FROM THE Tagus to Rabat

A European winter base and a Moroccan trip to reset the EU clock

- PETER & CRAIG SMITH

Kiwi​ Roa dockside at Doca de Alcântara in Portugal.

Upon departing North America and Greenland, our future plans saw our 52-foot aluminum sloop Kiwi Roa based around Europe and the North Atlantic, with ventures to the likes of Iceland and Svalbard possible. For the northern winters, a southern base was desirable — and one that would provide for our New Zealand yacht to spend years in and around the EU. The result was that from Cape Farewell, the compass heading was southeast.

Kiwi Roa hauled out for work on the keel (right), damaged by a collision with a rock shelf in Greenland.

We intended to stop at the Azores, but by the middle of December we were too late and weather depressions had begun tracking across the route. After five days of struggling with contrary winds, Peter got the message and reshaped our course directly for the Iberian Peninsula. The winds gave us five days of fast reaching, after which a high expanded out as far as the English Channel and sat over the Atlantic for a week. After 600 nautical miles of calm, we found the Portuguese trade winds and again reached the final miles to the Portuguese coast.

We made landfall under a poled yankee at the mouth of the Tagus River, where the headland of Cascais forms its northern coastline. Here, there is safe anchorage for any winds except southerlies, and also a marina that can provide respite for sleep and timing of tides before pushing on toward Lisbon. Ashore, the area is developed for tourism, or at least the facade of the seafront. More interesting are the historic buildings, particularly five centuries’ worth of fortifications that the modern additions cluster around. The squat walls of the Citadel of Cascais border the beachline from a view at anchor: At one end, a foreboding complex of pentagonal fort towers; at the opposite defensive position, a cyan swimming pool has been installed.