The people of Porto hold a huge celebration for the festival of São João (Saint John) on 23rd June. And by luck we were in Porto on the day after the festival, when the Rabelo Boat Regatta is held on the River Douro in the heart of the City. These shallow, flat bottom boats were originally used to transport the Port wine from the vineyards on the steep slopes of the extensive Douro River to the wineries in Porto, for ageing. These traditional boats were beginning to disappear by the early 1980s, so the Winery Brotherhood initiated the regatta, in which all of the major wineries are represented by their own boat each year.

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Falmouth, Cornwall | The West Country of England is a sailor’s dream. Small, picturesque and historic ports and harbours pepper the coast, many with deep water berths, long navigable rivers and excellent pubs. Falmouth in Cornwall is one of our favourites, where we stopped off for a few days to visit a good friend. This was one of the major ports for Britain’s shipping trade from the 18th to the early 20thCentury, with ships from all around the world anchoring in the harbour to await instructions from their agents as to which port in the British Isles had the best market at that moment. It was also a major fishing port, especially for Pilchards. As a consequence, the town has a rich maritime heritage which lives on to this day, with serious racing for the fine historic Falmouth work boats (with their distinctive coloured tops’ls) and six sailing clubs throughout the Falmouth Estuary. It is also a popular cruise ship destination. The National Maritime Museum in Falmouth is a gem, with exhibits ranging from the first Mirror Dinghy, to a workshop demonstrating traditional boatbuilding and a 1.68m long ‘boat’ called Fathers’ Day that crossed the Atlantic in 1993! There was even a surf exhibition when we visited, as this part of the UK has a strong surf culture, borne of the Atlantic rollers and swell that land on the exposed Cornish and Devon coasts. The shanty-style music that accompanies this video is called ‘The Wellerman’ and has its origins in the whaling industry in Otago, New Zealand.

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@rolex fastnet race

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