Our long term port in Porto!

So we arrived after another windless day and settled into Marina Douro on the banks of Vila Nova de Gaia, opposite the old town of Porto.

We said goodbye to Rich – he’s gone home for some fishing, but he’ll be back when we reach Madeira. We said hello to Paul and John!

We had planned for some downtime, and we’ve completed all of the boat repairs that were necessary. By now you will appreciate that boat ownership is often described as undertaking boat repairs in beautiful locations😢

And Porto is beautiful!

But rather than dine in the tourist area, we found a local restaurant and boy, was it good!

So it seemed the right thing to do the next day was to go on our own tour of the cellars. We went to Graham’s Churchill cellars. It was set up by one of the Graham‘s sons, in competition with his family, and named after his wife of the Churchill family. We had a great tour and were told of the history of Port – created by the British in order to make the local Duoro wine more palatable by adding brandy. We were apparently only drinking this, as we had fallen out with the French (again) and they had refused to sell us their claret!

And obviously the tasting!

Then it was off on our tour of the town on our scooters!

So we then rested all evening in anticipation of an early departure. Sadly the low pressure system that we were watching hit harder than we wanted. The marina has taken a hammering and we have had very disturbed nights rocking and rolling!

We would so rather have been at sea as it would have been more comfortable, but the authorities have closed the entrance to the entire river, so we are stuck. Best estimate is another 36 hours!

So another night, another dinner.

The locals eat in their neighbourhood on BBQ’s set up in the street and serving locally caught seafood. Really lovely – if you like seafood.

We’ll let you know when we escape!