Adjusting the jib sheet.

After a few days of antique hunting and wine shopping in Porto, the town from which Port wine derives its name, we set sail for Figueroa da Fas, which I insisted on simply calling “the Fonz” after a favorite character from the 70s TV show Happy Days. This first trip left us at sea for about 12 hours, which turned out to be about 11 hours longer than my stomach was prepared to endure. Fortunately, after this first lesson on ignoring the pitching of the seas, and after convincing myself that the boat was not going to tip over at every wave, I bid my seasickness “Adieu,” never to be bothered by it again.

It was in Figueroa that I came to realize one of the most delightful aspects of a sailing journey is getting to know your fellow sailors. Here we met a Finnish father and son team who would be sailing all year. The son, a math Ph.D. student at the University of Helsinki was excited to tell Sam and I more about his research on Hilbert spaces (or subspaces thereof,) than either of us cared to understand. The father also had lots of interesting insights on financial markets. But the point was that these two Finnish sailors continued to pop up along our trip. I believe we saw them two other times during my week there. With consistency comes camaraderie. And surely, some of Sam and Deb’s closest friends along this journey have been sailors that have played leapfrog with them for nearly the entire trip. It was neat to see the development of these friendships among the sailing community, which is about as international a bunch as one can imagine.

Drying out the auto-helm computer. It worked!

Cruising as it's meant to be.

Next we traveled to Nazare, Peniche and finally Cascais. Each of these towns sported a different feel and tempo. The day we sailed to Nazare, I managed to catch two fish. I brought in a Loweina (???), which was very good eating, and a mackerel. Sam added a mackerel to the pot and Deb prepared a great dinner of them. On the short sail to Peniche, our boat was greeted by a pod of about 15 dolphins, which played about the bow of the boat for probably 20 minutes. They were amazingly fast, and would race each other and leap out of the water to have a look at the strange folk looking back at them from the deck of the Debryn Ruth. That was really a special treat which we all, Kaizen included, got a kick out of watching.

The trip really turned out great, and I was truly lucky to be able to get out there and do it. This most certainly marks my last international trip with United flight benefits, and I can’t imagine a more fun way to close out a chapter of my life, which has included some really exciting travel. I want to extend a special Thank You to Sam and Deb for having me out there. Best wishes,

Eric

Freshly caught loweina.

"... about 15 dolphins, which played about the bow..."

Peniche light.