Portugal (Viano do Castelo & Leixoes / Porto)

We're in Porto (at the Leixoes marina) and it's been a bit of a quiet few days since the last update.

We left Bayona with pretty clear conditions and motored down to Viano Do Castelo. It was a pretty dull day to be honest; not a lot happening on the water apart from a ridiculous number of crab pots the second we crossed the Spanish / Portugese border. Anyway, we motored the 35nm pretty quickly and pulled into Viano.

This has to have been my least favourite marina so far.... 34EUR a night for a mid-river pontoon with no showers (1.5EUR each), questionable water and non-existent electricity. We did however have a great time walking around the town that evening though and finished off the day with two Churros and a Doner kebab each. Living the classy life here.

The next morning it was up & at 'em again to do the 35nm motor to Leixoes. I'm not normally one for cracking on like this (far preferring to do one day moving, one day relaxing) but we are on a bit of a schedule at the moment, so off we went for another rather tedious motor down the coast. We made it to Leixoes mid-afternoon, pulled into the marina, paid the very reasonable charge of 24EUR per night (inc. water, elec, wifi and showers!!!!) then I promptly crashed with a cold.

Since then, it's been a bit quiet. I've been confined to the boat the last few days with this cold and have been doing the odd job around the boat (tightening up the Rutland, fitting battens to the mainsail, etc) and other than a visit from Customs yesterday (who then came back for a second visit with a very rowdy Labrador), not a lot's happened.

We did make it into downtown Porto last night and tried the local delicacy Francesinha - it's basically a sandwich with steak, sausages, and egg, covered in melted cheese and sitting in a bowl of spicy tomato (and other herbs) soup. Excellent. Downtown Porto was fantastic, with the bridges, old architecture, etc etc... the plan is to get back in there today for a proper look around.

A few of you have also asked about the part for the broken mizzen mast - well, the replacement part hasn't arrived yet, but to give you an understanding of how important it is, this is where the part goes (ie. the boom's key horizontal and vertical axis joint):

 

And this is what happened to part that snapped mid-Biscay:

Now, I've done a bit of welding in my time and that right there is a-grade rubbish welding. I did let the sailmakers who supply this know about the problem, and they have offered to send another one... it's not ideal though knowing such a key piece just isn't really up to the job. The plan is I'll remake them properly both in the Canaries; we just need to get there first.

Rightio, all for this morning. I'm still taking cold & flu pills and we need to find the supermarket (conveniently located near the local beach) to stock up for our run down the coast to Peniche. Updates to follow.....