16/12/11 - Lord Nelson

14th -15th December
After another roly-poly night at sea we finally passed Cascais on the Portuguese coastline and made our way into the quieter waters at the mouth of the river Rio Tejo.
The river that would take us on our journey to Lisbon.
Those who wanted to, climbed aloft to put in a harbour stow of the square sails.What an opportunity to be aloft as the ship sailed past the maritime history of Portugal honouring the famous sailors such as Vasco da Gama and how Portugal helped to map the world in the early fourteenth century.
The pilot boarded Lord Nelson as She motored into a sheltered mooring close to the town centre.
As soon as all the official papers had been attended to and Happy Hour was over the crew were allowed to leave the ship and explore this amazing city.
The following day the full ships compliment was invited on board the Vera Cruz. This is a caravela the type ship built in the 15th century. Her rigging is called a lateen (appears like the Arab Dowel) On board the Vera Cruz the crew lived and slept on the deck, unlike the luxury we have today on the Lord Nelson! made us all think how did the sailors of those days survive the sea. The rest of the day was free time to once again enjoy the city

16th December
Final day and as always a busy time for permanent and voyage crew. We all came through some persistent bad weather but we won by the unity of the whole team on board So until next adventure on the JST ships, it's cheerio from the voyage crew of LN798.