hi guys --

my crew for the crossing to the portugese mainland included
peter from florida who i met in the bahamas (a good sailor,
more experienced than me, a bit macho) and fritz who i met
at a computer conference (also a good sailor, taller than my
boats headroom or bunks length, not macho).  previous experience
had suggested that waterfront bars were better places to find
crew than computer conferences, but in this instance that
experience was wrong - fritz was awesome crew and he brought
gobs of yummy swiss chocolate and he is a good cook.

we left in light winds, from san miguel in the azores, headed
for portugal somewhere, letting the wind direction decide
exactly where.  we did 4 on 8 off watches, peter from 9-1am,
me from 1am to 5am and fritz from 5am-9am.  during the day
we just made sure someone was paying attention.  i discovered
that for the middle of the night watch, a big piece of chocolate
at the beginning of the watch was just the right amount of 
caffine to stay awake for the watch but not be too wired 
to go to sleep when it was over.  i highly recommend dark
chocolate with hazelnuts for this chore.

we caught fish whenever we wanted to, several that are called
little dolphin in my fish book and one real big dolphin.  these
are the dolphin fish not the dolphin mammals.  they are also
called mahi mahi or in portugese duoro (gold fish).  the
first one was caught by fritz, his first fish ever.  lots of
sashimi and wonderful fish meals.  peter cleaned the first couple
and was not as careful about getting all the meat as i usually
am, so i volunteered to clean the next one, using my new technique
from russ and jody's visit.  the next fish was a real dolphin, big,
36 inches long and plenty of pounds.  we clean them in the cockpit
and then try to wash the mess out with buckets of seawater.  i was
wearing one of my favorite tshirts, but instead of going and changing
i thought i would be careful not to get it all fishy.  right.  in the
end the shirt and my undies (wasnt wearing shorts or pants) were 
soaked with smelly fish juices and i had actually gotten all the meat
there was to be had from this fishie, but definitely need a longer
knife for such big fish.  next time i will be a little less
anal about getting every last bite and be done hours earlier.

trimming sails has always been a weak point in my sailing skills
and a problem area with crew.  crew who are used to racing tend to
trim the last .0001 inches out of the sail even if it flogs the
sail or chafes it against the rigging.  over zealous trimming
has resulted in several patches to the sail and several confrontations
between girl-captain-who-doesnt-know-how-to-trim and boy-macho-
crewmember-who-has-been-trimming-sails-for-40-years.  seems as
though if i cant turn the winch and get the sails tighter with
my strength, then they shouldnt be made tighter or they will tear.
fortunately i have lots of the sticky backed sail repair tape.

weather was pretty good, light winds at first and then 2 days
of higher winds and lumpy seas.  we had a day of sustained
35 knot winds with gusts to 40.  had tiny sails up and were
still sailing 6 knots.  at one point the visibility got poor
and we had our radar reflector on the stern because it was
banging around and cutting the sails when up in the rigging
where it belonged.  fritz volunteered to put it back up so
that in the poor visibility, other ships could see us with
their radar.  good idea, go fritz.  unfortunately, it was
blowing 35 knots and raining and getting dark.  but fritz
strapped on and crawled up to the mast to try to hoist up
the radar reflector.  there is a rule on a bouncing boat,
one hand for the boat and one hand for you.  so fritz needed
both feet or knees and one hand just to hold on and the other
to carry the radar reflector and then tie it to the flag 
halyard and raise it up.  tying knots with one hand that is
also holding a radar reflector is hard, but he managed.
i was watching from the cockpit and remembering that the
way it was hung up last time didnt work and thought that
maybe we should try hooking the bottom to the stays so it
didnt flop around so much.  but it was much too windy to
yell that to fritz.  fritz finally got it tied on and raised
up to the spreader on the mast and crawled back to the
cockpit.  by this time, its pretty dark, still blowing hard,
and the radar reflector is flying around, not quite hitting
the sails or the mast, but close.  so i tell fritz my idea
about hooking it around the stays and back he goes to do it
again.  this time it seems to really work and is stable, up
high, and hopefully showing all the big ships where we are.

