Aleria's Adventures

Slainte! Partying with the lads from Mayo. Today, we had a brief westerly which got us excited, and many boats left heading south. But it was soon back to northerly and building, and back to grey skies as well. We had a slow start this morning - 10:30 local time - as we had been up late yesterday with the 7 Irish lads delivering the Cashin's  X-Static to Portosin. We had drinks at the marina bar, super tapas dinner at El Real, then drinks aboard Aleria afterwards. Gerry, a British solo sailor who tied up next to us yesterday, invited himself over last night as he figured he wouldn't be able to sleep with the ruckus we were making. What fun!

Tower of Hercules, a World Heritage site Last night, we invited OCC boats to join us for drinks and dinner at the RCNC. Cate and Mike, from the British-flagged Kealoha V ketch and Jacqui and Kevin of Australian-flagged TinTin joined us. It was a lovely evening on the outside deck of the upstairs bar, followed by dinner at the club. Very reasonably priced for three courses with wine at about €16 per person. Cate, Jacqui, Mike and Kevin with Alex at the RCNC This morning, we boarded our bikes and headed down the bike path around the coast. The sun was out and it was finally warm. We arrived rather quickly at the Tower of Hercules, the imposing lighthouse on approach to A Coruna. It was originally built by the Romans in the 1st century and rebuilt in the 1700s to its present height and design. It is now a World Heritage site. By the Hercules statue is a plaque dedicated to Breogan and Ith. The story dates back to a book written by Irish monks in the 12th century which tells...

Beaches and anchorage of Cascais There was a light fog when we departed the marina on our bikes. We stopped briefly at the lighthouse near the marina first but as the visibility wasn’t great, we decided to keep going. We rode out along the southeasterly coastal route out of town. When we got to the end about twice the distance to Estoril, we turned around. Estoril and Cascais were once the haunts of royalty, world leaders and spies but today, Estoril is the site of a casino and the area between the two is a major tourist destination – an alternative to the Algarve – where the Atlantic sea breeze and cooler waters make the summer climate more bearable. There are still many stately homes, some of which are now hotels.

Praia Conceicao, with the marina in the distance To work in Cascais, one must know at least four languages, and one must be able to guess the language of the person one is addressing. The receptionist at the marina tried three languages before she hit on me speaking English. It's fascinating to hear all the languages around us. Portuguese of course, but much English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. It is a resort town and the beaches are crowded, even though it's just barely in season.