We left our winter spot on the hard in Lisbon direction south.
First night we wanted to anchor in a secluded spot within the marina in Cascais – which we read about in the “ RCC Pilotage foundation Atlantic Spain and Portugal – fully revised seventh edition -2019 from Imray“
We asked at the reception … “no Anchorage here… but you may have a visitor berth if you wish …. that will be €84 ma’am”…..
Are they f***king crazy ?.. – but we were now in a spot… which choice did we have but to pay…..
2nd day off to Sesimbra. Another secluded anchorage in an unnamed bay east of a Cabo de Ares. The previous named book came up with this suggestion too.. . And we could save money after the shock from the previous Marina. Beautiful… here we will stay. Dropped anchor and prepared for a windy night, setting the alarm every hour as this was a first with our new Jambo 60kg anchor. The night was windy but the anchor held just fine. This proved to be a very good investment. Anyone on the look for a new anchor? Jambo is a make you should consider.
Next morning after coffee we planned to head towards Sines.
“Sweetheart… who’s that coming at us under an awesome pace??? The Portuguese Maritim coastal guards….
They pulled up next to us… did we know we were anchoring in a nature reserve where anchoring is forbidden ??? No – we didn’t !!!
We showed them the books we had read, the charts we were following… even our GPS didn’t show that out spot as “ forbidden to anchor “..
OK .. they were nice, and only doing their job, but we have to report to the maritim police in Setúbal for clearance… but not before tomorrow we were told …
What now ?? We are in a forbidden spot, the next marina is 30miles away… and how do we get back ??? Rent a car ?? And bad weather is on its way…
The nice captain of the coastal guard boat allowed us to travel on, but me must report at the police station latest tomorrow.
If we don’t, an international search warrant will go out…
OK…. retain anchor and off we go.
The plan being – sail to Sines, stay one night, rent a car, drive back to Setúbal, clear everything up, and then carry on our journey.
Underway….. everything going well, no worries … suddenly a huge explosion next to my left ear….. Wolfgang’s life vest inflated …. just like that!!!!!!
Thank goodness we have a few….
I must admit .. it was really funny.. he could hardly get out of the dam thing. 🙂

Excitement over…..
Let’s set the sails wing on wing, (like a butterfly…one sail left and the other to the right )as we have 20kn down winds.
The main to the left, the jib to the right and supported by the spinnaker boom.
And we had company … a school of dophins must have had the same destination…
20 miles later the wind turned and was coming from the west… sail position change.
Wolfgang went to the bow of the boat, life lines set as the swell was now 2.50 meters and the wind was blowing 25+ knots.
The dam spinnaker boom was under such pressure, he couldn’t release it… it wasn’t going anywhere…
He shouted something to me as I fought to keep coarse and release the jib lines at the same time… he needed a hammer.
Even the hammer didn’t work.
I was fighting to get the jib rolled in, and was at my last strength as we agreed to give up.
We set the main to the accurate position and hoped the jib would hold…
A 2nd try on Wolfgang’s part was more successful. He broke the spinnaker boom attachment, but at least the thing was now released at one end…
The whole time I was so frightened my husband would go overboard, I had no time to get frightened for myself…the boat was healing 30dg each side as we surfed the 2.5 meter waves in 25knots of wind, blasting 30kn at times.
Wolfgang fought a fight with a metal pole, winning as he decided to sacrifice an outside mattress in order not to ram a hole through the boats surface.
Back in the cockpit, we rounded to cape to Sines with the pole dangling from a half rolled up jib which was now fluttering in the wind and ready to kill anything which came in its path.
But we had made it !!!!!
Just another day on the Atlantic Portuguese coast.
And little trust in Imray.
Tania
Update…
we went to the maritime police in Setúbal today… we are all clear.
We payed an fine and got our names cleared so that no international search warrant will be registered.
Pfuuuuu…