That's what you find on your way from Leixoes to Lisbon. The previous night was windless and very dark, no moon at all, but there was an amazingly bright sea fire to make it more pleasant. That was needed since it was rather tiresome to keep a sharp look out for the many fish pot flags that appeared just a few meters in front of Cantare, some of them barely visible. There are so many along the Portuguese coast and they can be far from land, we took a route that kept us about 12 nm of the coast, still there appeared at least one per hour. Two hours into my night watch I was becoming a bit stressed by all the evasive manoeuvres. Right then the sea fire glowed very strong around my starboard side, and water was splashing into the cockpit, I thought I had hit a flag or something bigger. I was just about to put the engine in neutral, when I realised that it was dolphins who caused the disturbance. I took a break from the fish flag watch, hoping for the best, and amazed while looking at the group of around 20 dolphins. They were swimming very fast back and forth, jumping up and splashing around. After a while I could make out the sea fire caused by the many fishes that fled for their lives. The dolphins were hunting for food, it was a great show. Then another fish flag appeared just a few meters from the boat, the dolphins swam around it and I quickly realized that I needed to focus on the look out again.

With the morning light came the wind and we spread our two headsails. The sun kept shining during the day and the wind was a steady 8 m/s, we did around 5 to 6 knots, sometimes more. Around 2 pm we could make out the contours of two islands in front of us, Ilha da Berlenga. According to our pilot book they were beautiful, but not very good for over night anchoring. When we got closer we decided to give it a try anyway. That's where we are right now, anchored beside the 17th century Forte de Sâo Joâo Baptista, built by monks. It's very scenic and peaceful here, although I would sleep better if the wind decreased a bit more. Tomorrow we will enjoy the day here, exploring the fort, and the caves that surround it. In the afternoon we will continue towards Lisbon. / The Captain