Povoa de Vazim and Porto

Well what a day, Linda went on a tour with the WCC to Porto where she visited a Port house and came back with three bottles. She also had a tour of the town in an electric TukTuk. The weather was awful it both rained heavily and was cold but is was still a good day out.

Meanwhile I was back at the boat trying to sort out both my life raft and the bow thruster. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing because as the morning wore on it became obvious that re-packing the life raft was not an option. It was likely to take more than a month and even then they could not guarantee it would be possible.However Viking do have one to the correct standard regulations for a British flagged vessel in Norway and it should be possible to get it to Lagos by the time we get there so I placed an order. Another option was to buy a cheap 4 man for the Med and only go for bells and whistles if we do in fact cross the Atlantic, however I couldn't find a four man available so I think I have made the correct decision.

The bow thruster was more challenging. Essentially the gearbox leg has failed and this is a sealed non-serviceable component and requires the boat to be lifted out to fix. Sadly there are no spare parts available for a month. I tried calling the UK but there are no spare parts there either. However they do have a complete new thruster that can be fitted when we get to Lagos. I am not too sad about that because the thruster is 15 years old and starting with a completely fresh unit is probably sensible. Unfortunately it is very expensive to buy and fit, but that is, as they say, boats for you. Overall it was a good day for me as I have now organised and paid for all the replacements and in Lagos we will be back to normal.

Today Linda and I decided to get the train back to Porto and miss the WCC tour. I missed out on Porto yesterday and Linda said the weather was so bad I didn't miss much as it was so cold and wet. We got off the train at the wrong station and so had a one and a half mile walk, but it was okay really as we walked through and interesting square with a monument with very interesting bronzes and carvings. It looks like a depiction of the Peninsular wars and features what looks like British servicemen, very Sharpe like. From there we went into the Crystal Palace Gardens and we thought we could use it as a short cut… however we had to re-trace our steps when we found there was no rear exit.

We made it to central Porto and had a mediocre lunch on the quay, but there was a street performer who played splendidly and kept us entertained whilst people watching. After lunch we crossed the river to the go to the port houses. Sadly we were too late for a tour but they had hospitality tents on the quay and we stopped at Sandeman and did some quality controlling.

On returning we had to re-cross the river and walk up over 200 steps to reach the high street and at the end of the high street was the tram station. It took more than an hour to get to Povoa and as we stepped out it was dark and we were hit by a fine mist. I took one look at Linda and said shall we get a taxi and so we walked briskly towards the rank where there were just two available. As we did we caught the drivers eye and thank goodness we did because at that very moment the cloud burst and the heavens opened. It was a good call. Tomorrow we head for Figueira da Foz