Are You a Boat Person

When I drove to Nazaré to sail back to Peniche, I left the Jeep at the boat yard. My original plan was to take the bus there the next day and drive back home.

But plans and boats aren't very compatible. 

It just so happened that Manuel was sailing to Nazaré the next day and invited me to tag along. I mean, what would you rather do: sit for 90 minutes in an air-conditioned bus with a flat-screen TV showing action movies or sit on a hot rolling boat for 5 hours? The answer - the real answer - is the litmus test that determines whether you're a boat person or not.

The added bonus is that I got to talk to a like-minded sailor for 5 hours. Funny how when two sailboat owners get together - regardless of the fact that they may have read a thousand books each, have all kinds of opinions about politics, and so on - will nevertheless spend 99% of their time talking about boat-related issues. Is boating a disease, or what?

This year's winter storm really walloped this beacon in Nazaré. Beware of the submerged rocks seen next to the wilting beacon. The light was replaced by the skinny metal one farther back.

To change the subject - which I always do in just about every post, a bad habit I must give up - the next day I had the pleasure of watching three buddy boats leave Peniche in thick fog.

For me, watching a boat disappearing into a cloud of fog really turns me on. Call me kinky, I don't care. Don't get me wrong though, I hate sailing in fog. Even so, there's something magical about watching boats being slowly engulfed by it on their way to some other port of call.

Leaving me behind...good thing because you wouldn't catch me in that soup without a radar.

See the flag, he's French...that explains it.

Working on a translation about a famous ship.