Ariane: 10 - 2010 - Bjorn in Portugal

Bjorn and Mandy visit to Portugal

The Douro adventure began in earnest after leaving the hotel in Mirandella. Torturous roads took us climbing to apparently some 3000ft above sea level before we dropped down a tarmaced donkey path to the river. Hard to believe there would be navigable waters here! Jose told us he once took Arianne on this road… never again. The temperature rose 5 deg by the time we’d completed the 20min descent.

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting the mast back together and rigging her up, together with the loading of enough supplies for a good few days.

By the time we were done it was hinting of dusk. A couple of the floating hotels had steamed past kicking up the only disturbance to the waters as Jose explained the best procedures for mooring on the river.

Free mooring

Jose then took us upstream at a healthy pace in the failing light to show us our first overnight stop. It was located under a railway bridge in a small creek. However, upon entering it opened up and suddenly revealed a whole array of shiny new finger pontoons completely hidden from the river. Dropping off the skipper and returning later in the dark was our first bit of macboating since last season. It really brings home the personality of boat owners as I reached in the familiar places for my mooring lines to find nothing to hand, and elsewhere odd lengths of warps with spliced loops and integral snubbers in seemingly random places. The air and water were so calm that one could have simply left the boat ‘adrift’ as a leisurly parking procedure was worked out. That done, a light snack and we bedded down for the night.