Cascais Classic Race

Cipango off Cascais

First day out on the water. The weather remained sub-optimal with almost no wind tucked in Cascais and a short racing window which meant the organising Clube Naval decided we couldn't race down to Lisbon. Instead they planned a ten miler in the bay and we set off early in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, we didn't receive any race instructions so we just tried to follow the other boats and arrived late at the start, but it meant that we had a pleasant sail without any pressure whilst Dave and Ollie learnt the ropes.

Dave and Ollie pull a reef

The wind increased nicely and we had a bit of work to do on the into wind leg. We managed to overhaul two of our fleet - Cipango and Gimcrack. Despite being laden for passage and rather low in the water, Croix des Gardes performed well and stayed dry.

Gimcrack

The children are still the centre of attention ashore. Nobody else has youngsters aboard, although many say they wish they had been bold enough to bring theirs after all. They didn't really enjoy the into wind leg - they had not sailed for some months. Elizabeth was seasick briefly but perked up immediately afterwards. We hope to take a cruise down to the Belem Tower later in the week anyway and this should help the children find their sea legs before we depart.