Leaving Portugal

As the time was approaching for us to leave Cascias we were watching to see when the weather might make it sensible to leave. For most of February and March the winds had been from the North and a number of times ports had been closed for days due to swells. The weather looked as if it would be good to leave on the 8th April.  We left Cascias at first light on Thursday 8th April (Graham’s Birthday). Winds were light and the seas flat we needed the engine on to make progress, having the mainsail added about 0.5 knots to our speed and we made progress at around 6.5… Read More

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Leaving Cascais

We came to Cascais to stay for six months in October 2019, eighteen months later we are preparing to leave. We will be leaving port in the next few days. Covid and other life events meant we did not leave last summer as planned but that has not been a problem. Cascais has been a good place to stay and we have made some good friends whilst we have been here.  We are sure we will be back for visits over the years to come.  We have decided to head back to the UK this summer so will be travelling back through Spain and France before crossing the Channel back… Read More

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Christmas, Brexit and Covid

It is now 12 months ago we last boarded a plane bound for the UK. At that time Covid was a problem in China and a few isolated cases were beginning to be seen in Italy. If you had told us that this was our last flight home for a year we would not have believed you. Now one year on we would need to take a connecting flight as there are no direct flights between Portugal and the UK and also have to spend £2,400 to stay in a quarantine hotel for 10 days once we arrive in England. Effectively that means we won’t be travelling anytime soon (which… Read More

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