Portugal 🇵🇹

Póvoa de Varzim

We finally made it to Portugal! The swell has made for some very bumpy travel. We spent a week in Póvoa de Varzim, mainly eating pastéis de nata, then took a train to Porto to celebrate my birthday. I had a wonderful day exploring the city, visiting a museum, and sipping Port by the river. The boys, naturally, insisted on a "walk the plank" as part of the birthday celebration despite us being in the marina!

The boys are back homeschooling and also have been keeping themselves busy playing with Orca and testing our health insurance policy at a local skate park.

Leixões

We spent two nights at anchor in Leixões. The setting was very industrial, but we found it strangely serene, watching the cargo ships being loaded and unloaded. We also had a front-row seat for the end of a sailing race.

Nazaré

Last stop on mainland Portugal was Nazaré, land of the big waves! We were only going to stay for a couple of days, but the marina was lovely, so we ended up staying for two weeks! The staff were great and the facilities were the best we’d seen. Lots of kid boats to keep the kids entertained; they had fun playing tag on paddle boards around the pontoons.

Although we didn’t see any of the big waves, we still attempted to surf at the beach, but with the swell and our lack of skills, it wasn’t too impressive. We hiked up to Praia de Nazaré to the lighthouse and surf museum. As well as an impressive amount of surf boards, they had 3D maps showing why the area is prone to the huge waves. We had a day trip to Lisbon, a stunning city, however the boys' main memory was the Tesla Uber ride we took when exploring the city. We celebrated Captain Mike’s birthday and happily made him walk the plank. He was just delighted that it’s October and he’s still in board shorts 🩳.

Change of plans again. We always said we’d go where the wind takes us, so we’re missing the Mediterranean for now and heading straight for the Madeiran Islands, buddy boating with a lovely Norwegian boat.

Pastel de Nata count… 34

Figueira da Foz

We then moved on to Figueira da Foz. We met some other boaters — it was good to chat and swap stories and advice. Lots of people going south are concerned about the Orca situation.