Another Courtesy

Ahoy,

well to my surprise as well as to everyone else I am sure, me and the Ol' Girl are in Portugal and another courtesy flag is raised for the occasion. We, I decided on Viana do Costelo, despite the wind being a little sprightly from the North the fog had cleared so we left, all seemed well, how much easier it seemed with the preventer, I am even learning how to sail using the waves a little, well I think so.

As I entered past the outer sea defenses, I was greeted by complete madness, windsurfers, kite surfers, canoeists, sailing dingies and jet ski's all around seeing how close they could get to the Ol' Girl, as I don't speak any Portuguese I tried a few tried and tested English phrases. After running this minor gauntlet I was then onto asking the Captain to raise the bridge into the Marina, I called up on the VHF and had no response, so after a few minutes whilst circling the Ol' Girl, as the wind and activity around me would not allow me to just hang at rest, I tried again, nothing,
Just as I was beginning to get a little irritated, about having to grab the visitor mooring in limited space alone, a chap from the Marina arrived on the visitor pontoon and apologised for the lack of an aerial on the Marina radio, we did have a laugh about it. After a little while they raised the bridge and I was safe and sound, moored up and ready for a beer in town.

Viana is a little bizarre, the old town has been totally gentrified, all sparkly and pricey, not to mention a very disturbing blend of architecture. Some extremely beautiful Stokeresque buildings and some concrete monsters which look like they where flown in especially from a demolition in Poland.
The spot the Ol' Girl has in the Marina is in a perfect location to view them all, not to mention being right next to a restaurant, club and bar which has Portuguese Karaoke tonight.....Hmmmm should be good for a laugh if not a good nights sleep!

Tomorrow I think we leave for Varzim or Leixoes.