After a few days working in Porto with the help of guests, Clavadel received her new stable crew, and third round of international crewmembers. Coming from the UK, we got Karis Baker and Ben Johnson. Karis is a colleague of mine at the Molecular Ecology Research Group at Durham University, working on population genetics of roe deer. Ben johnson is Karis boyfriend and works as a mechanical engineer of airplanes and big ships.
Karis Baker
Ben JohnsonThe third member is already a veteran on board Clavadel. Neftalí Sílllero is a post-doc researcher at the University of Porto on remote sensing applied to biogeographical studies of amphibians and reptiles. He was the second helmsman in last year expedition and he was on board the dingy on the day the first biopsy sample of the project was collected, and the first ever in mainland Portugal. With him, he brought a friend from Andaluzia he met at Doñana Natural Park, Esther Alberca.
Neftalí Síllero
Esther AlbercaSo at this point Clavadel had a luxury crew to head South to Figueira and start sampling in that region. We were planned to go south on the 21st,probably on engine in the beginning of the day, but hopefully get some wind at some time of the day and sail. It was not a bad forecast at all, so I tell everyone to be ready to get up early to be leaving at 0500. However, when I woke up at 0400 I heard this high pitched horn sounding at regular intervals and hoped, seriously hoped that it wasn't what I was thinking. However, when I looked out of the my cabin's hatch I realized that it was precisely what I was thinking... the thickest fog had settled in and it was so thick that I couldn't even see the red light that marks the entrance of the marina (around 100 meters). As we don't have a radar, and Porto is a very busy port, I was not going to risk go out. I decided to get up every hour and check the fog had lifted and the make a decision. The fog eventually lifted... at around 1430!!! Going South had to wait until the next day. Fortunately, the next day I woke up to see no fog. No wind as well, but we had to go South anyway, and the forecast predicted some wind for the afternoon, so we got in our way.
Everything was fine until about after 2 hours (around Espinho) when Neftalí turns to me and says "Fog seems to be settling in.". Three minutes later we had a visibility of less than 10 meters! It was time for everyone to be watching, and obviously using the foghorn. But instead of worrying too much, suddenly we were just having fun blowing the foghorn!
At some point it was clear the fog was there to stay, and we couldn't turn back as fog in Porto means we would have to sail in the middle of huge tankers and cargo ships blindfolded. The question was, should we stop in Aveiro and wait, or just keep going to Figueira. In order to have an idea on the weather further South, I called Zé (he's from Aveiro) to know how was the weather in Aveiro. He wasn't in Aveiro but was in Espinho, and said the weather was perfectly clear. Talking to another person in Figueira revealed the same thing. It was clear that the fog had settle offshore but not nearshore. So we made a slight change in course to approach shore and soon we were in a much lighter fog, and with enough visibility to be safe. At 2 miles of land we could barely see it, but that meant we had at least 2 miles of visibility. As we were passing Aveiro the wind rose up, and soon we were sailing very comfortably towards Figueira. Our trip was finally going smoothly!
At around 2000 we moored at Figueira marina and had a very reinvigorating dinner at a nearby restaurant. Next day, we were going out early to sample dolphins in the area. We saw some dolphins on our way down near cape Mondego, and when asking local navy police he told me they were usually seen near the position we saw them earlier. So next day we were going North of cape Mondego to look for dolphins.
Everything was fine until about after 2 hours (around Espinho) when Neftalí turns to me and says "Fog seems to be settling in.". Three minutes later we had a visibility of less than 10 meters! It was time for everyone to be watching, and obviously using the foghorn. But instead of worrying too much, suddenly we were just having fun blowing the foghorn!
At some point it was clear the fog was there to stay, and we couldn't turn back as fog in Porto means we would have to sail in the middle of huge tankers and cargo ships blindfolded. The question was, should we stop in Aveiro and wait, or just keep going to Figueira. In order to have an idea on the weather further South, I called Zé (he's from Aveiro) to know how was the weather in Aveiro. He wasn't in Aveiro but was in Espinho, and said the weather was perfectly clear. Talking to another person in Figueira revealed the same thing. It was clear that the fog had settle offshore but not nearshore. So we made a slight change in course to approach shore and soon we were in a much lighter fog, and with enough visibility to be safe. At 2 miles of land we could barely see it, but that meant we had at least 2 miles of visibility. As we were passing Aveiro the wind rose up, and soon we were sailing very comfortably towards Figueira. Our trip was finally going smoothly!
At around 2000 we moored at Figueira marina and had a very reinvigorating dinner at a nearby restaurant. Next day, we were going out early to sample dolphins in the area. We saw some dolphins on our way down near cape Mondego, and when asking local navy police he told me they were usually seen near the position we saw them earlier. So next day we were going North of cape Mondego to look for dolphins.
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