Ready to go to Gibraltar…but waiting in Porto

We arrived in Porto yesterday, ready to set off on our boat delivery to Gibraltar, where Shearwater will await a ride to Florida on a big ‘ol ship.

However, we’re still in Porto – waiting for the Maritime Police to open the entrance of the harbor to all vessels.  Currently, the harbor entrance is open only to vessels 15m and larger (we’re at 12m).  We are checked out of Portugal officially – no issues with the friendly official, except that when he learned that we were only 12m, he very sternly told us we could not leave after all.  There’s a good chance it will open tomorrow, and if it doesn’t, we may opt to go anyway.  The marina folks told us someone did that last week (without apparent repercussion) – it’s not that we want to be a pain in the ass, but we think the conditions might be fine by then. Currently, I think we are both okay waiting it out, although it has been a bit strange to be in high gear all last week and now stalled out temporarily!  We’re taking walks (missing the dogs!), messing about on the boat, and checking weather and entrance websites (albeit rather maniacally).  The Douro Marina folks continue to be amazing – we’ll be writing them a thank you letter and trying to let the cruising community know what a fantastic group of people runs the marina.

We had dinner last night at our favorite pizzeria – somehow our reservation was lost (again), but the folks at the restaurant know us…there’s a polite sigh, then several sentences in Portuguese that convince Justin that we’re not eating, then the beckoning hand to follow them…it’s magic and it’s happened this way 4 or 5 times.  This is despite our best efforts to make reservations through the marina to avoid being “those silly people who come here regularly and keep trying to talk their anglicized, pseudo-Portuguesed Spanish to us” (although sometimes the words work if you add a bit of “sh” to them!).  But, the wine and pizza were fantastic – wouldn’t you know it, but I found my favorite pizza there finally!  We may disgrace ourselves further and go back again tonight.

On the way back from the restaurant, we noticed a new boat in the marina – a Beneteau Figaro, which is a class boat used for professional single-handed racing.  This particular boat is really beautiful, and the sailor has a website (in French) – http://www.sepalumic.com/solitaire-figaro-2012.  He actually came into the harbor despite the restriction (we were told the Maritime Police weren’t impressed), but after we talked to Fred Duthil (the sailor), we learned he had been racing from France to Martinique, tore his main in half at the 2nd reef point near Madeira and is now heading back to France.  He came into Porto to get his mainsail fixed…and his website notes he plans to do a race in 2 weeks out of Les Sables d’Olonne where the Vendee Globe started in November.  He was super friendly and spoke some English…plenty to agree with us that there was “big wind and waves today – tomorrow better”.  We’ll be watching his blog and hope for some great results.

Hopefully the next updates will be en route via the satphone.  We’ll likely have a bumpy ride south – our delay will mean that we should have southerlies instead of westerlies, so we will be close-reaching for much of the trip south.

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