In the morning of the October 5th, 2019, we cast off of Lagos Bay to sail further north to Lisbon. By the afternoon of the next day, we reached Cascais, a town and marina at the northern shore of the Tagus River Estuary.
Our passage was about a day and a half long and pretty eventful. The weather was on the rougher side with some steep and short waves. At around midnight, while trying to shorten my main sail, its electric furler started to act up. Still, I was able to fully furl the sail and with a fresh close reach wind, I was able to continue flying just our genoa and mizzen. However, soon another problem struck! Our tired genoa ripped almost all the way down along its sun cover forcing me to furl it as well, along with the mizzen. There was no other way to continue but to motor forward! With the sharp waves coming from the broad reach, it was not a very comfortable way to sail. Some major pounding!
Once we reached Cascais, we docked at their marina fuel dock and filled up our diesel tank. However, with no handy fuel ‘marinero’ to cast our docking lines while we were maneuvering with our bow thruster, we lost its propeller again. A day after I had just replaced it! Talk about bad luck!
After filling up, I went to the marina office and tried to negotiate a slip for a night or two. It wasn’t a very friendly place – no room at the marina and no help with getting us to any other docking place nearby. It was very unusual and unexpected as all across Europe, every single marina would try to get us in and if they were at capacity, they would always make arrangements to get us a slip at some place nearby. Not at Cascais! No slip, and you’re on your own!
We had no choice but to anchor in the nearby Baia de Cascais. Once we dropped our hook, I had time to asses any boat damages. The main sail furler was broken, the genoa was in pieces, the bow thruster had no propeller, and then I discovered I had water in my C-Drive!
It turned out the problem was with the boom furler gear.
After fixing the bow thruster propeller again, I started to call and e-mail marinas and boat yards in Lisbon. Unfortunately, all the marinas along the Tagus Estuary are prone to silting, so most of them do not have enough depth to accept a boat of my draft.
After I realized I needed to haul out my boat to fix the C-Drive leak, I started to look for a haul-out yard near Lisbon. The most recommended was Tagus Yacht Center located at Seixal on the south shore of Tagus, across the river from Lisbon. I called them but at the time, Fall going into Winter, it was fully booked. However, the owner suggested contacting a nearby place called Iatestore. It’s both a pleasure and commercial vessel yard with a travel lift able to haul out my vessel.
Sailing up the Tagus Estuary towards Iatestore boat yard.
Getting my vessel to Iatestore was possible only during high tide, and I still needed radio support from the yard owner to get through the last leg without being grounded.
Finally, we reached Iatestore, got the boat hauled out, and put it in dry storage on October 8th, 2019. Now I just had to put myself to work. First, I needed to get all the parts and supplies. All Amel specific parts were shipped directly from their La Rochelle or Mediterranean facilities while I was able to arrange all other supplies with the yard itself. The Iatestore owner and its staff turned out invaluable and very helpful. I would highly recommend this place for your repairs and work! They helped me find a sailmaker to fix my broken genoa too. I needed my sails to get me to Gibraltar where a new set of sails were being made by Q-Sails in Turkey. Getting them shipped to Gibraltar would save me money on VAT.
Our boat on the hard at Iatestore.
Broken genoa visible on its forestay furler!
Before all the parts and supplies could reach Lisbon, we had some time to explore and enjoy this great city!
In Lisbon, we met our daughter Eva who had reached the city a few days before us. She arranged an Airbnb for the three of us, and we met her once we had hauled out and secured our vessel. The place was nice, well appointed, and located close to the city center.
Lisbon panorama as viewed from our Airbnb.
We were staying in the older part of Lisbon with its narrow and winding streets.
We did some sightseeing, including a ride on Elevador da Bica, a mountain type funicular connecting the upper town with the north Tagus bank.
Elevador da Bica funicular
Another day, we took a ride on the E28 tram line. The E28 tram follows a very scenic route, passing through many of Lisbon’s historic districts and provides one of the best tours of the city!
