Since we began planning our long-distance sailing trip, we've heard stories about how dangerous and demanding it can be to sail along the Portuguese coastline. Looking back in time, before the availability of technological aids, this is a coastline that has claimed many lives—especially during the winter months when major storms rage across the Atlantic.

Even now, when we as sailors have access to all kinds of technological aids, the coastline still periodically claims its victims.

This is our first time sailing down the Portuguese coastline, and naturally, this brings about a series of thoughts on how we can plan our voyage in the safest way.

We’ve previously highlighted the tools we've used, but since then, we've learned a lot more and become familiar with a wide range of new tools that help us in our planning.

In the following, we’ve created an overview of the websites that have greatly helped us in our planning. These include information on waves, weather, and wind, as well as tides, harbor entrances, local warnings, and even the whole issue surrounding orcas.

When we read various forums, it's clear that many theories and speculations exist regarding the correct procedures. Here, it is our belief that when information is easily accessible, sailors can make the right decision for themselves, their vessel, and their crew.

For this reason, we've decided to go into a bit more detail about the tools we used when we sailed from Brest to Figueira da Foz (You can read more here about why we didn't continue).

The following is mainly intended as a reference guide for sailors who are interested in this stretch of coastline. We won’t get into procedures for interactions with orcas, but we’ll simply share the tools we used when sailing this route. This is particularly related to voyage planning.