After all that rain in Lisbon, we decided enough was enough and it was time to get some sunshine. An evening on the internet later, we were booked on a Saturday morning train for five days in the Algarve. Brilliant.

Lisbon gave us a fine rainy send off, but the weather cleared as we headed further south before the blue skies broke through as we neared the coast. Nathan had come down with man flu the day before so Day #1 in Albufeira was spent watching TV with this view outside....

Day #2 - we grabbed the airport shuttle and headed to the beach and the old town area.

The beach has either an outdoor escalator or glass lift to get down to the sand and old town; who needs stairs with modern technology????

Day #3 and #4 was more exploring around the old town and at the resort's private beach. Nathan was saying he hasn't seen skies that blue since Australia.

 

That was pretty much it really... just an easy five day break away from the boat, exploring a coast we might not get to (if we head direct to the Canaries, that is). On that note, we've decided to store the boat in Lisbon and head back to London for the summer. It's a two-fold reason really - the new mast put a dent in the budget that we might as well top up now and secondly, we're out of season, it's cold and windy, and we can't head further south for at least a few more months. We've just spent a few months sitting in one place and neither of us fee like doing that again, so with the boat in a secure marina and the airport only 5 mins away, it makes sense to get some work in while we can't sail, so we can sail longer when the season comes about again.

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So Lisbon. What a picturesque city. We went for a wander earlier this week and visited the oceanarium for a good few hours of poking around.

It turns out there are hop-on / hop-off bus services here, so we picked up tickets for a couple of the lines and started exploring.

Day 2 of the tour bus rolled around, and we headed back into the Baixa district to hop on.

This is the Santa Justa Lift, built in the early 1900s.

After meandering around the central streets for a bit, the bus headed west along the Tagus. We had a few spots of rain at this point, but figured it'd just be a shower blowing through.

Boy, were we wrong. 8 miles out of town, it started to really come down.

And then it poured. This, believe it or not, is the Monument of Discoveries. About all we discovered is that an open top bus in the middle of February is the wrong place to be.

I don't even know what this is, it was raining so much by this point.

Anyway, that pretty much sums up the reason we're flying out of here in a couple of weeks to spend some time back in the UK. I'd rather be on the boat than living through another British winter, but we can't head south (HUGE waves in Nazare this weekend), we're out of season and the marinas are pretty dead, and I'd rather be killing time in an office, preparing for the Canaries and beyond, than twiddling my thumbs aboard.

Oh, and sitting back in the UK with broadband is infinitely more comfortable than perching in the salon when the tide goes out. I kid you not, this is one of the only berths in the marina where there's good wifi aboard, but of course at low tide three days a month (springs), it means we're slightly cock-eyed. Just slightly. The price one has to pay for facebook.

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Greetings from... Lisbon! We finally had a weather window to leave Nazare, when both the wind and swell were down, and made the most of it to get down the coast. Light winds (well, non-existent) of course meant we couldn't test the new rig, but we did get to test the new spray dodger, steering and props, and everything worked like it should.

Anyway, Thursday was time to say goodbye to the gang at Nazare, and head to Peniche.

What can I say about Peniche... well, it was great to be in a new port, but wow... the inner harbour surge on a calm day was horrendous. Here's Lauren, smiling and happy about 4 hours prior to having the "worst night's sleep of her life".


There was a great fort in Peniche however, which we spent the last few hours of daylight walking around.



And of course, an awesome sunset.



Next day, it was up and at 'em for the 47nm motor down to Cascais. Cascais is a holiday town and was bustling for a February Friday, but was also easily one of our favourite stops so far.

You just know a marina's going to be swanky when it has it's own helipad.... (and they give you a complimentary bottle of wine on check in!)


And when they have tall ships in town....

We had some pretty impressive scenes coming down the coast as well - thousands of years of pounding waves makes for some interesting coastline.

After Cascais, it was time to motor up the Tagus into Lisbon. The scenery was great but wow, was it ever a chilly morning.




In total it was about a 3 hour motor from Cascais to Lisbon, and gave us a chance to see the City's waterfront.

 

Once we were tied up at the new marina, it was time for a quick walk around the local area, then laundry and dinner.... the rain came through which meant conditions on the boat were slightly crowded.

The new marina is a good half hour's cycle out of town so we thought we'd head central today and see what the in-town marina was like. Blue skies, sunshine, and a nice cycle (Lauren scored a bruise or two)...

Which leads me to now, and my current view of Calypso in the Marina Parque das Nacoes.


In the end, we decided to stay at this marina as it's very secure, a good price and we're close to the airport. We're out of season at the moment so things are quite quiet, but the office has a nice lounge area with good wifi and there's a big mall plus an aquarium (25,000 fish!) in walking distance.

Anyway, that's all for this week. The plan for this summer is still up for debate - we can't head to the Caribbean 'til November and the Med is frighteningly expensive in summer - so we're going to spend the next couple of weeks weighing up our options then going from there.

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It's been something of a bittersweet week, what with the knowledge that we're moving on today for new, exciting cities, but also tinged with the fact we're leaving behind so many great friends and a quaint fishing port full of good, down to earth people.

We started the week in town at the opening weekend of a festival. We couldn't work out what it was for, but everyone seemed to be having a great time.

And other than a few dinners and visits to the beach, there was time for just one last sunset....

It's hard to sum up somewhere that was supposed to be a 48 hour stopover (and that we came SO close to skipping altogether), and instead transformed into a five month home. The crazy carp, the fishing boats surging back & forth, the mix of the surfers, fisherman, liveaboards and civil servants, and the constant crash of waves on the south beach.

It's not been all smooth sailing - the intermittent internet, the creak of the broken pontoons (7 weeks and going strong!) and the weather (sometimes amazing, sometimes horrific) - but we've enjoyed ourselves all the same.

We say goodbye to the fisherman, Avo Ricardo, the dogs - Boris, Whisker, Lilly, "Bubbles" and Cabbage, the crazy beagle who would come bounding up everytime Lauren or I left the pontoon gate - the community of liveaboards who for one reason or another, sat out another winter in Nazare, Luis and his cafe, Helder & George, and eternal Nazarites (Nazarians?) Dody and Alec. A huge thank you to everyone for making our winter 2015 / 16 the experience that it was.  

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