hello everybody --

we made it to portugal, land ho about 7 days out of the last island,
san miguel, in the azores, and another half day to get up to our
intended landfall -- viana do costelo.  yeah.  i crossed an ocean
in a 42 ft. british boat so should be easily able to do the same
in my 40 ft. boat next summer.

the passage was easy, no really heavy wind till we arrived on the
portugese coast and there it's mostly welcome because with it you dont
have fog and without it you invariably do.  we had a couple of
days without enough wind when we were near the azores -- the azores
high pressure in action.

had a minor adventure coming into port.  it was late, like 8pm and
actually getting dark because we had not changed our clocks.  its
hard to know when you cross a time zone in the middle of the ocean,
so we tend not to change clocks till we hit land, but for long runs
that ends up being wrong.  anyway, we hit the harbor entrance just 
right, thanks to the wonders of the gps (global positioning system)
but it was blowing at least 25 knots and gusting to 30 or 35.  that
doesnt sound so fast, but it sure feels fast.  we were heavily
reefed with little postage stamps of sails, but still doing 7-7.5
knots (thats fast for us) and we were heeled way over because of
the wind being strong and from the side.  we had to do a sharp left
turn after getting to the harbor entrance which didnt bring our
sails into the wind, which is necessary to take them down easily.
david didnt want to start the engine because the boat wasnt level
so he couldnt check oil and there had been oil in the bilge which
might mean a leak.  so we went in under sail, with it blowing like
hell and with the engine not running.  that particular harbor has
no protection at the entrance so it was still blowing very hard
as we got to the middle.  and because of the strong wind and its
direction we couldnt get the forward sail down.  you pull on a rope
to furl it and it was flapping like mad, with ropes trailing and
flying everywhere.  it was basically beating itself to death.  after
a bit of trying, david went ahead and started the engine, turned
the boat into the wind and we got the sails down ok. the edge of
the foresail was pretty beaten up and we used the spare from then on.

found the marina in the harbor, right where the chart said it was
and were about to park in the mediterranian way -- bow close to
a dock and stern held off with a mooring rope.  you go in slow
and get the bow about right, then stop the boat and pick up the
stern line with a boat hook.  all the boats are parallel but not
hooked to each other.  everything went well and we tied up just
fine, but were hooked to the boat next to us temporarily because
there were no more stern ropes left.

then i wanted to get off the boat and call folks to let them know we
had arrived safely.  boat is 6+ ft off the water, dock is the floating
type about a foot off the water because there is a big tidal change in
water level, 3 meters plus between high and low tide.  now my legs
are long, but not that long, especially when the bow of the boat
is a couple of feet off the dock so it doesnt scrape at high tide.
i ended up stepping on the anchor that was hanging there and wiggled
scarily when you tried to get on/off with something in your hands.

early the next morning 3 boats beside us left so we could move over
to get one of the stern ropes.  but as the other boats left they
caught one or more of the stern ropes and dragged it under us. when
we went to repark ourselves, david seemed to be going too fast but
i didnt say anything.  and then as we got closer he went even faster.
crash, we hit the floating dock and that stopped us.  turns out the
stern ropes that got dragged under us caught the propellor, who must
have been feeling tired anyway and knocked out the bearings on one
of the prop blades.  its a fancy feathering prop that doesnt work
in reverse if the bearings arent there, so hard reverse became hard
forward and we had a broken propellor.

my niece libby and her boyfriend noah were coming sail with us, but
two things interfered -- i went to hungary to visit my cousin zsiga
who was very sick with bone cancer and the boat couldnt sail anywhere 
without a propellor.  libby and noah came and fended for themselves,
david hauled the boat (by driving it onto a flat place and letting
the tide go out) and put on his spare propellor, and i got to hungary
and was able to see and talk to zsiga before he died.  in the meantime
viana do costelo had a 4 day festival with folk dancing, parades,
native costumes, yummy food and drink, music, awesome fireworks,
and a bull fight.  we went to the bull fight and rooted for the bull
but we never won.  they dont kill the bulls in portugese bullfights,
but they do tease him and stab him from horseback.  saw some very
fine horsemanship and very well trained horses. (honky, my brothers
horse should take lessons!).

then we finally sailed down the portugese coast to the next harbor
and explored there.  took a bus into porto, the home of port, the
strong sweet fortified wine that the country and region is famous
for.  we toured two of the 10 or so port cellars in the same afternoon
and then nearly needed to be carried home.  the tours showed the oak
casks that the wine is aged in, told the story of port and of their
company and then gave you generous samples of white and red port
right next to their port stores.  one a day is sensible, two was
possible, but three would have left us unable to manage to find the
bus home.  found a yummy late bottled vintage port and bought some.

david tended to deal with portugese by speaking spanish and hoping
they would understand.  i usually asked if they spoke english and if
not tried french which usually worked.  i learned the words for 
coffee with milk (gallan) and thank you (obrigato) and a few others.
we had mixed results with the spanish.  on two occasions david said
finito, meaning he was finished (with dinner once and with ordering the
other time).  the first occasion they thought he ordered two puddings
for desert and brought them.  we begged off and kept only one of them.
the second occasion they thought he had ordered 4 of the daily special
of meat, beans and rice.  that one i caught before it went to the
kitchen.  the potential for misunderstanding was pretty high because
david doesnt hear well and so didnt hear their answers to most of
what he was trying to say in spanish.  made for some interesting
communication mistakes.

one evening david and i went out for a walk and then dinner outside
in a local restaurant.  dinner is late in portugal, restaurants dont
open till 7 and 9 is the usual time to eat.  bands and music start at
10 or 11pm.  this particular restaurant had music at 10pm and all the
tables outside instantly filled up with local people -- usually families
with at least 3 generations including little kids.  they had a drink,
usually beer or juice and danced in the street or just sang and bounced
with the music.  after watching so many families with all ages of people
having such a good time, it sure seemed that the cultures of the usa or
england have missed something.  every evening, you would see grandmas and
parents and teenagers and little kids out to sit in a cafe or go for a
walk or listen to music.  instead of watching tv or whatever we do at home.
seems to be a much healthier, happier way of life.

after exploring lisbon for a day, libby and noah went home on the train,
and i took a plane back to my boat in ft. lauderdale.  my ocean crossing
adventure is over.  would have enjoyed doing the portugese coast for
another month, but it felt pretty irresponsible to leave my own boat
in florida for hurricane season without anyone to look after her.
was both glad and sad to leave the boat and call my sailing adventure
done with.

next installment of these travel status reports will be about november
after a month of working on the boat and another month working out
at caida in san diego.

hugs to all.

-evi