Julieta is no ordinary lady. She was born in Italy, knows the Mediterranean quite well, has visited Cape Verde, crossed the Atlantic twice, lived in Canada, took many adventures. Her family name is Ferretti, the famous luxury yacht builders. Julieta, of course, is a very unique vessel indeed. It’s a sailing boat – specifically, a motoryacht. It has two masts and two Mercedes engines. There are fewer than 20 like her in the world, built at a special time, around 50 years ago, when Ferretti dedicated itself to sailing. Today, Julieta is one of the rare splendours sailing the Douro in northern Portugal. Her master is António Pinto, a notable figure in those waters.
This skipper, like any sailor, is better at sea. “But if I don’t go on the river for two or three days, I start missing it a lot!” And for that, we’re grateful. António has been running – and piloting – Douro by Sail for 13 years, a company that provides the most distinctive trips on this great Portuguese river, the motherland of extraordinary wines, including port wine. It’s the universe of the Douro Wine Region, a World Heritage Site, which stretches from the town of Mesão Frio, about an hour from the city of Porto, to the Spanish border, some 200 kilometres further on. “There are three things you must do in the Douro: visit the wine estates, taste the wine and go sailing.”
Julieta, in the elegance of her 14-metre boat (for 15 people), is not alone: she is joined by the Libertu’s (10 metres, 10 people), for “pure sailing”, as António explains, “with some characteristics of a regatta sailboat”, and the Entremargen’s, for 18 people, a motorised boat that is the oldest on the river. It’s 68 years old and has a historic origin: it was built in the shipyards of the “rabelo” boats – the iconic river vessels once used to transport wine barrels from the farms to the cellars in Gaia, opposite Porto – and was the first to provide a taxi service between the banks (hence its name, “In-between the Margins”), between the areas of Alpendurada and Entre-os-Rios, where the beautiful river Tâmega flows into the Douro. It’s also made entirely of wood, and the open bow is a delight.
The passion with which António speaks of the three is identical to the care he puts into each experience on the river. The boats can carry more than ten people each, but they are designed for intimate experiences. Douro à Vela doesn’t sell tickets and there are no “passengers” here. “Whilst on board, my clients, couples or very small groups, are like owners of the boat.” Everything is thought out in detail: the trips, which can last half a day or a whole day – from eight in the morning to eight at night, from the Folgosa pier to Barca d’Alva – include visits to estates, wine tastings and delicious meals of genuine northern cuisine, all personalised. For example, you can’t miss a stop to savour the delights of Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo in Covas do Douro, explore the vineyards, experience the grape harvest – yes, scissors in hand, picking the grapes – and take in the impressive landscape of the valley.
“The Douro is peace,” explains António. “It’s a rare state of mind.” Better still, in a country where the heat stretches into autumn, the Douro is even more unique: “Some days it’s raining when we leave the pier and, passing the Marão Mountains, it’s summer! Remember that the Douro is a microclimate!” he says, while scheduling client bookings for November and some requests for December (then there’s a break until the end of January for technical inspections and maintenance; that’s when António goes to sea). Julieta and Libertu’s sail between the Bagaúste Dam, after Régua, and the Pinhão Dam, for 20 kilometres. The historic Entremargen’s sails all the way from Folgosa to Spain. Trust António. He’ll take you to an unexpected world.
