SY Hullu Poro

Hurricane Larry is today forecasted as shown on the two photos for Monday, 13th September, our planned departure date from Porto. It is amazing how the direction of Larry’s movement impacts our conditions here in Porto. While the wind direction with 18kts from North would be perfect, the waves and swell with max 2.8m coming from Larry would not be pleasant. The swell period with up to 20.4s is very long but also means that it is even more difficult to see the buoyage from the fishermen. Weather and time are the tow keys to sailing in safety, comfort and style. We will keep watching…🧐

I took a first short ride along the Douro River, which splits Porto into a South area and a North area. Douro Marina lies on the South banks of the river but the main city center is North. Nevertheless there are also historical places under this UNESCO World Heritage Site spanning to the South. Examples are the old fishermen village and port wine lodges. I sense there will be a lot more to explore over the coming days. Fair winds…

Shortly after leaving Póvoa de Varzim something got caught in the propeller or rudder as suddenly engine rpm reduced from 1800 to 1500 and boat speed from 6.5kts to 5.9kts. There was quite some large seaweed floating around at that time and I thought…oh oh…Bingo! Luckily I could free it up without jumping into the water and the journey proceeded with sharp look-out for more obstacles causing potential trouble.

We have now moored at Douro Marina in Porto for a longer stay. The approach can be a bit tricky but in today‘s condition it was all easy. We arrived 1 hour before high tide during slack time and currents in the river were close to zero. Swell on the bar at the river’s entry was moderate with 10kts winds from South. However, I have learned that direction of swell and direction of wind are not necessarily unidirectional here on the Atlantic.

Porto – just Porto…

Weather is like a good Scandinavian summer…😉

Fair winds…