Fill up the oxygen bottle at the diver’s station with the friendly people and down goes Jo to clear the prop with the bread knife. That takes time; those plastic ropes get hot and virtually welded around the shaft. 15.00 we take off . The barometer falls quickly, the weather chart from Northwood shows a low and a cold front and at 11.00 we round Cap Finisterre with winds blowing force 8 and heavy sea from behind, pushing us up to 15 knots in the surf. It becomes a noisy night with little sleep.
The low passes and the pressure drops to 990. We go to Viana do Castello in Portugal and fasten the boat to the jetty in the river while it is raining hard. It is high tide and quiet, but after one hour the tide goes and the river becomes very bumpy. Port captain comes along and advises to get into port soonest and he is going to beat up his assistant to let us lying that long in the river. Engines on, lines off and suddenly the right engine stops. Again a rope but this time from a drifting fishing net. Fishermen in Viana have the habit to fish in the river, taking advantage of the current with the tides and sometimes block the whole river with their nets. To maneuver a cat in a stream with 3 knots on one engine and to get into port is no easy task, but with some effort I managed and was in secure port, using then the dinghy to push the boat into the box, followed by a thank you to Carlos the nice harbormaster.