2020-2021 Update on
Sausalito – Cascais Sister Program

Sausalito-Cascais Sister City Council 2020 Year End Recap

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a difficult time for sister city relationships, and the bond between Sausalito and Cascais has not been an exception.

In March 2020, after careful deliberation with the Cascais delegation, the Cascais Sister City Council cancelled all in-person activities for the remainder of 2020. This was not an easy decision but in retrospect, it was the correct and the only safe decision.

During the year we have stayed in contact with our friends in Cascais and observed how they have approached the pandemic. We recently meet with our Cascais counterpart delegation via Zoom, and agreed to approach 2021 as a “replay” of 2020. All activities planned for 2020 have been moved to 2021 with adjustments for dates. We will meet again in early January 2021 to finalize dates, and then in late March for the final go/no go decision, depending on the status of the pandemic at the time. While optimistic, we are all aware that the pandemic may still be a major factor for 2021, and we will have to cancel some or all 2021 activities again.

In anticipation of additional pandemic challenges for much of 2021, we have elected to move the traditional “Fado at The Pines” musical performance event from mid-May to October. This is a joint venture with the Sausalito Youth Sailing Foundation, and it is the fund-raising event for the Youth Sailing Exchange. This year, moving away from the Portuguese fado, we will be featuring a sextet from Northern Portugal that will perform traditional and modern interpretations of the “music of Minho”, which has Celtic roots and is an extremely popular musical art form in Portugal. See press release for this event here.

As for youth sailing, there are 6 youth sailors ready for the annual youth sailing exchange between the Sausalito Yacht Club and Clube Naval de Cascais. The tentative dates are July 2 -11, 2021, in Cascais, but a decision will be made in March 2021, if the exchange can be conducted safely or should be cancelled for 2021, based on pandemic conditions.

In the event that the City of Sausalito permits its annual Jazz by the Bay Program to be organized for this summer 2021, we will be staffing a food booth for one of the concerts. Our specialty is Portuguese sausages and beverages.

Cascais still desires that we bring our temporary exhibit about the history of Sausalito to Cascais in 2021. This is a joint project with the Sausalito Historical Society. The 3-month exhibit was originally scheduled for the summer of 2020. We will be discussing this with Cascais in January 2021 for an exhibit later in 2021.

We have not yet set a date for the Adult Tour of Cascais for 2021. We have plans for a delegation of up to 15 people from Sausalito to visit Cascais. More details will be available in late January 2021.

The Council welcomes back Janis Bosenko one of its original members and new member Tom Kowalski, the outgoing Commodore of the Sausalito Yacht Club. We would love to have more new members. We have several new projects/programs we want to implement with Cascais and we welcome interested participants.

Let us hope 2021 will be a successful year for both Cascais and Sausalito.

Cheryl Popp, Cascais Council Chair
Jim Meyer, Cascais Council Vice-Chair
December 12, 2020