Good evening from Povoa de Varzim. We arrived here around 6pm yesterday. After a beautiful sail down from Bayona, getting into the marina was a slightly nerve wracking experience... a relatively short run past the breakwater with barely time to get the headsail down before turning the corner and onto the pontoon. Lines, we need lines out... depth was getting shallow and we had a narrow channel to steer, a strong wind was blowing us towards the pontoon... after a few minutes of frantic activity we were safely moored up, Girolle thankfully unscathed. We gave her a little reassurance pat and breathed a sigh of relief as the marina procedure had been trickier than what we’ve so far been used to.
In the evening all the crews were treated to a hearty meal in the marina club house. Towards the end of the meal the crew of Amarone joined us, upon which a loud cheer erupted from us all. Amarone had headed for France after leaving Plymouth, on hearing about incoming Storm Miguel, they sat tight and picked their time to make the Biscay crossing. Consequently they missed out Bayona and headed straight to Povoa de Varzim to catch us up. It’s great that they have joined us at last.
Today Andy & I joined fellow ARC Portugal crews on a tour to the town of Guimaraes. We walked round the 12th century fort whilst the tour guide explained its importance in Portugal’s history. Amazing that almost 900 years later it’s still standing and is in superb shape.
So far we have concocted some fairly tasty meals on board Girolle, proof that you can live and eat well on a sailing yacht. Andy brought along a couple of large catering size tins of fruit, sort of emergency rations should we get marooned out in the ocean for any length of time. Tonight we decided to crack open what must easily be a 2kg tin of peach slices. In spite of two hearty bowls full (Dave declined to partake) we barely seem to have made any inroads into peach mountain. We fear they may also somehow regenerate overnight. I sense this is the start of ‘peaches with everything’. We certainly have enough peach slices to feed all of the ARC crews, in fact there’s an idea...
Tomorrow we are heading for Porto, unfortunately not under sail; instead, a day trip by coach. We are hoping to sample the fortified wine for which the city is famous. Tomorrow’s blogging ability will depend on quantity of Port and peaches consumed! Until next time.
Photo - Peaches peaches peaches... Living the rock n roll lifestyle aboard Girolle
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