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Fun in Cadiz

Fun in Cadiz

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After a night under the suspension bridge, we made our way to a marina for some much-needed tlc.

We are getting better at this slip mooring, everyone else makes it look so easy in their boats with bow thrusters and controlled steerage in reverse! Neither of which Hannah Penn has! But after an uneventful docking we were able to have a real shower and Hannah was able to have her salty deck hosed down too, a nice and cooling thing to do as the heat was almost unbearable, luckily there was a bit of wind so we forced some air through the boat with the scoop

That evening after it started to cool down we ventured out on the hunt for fresh fruit and veg, not far into our journey we noticed that the place was packed out with cars parked literally everywhere! And wondered if there was a big event happening

Soon we heard a brass band playing in the distance and went to find out what was going on, we discovered this band playing and watched for a while before moving on, still wondering if they just practise here or if there was something more going on

We walked through the old part of Cadiz, it’s a beautiful historic city with strong religious ties, which we discovered in the form of a celebration festival depicting scenes from the Bible and Jesus’s life and death, each scene was like a mobile shrine which was guided through the streets each with its own brass band and many people guiding it with lot candles

They all arrived in the main square in view of thousands of onlookers, it was even televised and we saw people watching it from pins and bars nearby

After trying to see all the different scenes, which there were about 10 moving slower than a snail! We quickly hurried to a shop outside of all the chaos of people to find some dinner, it’s safe to say we didn’t make it in time to do a proper shop as was planned! With a couple of mins to choose some food before they closed for the night, we found some things to make sandwiches and ate it all at the side of the street!

After the evening’s excitement, we wandered home along the waterfront, where there was a park with some of the most amazing trees I’ve ever seen

One of many ancient trees in the park

The next day we got on with a few boat jobs including one which we had been putting off for a while…cleaning and replacing the plug/handle of an underwater sea cock because it had seized up and couldn’t be closed.

We will write about this in a separate post as it might be quite interesting for other folks with these seacocks.

A job well done and we didn’t fill the engine bay with too much water in doing so.

Day 75-76: Cascais

Day 75-76: Cascais

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Day 75 saw us heading to Cascais. This was the moment we turned the first “corner” on the west coast of Portugal.

The anchorage was large and there was plenty of room for us right in the middle.

That evening we headed to shore to explore what Cascais had to offer and to find some food.

Once again, as keeps happening at many of our ports of call, there was a festival happening.

We stayed in Cascais for 2 days, as long ago during the planning of the trip Kathryn had seen a place called Quinta de Regaleria that looked rather awesome, and we had to check it out.

This meant a short taxi to Sintra and a day spent surrounded by more tourists than any of us have seen in a while.

Brest’s International Maritime Festival

Brest’s International Maritime Festival

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We arrived in Brest after our Biscay crossing on Bastille day totally by accident.

Delayed due to COVID-19 Brest’s International Maritime Festival was also happening at the same time after being delayed by a few years.

This meant that not only was the marina in Brest quite full, but also the whole harbour area was extremely busy with classic yachts, ships, music, food and drink.

A tall ship in the harbour of Brest during the festival

As we were walking around the festival we kept hearing bagpipes in the background and wondered where they were coming from.

We ended up at the music stage, but there were no bagpipes to be seen initially.

It turns out they were warming up around the corner, but of course quite loud as bag pipes generally are.

When they came to perform, the band was not only made up of bagpipers, but also people that seemed to be playing what looked like a small clarinet, but it turned out to be (we think) a set of practice chanters.

All quite loud, but also enjoyable.

We walked past what seemed like hundreds of food establishments, all of which were jam-packed.

Eventually, we settled on a pizza place right next to the marina jetty that Hannah was moored up on.

They let us know that firework would be happening at around 11pm, so we set on a bench across the road, and waited both for the fireworks and our pizza with some drinks in hand.

We captured the climax of the fireworks display for you to enjoy.

The restaurant forgot to bring our pizza out (probably distracted by the fireworks) but we collected it shortly after they finished, and headed back to the boat, warming it slightly and then devouring it at about midnight.