there are northbound and southbound shipping lanes off the
coast of portugal and we went from seeing only a single
sailboat in 6 days to seeing 5-10 big ships in each direction.
peter's watch got the southbound ones and my watch got the
northbound ones.  if the angle between a ship and you doesnt
change, then you are on a collision course.  and they are bigger
than we are.  only one had to change course for us.  i saw
a confusing one, a tug with a barge behind it, but way behind.

our landfall at viana do castello was a bit hairy because
we had fog so thick that you could only see a boat length in
front of you.  the gps said we were very close to land, but we
couldnt see a thing.  we managed to quickly read the rules for what
you need to do in fog and dutifully blew a horn (thanks pam) for
4 seconds every 2 minutes while peering out into the grey mist
trying not to run into anything.  we used the gps to find the
entrance to the harbor and even found the first buoy of the
channel into viana do costello, but still couldnt see anything
but ourselves and the buoy.  we called the marina and asked if
they could send out a boat to meet us and lead us in.  they
said yes, then tried to get us to come in ourselves using
our radar.  unfortunately the radar didnt work, so they
said they would try to find a boat and we should hang out
near the buoy.  finally a boat showed up and we followed
it into the harbor -- it too had trouble finding the next
buoy, but once it did the fog went away and it was totally
clear.  if we had known that it wasnt foggy all the way in
we probably would have tried to use the gps and follow the
buoys in.

we arrived just at the start of their annual festival that
features parades, music, drummers walking the streets, a
bull fight and incredible fireworks.  its mostly in their
big public park near the waterfront so we were right in the
middle of it.  handy because the parades went right by us,
unhandy cause the loud music was right by us till 4 or 5 am 
every nite.  some of the parades featured traditional costumes
on both the men and the women and gobs of gold chains on the
women.  so much fancy gold on display that it clearly weighted
down some of the women and there were guards marching in the
parades to protect all the gold.  the portugeuse seem to love
their gold and their drums.  there were many many bands of only
drummers with maybe a token accordion who just roamed the streets
and stopped every now and then to play really loudly for whoever
would listen.  several bands and orchestras also performed and
all seemed to have a favorite song called "all around the world"
with songs from several countries.  the song for america was
"oh when the saints go marching in".

the last day of the festival featured a bull fight.  we went and
since it had been hot and sunny we paid the extra $10 to get seats
in the shade.  and sure enough, bull fight day dawned and was
totally overcast and stayed that way the whole day.  the bull
fight is in 3 parts for each bull and there were 4 bulls.  first
a rider on a horse and a matador on foot make the bull run around
and get a bit tired.  then the horse person takes lances and sticks
them in the bulls back.  they are like giant fishhooks and seem
to annoy the bulls but not to hurt much, although the bull bleeds
where they are stuck in.  then the on foot matadors challenge the
bull with a cape and dodge his charges.  and finally a bunch of
guys go out and literally try to tackle the bull.  one leads and
tries to grab the bull by the horns and put his body between the
horns and the others (maybe 8 or 10) grab him by the head, back or
tail and wrestle him stopped.  then everyone lets go except the
one with the tail and he makes the bull pull him around in a circle.
all this happens after the bull is good and tired.  to get the bull
back into the pens they let other cows or steers out into the ring
with cowbells on and the bull forgets how mad he is and trots right
back into the pens.  the horse matadors were 2 guys and 2 girls,
incredible horsemanship.  the horses did not look too happy charging
at the bull and dodging at the last second as their rider reached over
and stuck the lance into the bulls back.  each bull tired out 2 or
3 horses.  by the time it was over, you were definitely rooting for
the bull.

the food in portugal is pretty awesome.  i usually order by
pointing and have gotten some interesting things that way.  almost
glad i dont know what they actually are.  fruits are especialy
nice. they sometimes look ugly, but always are ripe and taste good, 
no mealy peaches or tasteless strawberries over here.  the melons
are especially yummy.  desserts are usually poor.

next is down the coast of portugal, into spain, thru gibraltar
and then somewhere for the cold stormy months, maybe spain, maybe
greece, maybe malta or sicily.  my geography is getting better
with sailing as i actually locate things i havent heard of since
high school (like malta).

hugs to all.  come sail with me.

-evi