Back in Leixoes A cata!ogue of disasters

It was with some trepidation that we opened the hatch on Erica. After all, our previous return had been memorable for mould. Luckily the vinegar had worked and all was clean and fairly fresh. One of the mooring warps had worn through but, fortunately we had doubled up all lines.

We now had to wait patiently to be lifted out for removal of the jungle on the hull and application of new antifouling. The marina was very greedy and annoyed us by insisting that, since we had been trapped in the UK by coronavirus, we had missed out on our free lift out accrued by our 6 month payment. We just had to bite the bullet and cough up. Needless to say we were not happy.

Whilst waiting we walked a bit and swam a little and spent time with Pete and Maria with Scruffbag going for a couple of sails on Casimia and giving Pete a whisper pole and using it with him on local short sails.

We discovered a park in the grounds of an old Covent.It was not advertised in any of the tourist offices yet it was amazing, lots of shady walkways and old statues everywhere.

And then it was time for lift out.What a surprise awaited us. The anodes were badly eroded and the aluminium propeller was soft and parts of it completely eroded. We had experienced lots of problems with the electricity supply in the autumn and from this evidence there had clearly been an earth leak on the pontoon. This was  confirmed when a local boat was lifted out later with the same problem. Of course the marina denied ever having electrical problems. 

Cesar, the independent boat maintenance worker did an excellent job  cleaning, sanding and antifouling and we set about waiting for a new propeller from the UK. Boredom did set in despite the beach and the borrowing of Pete's electric bike, which I loved.

Three weeks later with a lovely new 3 blade propeller from Clements Engineering, a firm we would thoroughly recommend for workmanship, speed and pleasant manner, we were ready to return to the water. We were eager to leave as soon as possible.

Once again the marina staff proved to be defensive and actually downright rude. We asked to be put back onto another pontoon because we were now aware of the electricity leak. They refused but failed to give any consistent reason.They said we were too small.We showed them smaller boats on the other pontoon. They said it was full.We pointed out many spaces and on and on it went. In the end another boat came into our original space the night before we went in so they had to let us move. We think they felt that letting us move otherwise would have been seen as admitting responsibility.

We left soon after and will never return.

Next stop Figuera de Foz.