August 8, 2009 - still at the Marina de Cascais, near Lisbon. Our wifi is a little unreliable, cycling in and out and interrupting internet access every now and again. Ed and I explored Lisbon for the better part of the day on August 6 and picked Robyn up at the Cais do Sodre for the short train ride back to the marina.

Little problem yesterday. A slow leak around the rudder post developed apparently from an inadequately tightened nut in the rudder shaft packing which was quickly determined by Ed the ship's engineer. Called Amel in France and they sent a technician to fix it, although not without waiting for the better part of the day. We will need to add a big pipe wrench to our inventory of tools, which was all it took to fix the problem in this instance. Francois and Robyn went to town and explored the castle. Richard has left to attend his son's wedding in Ireland but plans to return on August 18. Ed and I will go to Lisbon again to day to continue exploring. It is a city with a fascinating military and maritime history. Some pictures taken at Bayona and at Cascais and Lisbon will be in the next post.