We ended up staying six nights in Cascais, our longest stop so far. The weather was fabulous and we loved the area so we hired a car and saw a few of the sights and lazed on a few of the beaches. In the mornings, the first stop was the bakery in town, which was a ten minute walk away and had an amazing range of breads on offer. The lowlight of the stay was listening to a busker at a beach café who was more out of tune than either Frank or myself…quite an accomplishment!

Tim and Annabelle had to leave on Friday to pick up their car from Gijon and drive back up to St Malo over the weekend. It was cheaper and more convenient for them to fly to Oviedo than to take the train north, so we took them to the airport in Lisbon yesterday morning and then returned to Cascais for a lazy day on the boat. Rather than staying in harbour, we took her out into the bay and dropped the anchor, where we ate lunch then swam off the back of Zaffina. It was baking hot.

This morning dawned still and bright, and we managed to rouse ourselves to leave the marina just after 7am – already it was hot, and with almost no wind at all, the only thing we had to worry about was the swell. Oh, and the pots! We had encountered more pots in Portuguese waters than along the whole of the French and Spanish coasts put together, and we feared that the journey ahead would require us to be on constant alert. It was a pleasant surprise to discover that once we were out to sea the pots petered out altogether and we only saw about two in four hours. Or maybe we didn’t see the markers on the others and simply drove over them!

The swell was quite heavy but as it was on the starboard quarter, it pushed us forwards all the way. We were like a couple of kids when we reached Cabo Sao Vicente, the lighthouse there marking the southwest point of Europe, and turned onto the Algarve. We’ve done it! We may not be in the Med yet, but we’ve negotiated the Atlantic coasts of France, Spain and Portugal, and our reward was to turn into calm waters and perfect conditions, with the scent of pines wafting off the land. Lunch was spent at anchor in a small cove where we lazed the afternoon away before making the short crossing to Lagos. It’s still hot and quite breezy now and we’re off to find a small café for dinner.