Porto, the must see stopover, was a complete success. Boats arrived all together to the Douro Marina and we had a prizegiving at the Carvao Restaurant. Crews were taken the next morning from the marina via Tuk Tuk’s all around Porto’s emblematic sites and later on, up to Cálem’s wine lodge. A short but very interesting tour of the Lodge then followed, where participants were shown around the very impressive building and were given a taster of their famous Porto wines.
The start of Leg 4 early in the morning brought incredible images of the boats going up the Douro river to make the perfect start very close to the start line. Most of the boats had managed a great day's sailing in the sunny and breezy downwind conditions, so the arrival to Figueira da Foz was very straight forward.
The crews, who packed themselves along the giant tables inside the Clube Naval Restaurant, enjoyed a lovely evening with a dinner of unlimited fresh Portuguese sardines cooked on the grill. Miguel Amaral, kindly gifted a special wine bottle to every boat as a welcoming tocken to Figueira da Foz.
The following morning, most crews gathered for a tour to the town of Coimbra. An hour’s bus ride from Figueira through the country side of rice and corn fields, Coimbra houses one of the oldest universities in operation in the world and is the oldest in Portugal dating back to 1290. A tour of the university included their famous library. Following the tour, there was a chance to have a leisurely walk and lunch in Coimbra before leaving for Montemor Castle, built in 1088.
