Last night, we found an excellent seafood restaurant. Steve and I enjoyed prawn and fish kebabs and John had the fish of the day, which was sea bass. As Portugal were playing football in the European Cup, the restaurant were showing the match on several TV screens. Just as we finished our dinner, the match ended, with the score being 1-0 to Portugal. There was a huge cheer and then all the locals started honking their car horns outside whilst driving past with Portugese flags proudly flying. It was quite a scene and it looked like many would be celebrating well into the early hours. Sadly, we headed back to the boat to get a good sleep before our next sail.
This morning there was a gate start for the sail to Oeiras, meaning all boats had to pass the satrt line between 8.30am and 9am. As many of the boats were rafted up alongside each other and the wind was blowing in excess of 15 knots at times, it made for a very tricky departure.
As soon as we left the harbour, the wind was right behind us, meaning we had a downwind sail nearly all the way to Oeiras. We only had our genoa out for the entire journey. Our average speed was just over 6 knots. However, just before reaching Cabo da Roca, a rougue wave the height of a double decker bus, from behind, picked us up and we surfed over it at an amazing 10.8 knots!! We gave the auto pilot a day off and took it in turns to hand steer through the rolling waves. Imagine being on a fairground ride for 8 hours. That was what it was like, but it was an exhilerating experience.
Once we rounded the headland of Cabo da Roca, the wind speed increased considerably and we recorded a gust of over 35 knots. We had to very quickly reef in our sail and hold on tight until conditions calmed down a little. The entrance to Oeiras is very tight with strong cross currents and in the high winds it made for a difficult approach. It was a relief when we finally made it on to our berth. This leg was the best sailing leg of the rally so far and for me was my best sail ever.
In the evening, we were treated to a superb welcome drinks and buffet reception by the commodore of the yacht club.