Portugese Venice

Aviero is an old town, it has links to Roman times when it supplied salt, still does as a matter of fact. There are miles of salt pans and tidal lagoons interspersed with canals and of course the Rio. As a landscape it is very open, but that can be deceptive as we were about to discover.....

After we had moored at the yacht club pontoon we walked down the canal de Pyramides into the centre of the old quarter.

This bridge marks the end of the canal de Pyramides where it joins the river, our pontoon is just beyond it. The gondola like craft is a `molociero` there are many taking tourists on trips through the canals of the "Portugese Venice". I must admit as we walked down the canal into the old town I had a bit of a double take.

See what I mean? We were quietly surprised and delighted by how pretty the town is, a total contrast to the industrial landscape we had travelled through to get here. I couldn't help thinking of Port Merion in North Wales as my eye was caught by yet another building.

As is our usual practise we sought out the tourist information office to get a map of the town. Of course one of the other things Aveiro is famous for is its Art Nouveau architecture, of which the tourist information office is a lovely example.

Everywhere we looked was another architectural delight. some actually fooling us momentarily. In the photo below the building on the right is actually a painted canvas and the one straight ahead (with the woman in the window ) is actually a mural.

There were cafe bars, restaurants, and quirky shops a plenty to pass the time.

And tiles, everywhere......

Even the graffiti was high class....
We had a meal and stocked up on a few local delicacy's, these are known as Ovos moles and are basically a sugary syrup in a communion wafer shaped as a sea shell, or fish barrel. To be honest nothing to write home about and at 75cts each overpriced to boot.

We wandered back into town in the evening. Very often buildings are better appreciated under floodlights.

we again enjoyed watching the gondolas performing screeching turns around the tight canals.

we walked around and found the Cathedral.

a lot of the streets were decorated with fish, made from fabric and strung up in the air.

It certainly made for a crick in the neck!

We also found a strange echo of Belfast's bridge of padlocks where lovers would leave padlocks locked on a bridge and throw the keys in the water. In Aveiro however they did a similar thing with ribbons. thousands all with two names on. Rather romantic, I am sure we have some ribbon aboard?

We had merely scratched the surface of Aveiro it was obvious, luckily we were staying for a few days and were looking forward to discovering what the city had to offer. We had certainly been pleasantly surprised so far.........

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.

Sao Jacinto

We lay at anchor blessed with light winds and a complete absence of the swell that had plagued us for weeks. We watched a festival of small vessels bedecked with flags and palm leaves along with the obligatory selection of religious statuary make its way from up river then have a small service at the end of the quay, we had to watch from the boat as we had not yet blown up the dinghy.



Later we went ashore to explore, the pilot had suggested that there wasn't a lot to see and indeed apart from some cafe bars and restaurants it seemed a very small place, it was however very busy!



We struggled to find a table to enjoy a celebratory beer but we did eventually.



We discovered some other things. The place was home to an air base, where a parachute regiment was established. This meant being woken by reveille and watching the sun go down to the last post. It never failed to put a smile on Lynnes face. The anchorage slowly filled up with other boats but it continued to be peaceful and calm.



The local boats were interesting, obviously reflecting the surf that would have been the normal conditions before the harbour had been established. A bit like a double ended canoe with an exaggerated sheer that made them look a bit like a banana!



The front facing the lagoon was very neat and clean, a cafe bar turned out to be a pastelería and paderia and sold some of the best bread we had tasted in ages and sold it for cents!



At one end of the front was a ruined factory that was home to a market, this is quite unusual as it was a Sunday so we put it down to the fact it was festival day.

The following day we explored a little more discovering several mini markets and after walking over the sandy peninsular found the beach we had been sailing past the day before.



This beach is 62 miles long and we were in one of the few ports of refuge, it certainly was big!



This was the feature that was absorbing the NW swell and we spent a couple of hours walking and watching the impressive surf crash on the perfect sand.



We also found a few pot buoys, the curse of this coast, and another thing that added to our stress levels, there are literally hundreds of these things even in depths exceeding 50 metres. It is a constant job to scan for them and in big swells they are not always easy to spot especially if they have lost their flags or worse the counterweight which means they lie flat.

All in all we loved Sao Jacinto, small, honest and welcoming. Slightly odd and seemingly obsessed with fishing ( everyone seemed to have a small boat ) ignore the pilots dire warnings it's a lovely spot.

South to Aveiro

The regular northerly winds, sometimes known as the " Portuguese trades" had set in with a vengeance and were blowing exceptionally boisterously in the afternoons reaching force 7 gusting 8. The marina was a bit exposed and there was a flurry of extra lines being put out by the boats already moored. In the dark of the night Dark Tarn was vibrating in the high winds,  a couple of yachts came in and after several attempts to berth in the high wind and a great deal of multi lingual ' help' from berth holders managed to secure in whatever upwind berth they could crash! We were stuck for a few days. The Portuguese coast is not particularly friendly, it is a long way between ports of refuge and a lot of those are subject to entrance limitations, usually consisting of a dangerous ' bar' which with high winds and the ever present swell can create conditions which have resulted in the loss of a few yachts over the years. We were headed for the next logical stop southward, which was Leixos, pronounced " Leyshoinsh" the day arrived when a lull in the wind strength was forecast. We were awoken by what sounded like a nuclear war siren wailing over the town, sleepily wondering what insanity Trump had been up to now I cracked the hatch and was greeted by the sight of a large fire to windward.



