The Cabo de Sines is off the port bow, partly hidden in a heat haze and dust from the wind. It is hot here. We’ve had nearly three weeks of settled weather and sun. Such a change from our sailing in the UK in July and August. I must admit to a little bit of guilt seeing the UK getting hit by storm Agnes recently. Weather patterns is a constant topic of conversation on board Novara. We pour over the daily wind reports for passage planning. We marvel at how the weather has changed South of Cape Finisterre. I never noticed before how the Cape splits the storms of the north from the more settled weather [at least for now] of the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. And inevitably, we turn to climate changes. This year is again one of the hottest on record. Sea temperatures are crazy high and we can see the real impact climate changes are having on the communities we pass and the wildlife we see.

Over the last few days we’ve sailed from Porto to Lisbon, and we anchored just off Cascais. Cascais is a beautiful seaside town at the mouth of the River Tej, that leads up to Lisbon. Interestingly, it’s where our niece Olivia came to do her ironman last year, so it feels like we have a family connection here. After an uncomfortable night rolling around at anchor we moved in to the marina, which gave us access to land – and the town where we could reprovision, and at long last, I got my watch strap repaired!

We’re getting closer to Sines now on SV Novara. The Portuguese trade winds didn’t fill in as they promised. So it’s been a slow day. I’m looking forward to dropping anchor and a swim!