When we were in Doca de Alcantara, Lisbon, we found out that the Swedish yacht Inga was in Cascais. Inga was one of the boats that left Falmouth at almost the same time as us. They left the morning after us and ended up in bad weather and decided to go to La Coruna instead of Baiona. We all missed them in Baiona and were a bit worried about them before we found out that they were safe in La Coruna. The story about their crossing was promised to be exchanged against cold beers, therefore we decided to go to Cascais and loaded the fridge with beer.

Cascais marina is very expensive but there is an excellent bay to anchor in just outside the marina. We dropped anchor and soon discovered that one of our closest neighbours was Zahara. Zahara is the smallest yacht joining the ARC 2009. But when Cantare was next to Zahara, Cantare looked smaller. After a short while Ron, the skipper of Zahara, came over in his dinghy to say hello and invited us over for wine later.

We launched Volare, our dinghy, and went into the marina to find Inga. Mona and Lasse were aboard when we found her, it was a very happy reunion. We handed over the cold beers and got the story. The story of how they after a day or two on the Biscay found out that they didn’t have nearly as much fuel as they had thought, therefore they were forced to sail even when there was no wind. This made it impossible for them to avoid the strong winds that were predicted the day after our arrival and in the end they went to La Coruna to rest and repair some broken parts. We had a lovely evening aboard Inga and Lasse gave us a tow out to Cantare. We were also given one of Inga’s spare fruit net. I never got around to buy one in Sweden and we had been on a constant lookout since Denmark, with no result. We split the net into two smaller ones and put our fresh fruits and vegetables into them. Now Cantare has the look of a real blue water cruiser.

The second evening in Cascais we went over to Zahara. Zahara not only looks bigger from the outside, she also feels bigger when aboard her. The cockpit has more space, there’s no wheel to divide it into two as is the case on Cantare. The saloon looks wider as well and we soon found out that it’s true, Zahara is in reality 12 cm wider. Can she still be called the smallest yacht of the ARC? Hmm…I think we are almost the same size. A friendly bet has been made between us. The slower boat to the Caribbean has to take the other boat out for dinner. We will do our best to win, of course.

Last night we left Cascais and sailed, or motored, to Sines. We arrived here at 8.15 am and by then we had a long list of things to fix before we are ready to leave for Porto Santo. Most of them are done now, but we still have to download the latest weather forecasts, and take the decision of whether to leave or not. One plan is to go south first and then when the southerly wind sets in we will head west. If the grib-files develops in a way we don’t like we have the possibility to go east instead, to Faro, Lagos or Cadiz. We will try to keep you updated via the satellite phone. / The Captain

P.S The laundry came back smelling clean and neatly folded, we are very satisfied! D.S