Povoa de Varzim - Trouble at the Fisherman's Festival!
Niord's Big Adventure
Tony Gratton
Sat 15 Jul 2023 23:35
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14/07/2023 Povoa - A day of rest
Yesterday we found a local bakery where we were
just in time to buy the last of the natas for breakfast. After the shock and awe
of shearing yet another coupling bolt, today was a recovery day. We slept in
late then made the hike around to the marina office to let them know that we
needed to stay on and might need a lift. They put us in touch with the local
marine engineering company where we met Sandra who listened to our woes and
promised to get her boss onto the case next week (maybe). Back to Niord for
lunch, including a couple of glasses of wine then R & R in the afternoon.
For Tony this meant several hours of sleep as the rain hammered onto the
coachroof. In the evening the rain stopped so we decided to go for a
stroll. On the way back we found the best ice-cream parlour in town and treated
ourselves to two huge 'copas' (desserts). Back to Niord and time to get the blog
up and running...
15/07/2023 Handbags at the Fishermans
Festival!
Povoa is to Portugal what Benedorm is to Spain... Not
the sort of place you want to get stranded in, but hey, things could be worse.
At least they have a 35T hoist here with plenty of space on the hard! Another
late start before we could face the day. The first priority was laundry. Luckily
we found the two machines free, so loaded them up whilst doing a quick
translation of the wash programmes from Portuguese into English! Due to our
distance from the 'facilities', since we got here we have been searching for a
decent local cafe where we could breakfast and ... We decided to try a local
cafe not too far from the marina. Why we did this when it too was at least 3/4
mile from the boat goodness only knows, but there you go. There are very few
Brits here, so Tony was eager to practice his Portuguese, and there was no other
option in the cafe. He chose a lovely apple pastry, which, when it arrived
turned out to be yesterday's ham and congealed cheese inside a kind of
croissant. Returning back to the launderette at the marina our two machines were
busily churning away, rather like Tony's tummy at this point, and a couple of
disgruntled punters were queuing up. They turned out to be French, and during
the ensuing wait we learned that they were from Boulogne-sur-Mer and that
Jean-Michelle had built his own steel boat. It turned out that they were the
next boat down on the pontoon from Niord, and it transpired that they too are
heading out to the Caribbean this autumn, but via Senegal.
His stomach still churning, and at least a mile from the
facilities, Tony returned to Niord to complete a couple of small jobs while
Karen waited for the endless wash programmes to finish. We were thinking of
launching the dinghy to make it quicker to get to the facilities, but with a F8
forcast for Sunday we decided it was probably not worth it. As a result we hiked
back there for a shower, and back again - great exercise!
Since we arrived, there has been a lot of hustle and
bustle ashore just by us with workmen erecting a mega marquee. It turns out that
this is the fishermen's festival, with some excellent cooked fish on offer, so
having not eaten all day we decided to treat ourselves. After a beer, and an
eye-wateringly expensive G & T at the local gastro pub, we presented
ourselves at the marquee. This resort is a very popular holiday destination for
the Portuguese, and we have hardly heard a word of English spoken. With some
trepidation, Tony made the order at the kiosk in his basic Portuguese, only to
find that the lady manning it spoke perfect English! There was trouble brewing
in the system, however. Having paid for, and received a single ticket for
drinks and food, we were then obliged to split into one of three queues; food,
drink or desserts. It was absolute chaos! Karen went for the drinks queue, and
Tony for the food with our one ticket between us. People were arriving at the
head of both queues, and were having to swap tickets between themselves to get
served. Tempers got heated, and in the drinks queue in front of Karen things
finally bubbled over. Handbags were drawn, insults were thrown with lots of
shouting, and the odd blow, and at one point it looked as if the entire tent was
about to join in!! Some were horrified, others amused, and in the fracas Tony
made the acquaintance of a very nice chap from Amazonia of all places!
Eventually some sense of decorum was restored, and the inevitable happened. Both
Tony and Karen arrived at the head of their respective queues with only one
ticket between them! Fortunately for us, a nice Portuguese lady managed to grab
our ticket back from the food lady so it could be relayed to Karen for the
drinks. We both enjoyed beautiful grilled Swordfish with a bottle of Portuguese
Rose. There was entertainment of sorts, and Karen managed to get dragged into a
Portuguese version of the Conga!! We finished the evening off with another visit
to the ice-cream parlour, as Tony has been losing weight, so needed
feeding-up!
We have a F8 forecast for tomorrow, so plan to abandon
ship and make a trip into Porto!
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