• Our sail from Lagos to Canary Islands

    Day 1 – November 9, 2020 After a week of some boatwork and exploring in Lagos it was time to start our sail to the Canary Islands. We left Lagos around lunchtime and started our way south, and on our way out we actually saw orcas again! We saw a lot of dolphins as well and a jumping tuna, but no luck with fishing that day, even though we tried all day. It was a very calm day so we motored a bit at first, and after a while we set sail. It was not much wind, but we sailed until early morning when we gave up and started the…

  • A week in Lagos!

    November 3-9, 2020 After one night at anchor outside Lagos we entered the marina, with a quick stop at the fuel dock before (so we wouldn’t have to wait for that once we were ready to leave Lagos). The reception dock is right next to the fuel dock so we checked in at the same spot and after that they opened the bridge for us so we could enter the marina. We have been used to quite empty marinas, but here in Lagos it was pretty full and a lot of activity on the docks, which was really fun. One of the first things we did was to go to…

  • Long sailing legs along the Portuguese coast

    October 30-November 3, 2020 After a couple of days in Porto we were finally able to leave, the entrance to the river opened and we were allowed to leave (if we would have left earlier we might have gotten a pretty big fine). We called on VHF to double check before we lifted the anchor and headed out on the sea. We planned to sail overnight all the way to Cascais (outside Lisbon), stay there on anchor one night and then do another overnighter to Lagos. It was extremely calm, we managed to sail a bit before lunch but then we turned the engine on. The evening and night was…

  • Drinking port wine in Porto

    October 26-30, 2020 After our sail through the big waves and we arrived safely to Douro Marina we where notified that they would close the river entrance for a couple of days due to even bigger waves (a big storm on the north Atlantic that caused these waves) so we would have a couple of days in Porto. On our first day it rained a lot so we just stayed in the boat and fixed some things. Have forgotten exactly what we did in our stay in Porto, but with an old boat we always have a to-do list which never is fully completed. Anyway, the first day was mainly…

  • Sailing through huge waves along coast of Portugal

    October 26, 2020 When we where ready to start sailing from Viana do Castelo there where some really big waves that where about to hit Portugal, and we spent a lot of time researching before we decided that we would give it a go. Here is two pages we found useful: https://www.noonsite.com/report/portugal-general-advice-for-sailing-the-west-coast/ http://www.manorhouses.com/ports/geninfo.htm And from those pages we found this website: https://www.marinha.pt/pt/servicos/informacao-maritima/Paginas/Estado-das-Barras.aspx which shows green, yellow or red on each harbor to give indication if one should try to enter or leave. There is a comment in Portuguese but that could easily be copied and translated. Anyway, when we decided to leave Viana do Castelo the waves where about 4…