Up the cut to Aveiro

Lynne and I woke up to thick fog, unfortunately this was the day we had decided to head further south to Figuera de Foz. We turned over and went back to sleep. The prospect of sailing 30 miles in a thick sea fret just didnt appeal. We slept and in the afternoon as the fog didnt lift we felt justified in being lazy. It also gave us the opportunity to assess our new plan. The news from the caribean was continuing to be bad with hurricane Maria about to follow Irma in devastating the leeward islands . Meanwhile we were on a hurry up to reach the Mediteranean, however we had enjoyed Sao Jacinto and apparently one of the best tourist sights in Portugal lay just up the river. The town of Aveiro or little Venice. Maybe we needed to rethink and slow down. The chart below illustrates the route to be taken, I calculated the best time to try would be in the last hours of the flood. This would give us tide all the way and if the pontoon was full we could return on the ebb.

We talked over the options for what was left of the summer and decided that if we wintered in Lisbon we could spend time exploring Portugal. We could also spend some time in an exiting and historical city which had all the fascilities we needed to work on Dark Tarn over the winter months , it had cheap and regular air links to Manchester. It would also allow us to explore the Algarve at leisure before entering the med. Decision made!
The morning dawned with a thick blanket of convection fog. No change there then......

Not really a problem as tides dictated we couldn't really leave much before the afternoon, going up on the flood tide. This gave us time to chat with our Spanish  neighbour who had returned from Aveiro the previous evening.

The above photo was taken by Irial from another OCC boat "An Gobadán" in the anchorage at Sao Jacinto.
Incidentally Aveiro is pronounced "Ahhveyroo".

After lunch we raised anchor ( which came up satisfyingly muddy, we like mud ) and we made our way out into the canal principe de navigaceo.

This is big sky country and is as flat as most of Essex..... its also fairly industrial being a busy working harbour, as well as oil there is a thriving trade in enormous turbine blades for wind generators. we passed several oiling stations and then came upon a ships graveyard which as well as several fishing boats held this beautiful old schooner which has obviously seen better days.

After 4 miles or so of motoring along the Canal and past many salt flats we rounded a corner and our goal the 200 metre pontoon of the AVELA (Associacao  de aveirence de vela de cruziero) yacht club to you and me, hove into sight. At first it appeared to be full but as we motored past with the stream a gap became apparent, we turned around to face the 2 knot stream and gently manoeuvred Dark Tarn into the tight space with the assistance of a kind woman from one of the boats.

We had an hour or so before the office opened so we had time to look around our new home. It wasn't very pre-possessing, reminiscent of several muddy creeks in Lancashire in fact with the addition of sun and some spectacularly dilapidated buildings.

Non the less, we felt quite at home, we have never been and never will be "snotty yachties"

Besides the pontoon was in good condition, and when someone turned up to see us they were friendly and helpful, we were even given a club burgee to fly. It fluttered proudly below our OCC flag.

We booked in for a few days because we wanted to see Aveiro and possibly get a train to Coimbra if possible.

We settled Dark Tarn and got ready to explore the town, as it was now mid afternoon it would have to be a quick recce visit but it was only a few hundred metres down the canal das pyramides. to the old city centre.