Once more Nazaré

Finally yesterday by dawn we departed Nazare with heavy hearts and a stomach feeling of somehow not quite being ready to go. Here are couple of pictures from the so far best stop for us. Nazare was good for us perhaps because we stayed for several weeks, did a lot of work on Kiwi and got to know some really friendly people staying at the boat yard. Also Nazare boat yard is a funky mixture of surfers, stranded cruisers and local fisherman, has an interesting run down appearance, doesnt perhaps invite shiny fiber glass, but rather rusty steel boats and other vessels with real stories and charm.

Our epic night sailing from Nazare to Cascais (Lisbon) deserves another post, another day : )

Philipp stretching muscles between sandblastings with fantastic Le Bloom game we got as a present from our French friends, Kiwi in her tent in the back ground

So if we thought our dinghy is heavy... a traditional boat from the area from the times before breakwater

Famous Nazare waves, on a calm day

The Sisters, ruling the boatyard

Boatyard .(telakalla)

Holding the safety line for the sand diver insde Kiwi-wrap

Beautiful blasted steel on the starport, old paint on the port

Going through the annual maintenance of Kiwi in a foreign country turns out to be truly a very interesting part of our voyage. Simply hanging out on a Portuguese boatyard with local fisherman and fellow stranded sailors would be. Getting equipment and supplies organized is an adventure of its own : ). 

Nazare was chosen as location for lifting up Kiwi because of the cheap price of the crane. By coincidence, there happens to be a guy living in one of the boats, who we could rent equipment for sandblasting with an affordable price. We took the decision to blast everything under waterline down to steel. Anyone who knows about steel and corrosion understands that this is a rather courageous and very delicate operation were success is dependent on

-right timing (there should be as little time as possible between blasting and painting)

-right humidity (prior painting the steel must be clean and dry)

- good quality of the sand, primer, workforce (more important than what you do with a steel hull is 

how well you do it)

How successful the operation will be, remains to be seen with time. If nothing else, we have learned a lot! I myself have spent some weeks on boatyards in Finland and Norway every single year of my life. This year’s boatyard session is really special for following reasons:

-        -Boat maintenance work makes so much more sense when the boat is sailed daily and not only for holidays

-        -Temperatures constantly above 15 degrees and lack of rain makes everything sooo much easier. (It is actually possible to follow the instructions on a paint jar.)

-        -Having all the time needed for the job makes a big difference. Some (ex-)sailors seem to have stayed on this boatyard for several years. If we need one more day to Finnish, it doesn’t really matter anything.

 Nazare happens to be a very beautiful village at the coast. The unexpected and sad news of Philipp’s father passing away last week shadows our stay. We find ourselves missing our families and friends especially much in this random corner of the world.