For most of our activities, we focused on exploring the Lisbon food scene which is really amazing and truly a foodie’s heaven! Among the many food places we visited, the Time Out Market stood out the most! It’s a huge food court with communal seating and stall upon stall catering the best food that Portugal has to offer from bacalau (salted cod) to Pasteis de Nata. This Portuguese sweet specialty is something we enjoyed all day long starting with it as our breakfast staple.
Here are some pictures from our many visits to the Time Out food hall and some of the many foods we got there!
We also dined at Marisquieria Cervejaria Ramiro which had the character of a typical tourist trap but still had great seafood. The line there is always long but is well worth the wait!
There were other restaurants, though less touristy, that were highly recommended and provided us with outstanding culinary experiences. One was Cantnho Lusitano, a very small place with just a few tables and serving outstanding fare.
Cantnho Lusitano
Eva, Joanna, and Maciek at Cantnho Lusitano
Probably our most favorite outing was at Bairrices, then located in the Bairro Alto part of Lisbon (recently, they relocated to the lower part of the town, close to the famous Time out market). For a very reasonable price, they fed us a full table of petiscos, small portions of food meant to be shared at your table, that we enjoyed immensely and could hardly get through! Nirvana!
Other great food places we really enjoyed were Oficio Restaurant where we had an exquisite lunch and Kaffeehaus where we had our Sunday brunch.
Sunday brunch at Kaffeehaus
In general, Lisbon should definitely be considered a foodie’s heaven! Lots of places to choose from and Portuguese fare is hard to beat!
Finally, on October 14th, 2019, Eva and Joanna flew out of Lisbon to Warsaw. Joanna would stay there with my sister and brother-in-law during our Atlantic crossing to eventually join us in the Caribbean. Eva, on the other hand, would meet the boat on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for our Atlantic sail.
We vacated our current Airbnb, and I drove the two of them to the Lisbon airport. After they departed, I rented a car which would prove useful to commute to Iatestore to work on my boat and get it ready for our big sail across the Atlantic.
Also, I got a new Airbnb in the Alfama neighborhood. It’s the oldest part of Lisbon and known for its narrow alleyways and cozy and inviting places to eat and drink!
I was on my own for two days, and after Wojtek joined me in Lisbon, He was an invaluable help to work on the boat and then he’d join all the way to St. Lucia!
Wojtek arrived on October 16th and for the next two weeks, we focused on working on the boat and provisioning it for the passage which would take us first to Gibraltar then the Canaries and finally crossing the Atlantic.
Each morning, after our breakfast of pasteis de nata with double espressos at Pastelaria Alfama Doce, we would drive across the Lisbon Ponte 25 de Abril to get to Iatestore to work on the boat.
We had to fix the main sail furler, for which we got parts shipped from Amel. However, the parts needed to be re-worked in order to fit the original build. The other fixes included the genoa furler, the so-called C-Drive, and the torn genoa. For this last task, we had a sailmaker put it together into working shape just so we could reach Gibraltar where I was expecting the shipment of new sails from Q-Sails.
We were fairly busy with all this work but that did not stop us from enjoying Lisbon’s gastronomic or artistic sides. One night, we reserved seating for a Fado music night at a nearby spot, Sr. Fado, which combined Fado music with nice dinner fare.
Finally, after two weeks of diligent work, we were able to launch the boat. On the morning of October 28th, we vacated our hospitable and nice Alfama digs and took an Uber to Iatastore to prepare for putting our Amel on the water. Once ready, we were just waiting for the Tagus River high tide and around 2 P.M, we were launched and ready to motor to our new docking place. I was able to secure a slip at Lisbon’s Marina Parque das Nações, located slightly up the river in the newer city area.
We docked there for a few days and Andrzej (Andrew) Nadara, our forth crewman for the Atlantic crossing, joined us.
Once we had re-supplied and had our vessel checked, we were ready to get underway to Gibraltar with a stopover at Lagos. In the early afternoon of October 30th, 2019, we cast off and got underway expecting to reach Lagos the next day.