate in Portugal as it is where many wealthy Lisboetas have property.   The town has narrow streets that are paved in the Portuguese style with black and white cobbles laid out in a marine themed pattern and many of its buildings are adorned with decorative Portuguese tiles.   The streets are lined with restaurants and shops and although there are plenty of tourists, it has a much more up-market, old-fashioned feel than the tourist towns of the Algarve.   Ian Fleming lived in the adjoining town of Estoril in the 1960s and its casino was the inspiration for Casino Royal. Greg, Emma and I spent the r

I woke up early the next mooring to a bit of a shock at finding a strange creature in our cabin but it turned out only to be dangerous if spoken to in the wrong tone of voice. A strange creature in our cabin  We left Lagos at 4:30 am and, sadly, because it was dark, we are unable to see the spectacular coastline close between Lagos and Sagres.  The weather was quite cold and cloudy and, as we approached Cabo St Vincent, the most westerly point of Portugal, the wind became stronger and stronger and the waves rougher.   This is a notoriously difficult area when the winds are strong and it was pretty unpleasant rounding the point even though w e stayed two miles off, as it would have been much worse if we had been closer in. Rounding Cabo St Vincent Fortunately, after the point the weather and sea were not too bad and we made good time.   We also heard that the orcas were now North of Sines and so we did not have to worry about staying too shallow.   It was still a tiring day and we did n