The siren was obviously summoning the volunteer firemen, however it did add considerably to my anxiety, I find constant high winds wearing and this last event just made me want to leave quickly!
We had a rolly sail the 30 miles or so to Leixos, the swell was quite large but luckily Leixos has an all weather entrance. The marina however was full so we were advised to anchor in the harbour. It was nicely sheltered and we settled down to watch the arrival of another dozen yachts and the anchorage though roomy was soon quite crowded. Leixos is also incredibly busy being a commercial harbour ships were coming and going constantly.



The following morning,a particularly impressive cruise ship had entered as  we prepared to leave very early at 7.30 .We had another 33 miles or so to go to the estuary of Aveiro, this is one of the dangerous entrances so we had planned our trip to arrive at high water and hopefully before the afternoon wind had built up.
We left in the pale morning light in the gap between ships entering.



The wind soon filled in just enough for us to raise sail and we had the company of another couple of yachts which were sailing parallel courses to us.



There were another couple of boats a few miles ahead of us which we could see on AIS. This really is a great system, we could call up the names of the boats and their speed, unfortunately AIS 'B' isn't as comprehensive as the commercial 'A' system so we couldn't see their eventual destination, we hoped it wasn't the anchorage we were heading for as we were hoping for some peace!



We had a very pleasant sail and arrived off the mole at the river entrance bang on time. It appeared that the other boats were on a different passage plan or possibly had read the fairly negative comments in the pilot.



We stowed sails as we didn't want any distractions as we piloted DT up the mile and a half to the lagoon at Sao Jacinto.
There were a great many small fishing boats frantically pulling fish from the bouncy over falls immediately inside the entrance and we took care to give them and their lines a good clearance as we tried to avoid the obvious banks off each of the breakwaters. Once in the river the last of the flood carried us quickly up to the well buoyed entrance on the port side.



It is essential to follow the channel markers as it is is very shallow in parts. We were soon anchored in 7 metres off the village of Sao Jacinto. There was obviously a festival of sorts happening, we were getting used to this happening by now.
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Porvoa de Varsim

Povoa de Varsim is not alone in having a church that doubles (or used to ) as a lighthouse.

A really great use for a church in my opinion, very often marked on Admiralty charts as " conspic"
In this case however lit up as well.....

This is the town hall, the photos on display in the arches are girls dressed in the local costume appropriate to the Barrio or neighbourhood they are from.
If you spend a little time in a place it either gets under your skin and stays or just gets on your nerves after a while. Povoa de Vaesim is neither, it is what it is........ it is slightly scruffy, the marina has no fuel berth, if the wind is in the north the fish smell from the northern harbour arm is apparent. Nothing appears to be quite finished but it all bumbles along with a great deal of friendly acceptance.

It has a fort which from the outside is an impressive military structure and indeed has a history, however inside is a restaurant and a sadly lost tourist information office.

It does have a great view from the battlements .

Of course the main asset or some might say downfall of the town is its extensive beach, " everyone wants to live on the beach" so said our friendly marina guy, "so they ruined the town", by building a load of high rise blocks and destroying the old fabric of the town.
He could be right, it is a bit Blackpool.........

Its true the high rises are intrusive and ugly, but one cant be too judgemental about these things, after all we are only passing through. Besides there are real treasures to be unearthed if you care to dig around.

  Take the local church ( or more correctly one of them ) from the outside a typical Iberian style building.

The doors however are solid bronze and only  a few years old .

Beyond is a beautiful carved wooden entrance with glazed doors.
and beyond that is the body of the church . A fabulous vision of guilt and art.

I was intrigued by one of the side chapels which seemed to depict bishops burning in hell.

Later as we returned to the boat the wind had increased, as it usually did in the late afternoon and several boats were making epic and painful (expensive ) attempts to berth in the marina. The wind strength was by this time force 7 ish... There was a lot of running around as a Hallberg Raasay, tried and failed several times to attempt an upwind berth. Eventually for reasons known only to the skipper he careered into a downwind berth at great speed and a dozen or more people from yachts overcame massive language and translation difficulties to help berth the boat in the 30 mph winds. Later a British boat came into a downwind berth at a bit of a lick in the wind and gave our pontoon a sound whack. The combination of persistent swell and high winds in the afternoon and evening was giving this coast a distinctly negative feel for me, and the antics of other yachtsmen obviously unused to these conditions was a little worrying. Luckily there was room to spare for boats to play bump and shunt, even if this proved expensive for them.....

I have no photos of the mayhem that followed so I will finish with a couple of nice shots of the skate park on the seafront.

Should please Alex anyway!