38:40.6N09:18.76W. We have a very conscientious satphone who sends messages
even when they are awaiting completion in the outbox before we press
Send/Receive.
Yesterday, on our way from Peniche to Oreiras the sail started in the same
pattern of the last few days, light headwinds forcing us to motorsail or lag far
behind the fleet. It is part of the mentality to stay with the fleet, keep up,
which can make you sail completely differently and use the motor much more. Even
the decision to sail on days when there is little wind and sight see when the
winds direction is good for sailing is dictated by the itinerary, and that is
fine because the original decision to join the rally was ours and we would not
have missed any of the meetings and experiences for anything.
Yesterday had some nice highlights. A pod of around 8 dolphins played
around a few of our boats and mid afternoon we passed the very beautiful Serra
da Sintra, a short mountain range that points to the west and terminates at Cabo
da Roca, the western most point of the European landmass. On top of the eastern
end of the range is the stunning hill town of Sintra, where the royal family
once built a home to escape the heat and earthquake risk of Lisbon. We hope to
visit there, along with Estoril and Cascais tomorrow, but this morning we look
around our home port and this afternoon we paint our Zoonie logo onto the
harbour wall.
It has just been raining, great for getting the salt off the windows, and
some kind soul has just left the gift of 4 Portuguese bread rolls in our
cockpit, very useful!