We left Ilha da Berlenga at around 9:30 am local time. Unfortunately there was too little wind to sail and it stayed that way the whole day. So we motored all the 53 nm to Lisboa. Well, that can happen...
Early afternoon though we finally got some luck in the fishing stuff. The rattle on the fishing rod went off and then it stopped again. There was not a lot of tension on the line but Rutger wanted to check anyway. When he hauled it in there was obviously something on the hook but it seemed not a fish, it didn't resist at all... But,... it was !! We got it in and with a smack on the head it was dead. It looked like a mackerel but when we checked the book later it looked more like a bonito. Anyway, while I was getting his guts out, Rutger had set the line again and by the time I was finished he got another one, and another one.... I cleaned them all and put away the rod... three was more then enough. The biggest one was about 50 cm and the other 2 only slightly smaller...The baby bath I picked up just before we left came in very handy to clean the fish without getting the boat all bloody. After we got in the marina at around 7.30 pm we had a great catch of the day dinner :-)
We moored in the marina in Oeiros, about 10 nm west of Lisboa just at the entrance of the Tejo river. Saturday we left to visit Lisboa. That is Monique, Rutger and I. Andy decided to stay on the boat, working for a bit.
It took us about 40 min by train to get there, it was a nice ride..
Guided by Monique, our onshore navigator and a little help from the lonely planet, we did a magnificent tour that took about whole afternoon. Monique had read something about tram 28 we had to take as a starting point and that was an experience. The trams look a bit like the ones in San Francisco but then smaller. It sometimes drove so close to the buildings you could definitely not lean out of the window!!
The tour we did took us indeed to all the beautiful places. At a flee market, described as the theft market in the lonely planet, we bought a fado cd for a really good price :-)
Of course we wanted to have dinner in a fado restaurant. On the tour we walked by a few and we went back to there later. We did not have any reservations and the first 2 were fully booked....
We were advised to try at Pedro street and there we found this tiny restaurant that had put out all its tables on the little square and there was this woman singing …. fantastic!! It turned out to be a group of 4 singers and two guitarists that played very good. They were singing right in front of our table Moninque fell in love with one of the men....:-) I got his card with his phone number, address and all to send him the video's I made but I have to hide it and check Monique's purse when she's leaving !!We ended up staying the whole night, missing our train back but whatever.
Taxi's aren't that expensive at all and we had a really great night.
Back at the boat we sat with Andy for a while and after a few more drinks we went to bed. Today we'll sail for a bit to an anchorage off the Praia Vasco da Gama near Sines, about 30 nm South, where we'll barbeque the rest of the fish. It's supposed be the most beautiful bay.... and,... we got wind today :-)
