Lisbon, Portugal

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Lisbon cityscape from a viewpoint - in the distance you can see the 'Puente 25 de abril' bridge that looks a bit like Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. Click to enlarge.

We left Porto and the Douro marina at noon with clear sunny weather having both wind and tide with us doing 10 knots with just the genoa up. Soon thereafter we passed the Vega-crew which had left the marina just a couple of minutes before us. At nightfall we lost all wind so we had to do a part of the trip by motor. In the morning the wind came back and we did the last part of the sail to Cascais in fair winds! 

Not long before we got to Cascais we passed the J-boat Endeavour with it's impressive 710 sq. meter sail (front image) doing 8 knots in practically "no wind". 

Spent the first night in Lisbon in Cascais marina, we were hoping to meet up with the family of four we met in Cameret-sur-Mer just before crossing the Bay of Biscay. Unfortunately they were inland somewhere at their relatives so the day after we moved to Oeiras Marina where we had been promised a discount. Douro marina in Porto and Oeiras marina in Lisbon have some kind of deal between them. :)

Happy we moved the boat, Oeiras marina is a small marina with everything you need close by with an incredible staff helping out and driving you for free to the train station or whatever place in the vicinity you need to go. When you go from marina to marina like we’ve done you realise how unplanned some of them are in terms of how far you have to go to get food, visit the toilets/office and so on. Not to talk about the wifi coverage in European marinas, we have moved from Stockholm to Portugal without a functioning wifi. Thankfully the cafés in Oeiras marina were so close that we were able (with wifi-antenna) to connect and get decent speed for once. 

While in the Lisbon area everyone needed some time alone so both the guys in the Albin Vega and me and Janne spent some nights at hotels/rentals on our own. When you live in a confined space like a yacht you need it once in a while. A friend of mine told me about AirBnB(.com) which is an awesome service where one can rent apartments from people/companies. Very cheap, at least here in the Lisbon area. Check it out!

Janne spent some time with Paul - the american we met in Baiona - they did some skating back in Oeiras which both had been looking forward too! I managed to run a couple of kilometers with Nils before he left. I’ve been having issues with my knee for some time now which is annoying because i love to run. I have this idea that when we get to warmer climates it will function better. :) Otherwise i will have to start biking, which i don’t enjoy as much. 

We spent nearly two weeks in Lisbon due to the topsy turvy weather of 2015 - normally the wind is northerly outside Portugal but this year with all the weather anomalies caused by El Nino it’s been mostly southerly blocking our path forward.

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon