Aleria's Adventures

The Palatio National da Sintra seen from the park side We rented a car for the day and invited our friend Scott, a Californian who bought a catamaran in Connecticut and sailed it to Cascais via the Azores with a professional skipper, to join us for a day trip to Sintra. The forecast was for beautiful weather - moderate winds and a few high level clouds. It's only 30 minutes' drive to Sintra but taking a bus would have taken more than an hour. So we thought we'd make a day trip out of it. We weren't sure what to expect, but Noelia at MRCYB has recommended it as a must do in Portugal.

Thursday 14 th June We’ve spent the past few days working like dogs. Alex pulling wires through masts and in the boat, replacing and repairing various mast components, and generally making a mess of our abode.

Sunday - 10 th  June I could use some fresh zumo full of vitamins. Their blender is powered by a bicycle.  The day started out nice, with warm sun and French toast. Alex saw our neighbour Scott on the blue catamaran first thing and invited him to join us on an excursion to Sintra, which he accepted. So that’s our next port of call.

Sat 9 th of June Beautiful day on the riverfront in Lisbon.   We decided to catch the train to Lisbon. We loved it the last time we were there in 2009. It couldn’t be easier to get there from Cascais: €5 each round trip for a 45 minute ride. Not bad, along the coast, viewing the beaches and coast walkway. There is a lot of graffiti and it appeared that some of the neighbourhoods along the route are a bit rough. A coastal clean-up is in order.

Friday – June 8 th Fortaleza de Jorge Alex had bought a new mast light and new wiring and we needed a new windex. He was moving the AIS antenna to the mizzen mast because the signal it pings was interfering with our VHF radio. We kept getting a sound like a mic PTT being pushed incessantly. Very annoying. Plus, he would connect the spare VHF to that antenna; if we had trouble with the main VHF, we could have a second VHF via the antenna on the mizzen as backup.  

  Thursday – 7 th June The head is not supposed to be on deck. As we headed to bed the previous night, I heard, “Oh no”, shouted from the head. That’s always a bad sign. Our main toilet had jammed and would not flush. Lucky for us, we have a second head on board.

Today is Sunday and I can't believe it's been a week already since we arrived in Cascais. Where to begin? There has been no internet in the marina so writing blog posts has been a challenge. I've also been too busy to actually sit down and write.