The Azores
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| The view to Pico from onboard Adriana, while anchored in Horta |
There were five people from one boat all French and three guys from Sweden already in the rib, and we were taken to the ferry and cruise ship terminal.
The PCR testing was well organised and smooth although they did a double take, swabbing both our nose and throat this time.
Everyone on the Rib was so excited to be on land and keen to share their experience crossing the Atlantic, one interesting thing the Swedish guys told us, they had taken 36 days to sail from Mexico.
36 days.... they were becalmed a lot of the time and had to stop a cargo ship and ask for supplies, apparently that’s a thing you can do and they are obliged to help you.
These guys were given diesel and water plus fresh fruit and veggies, beer whisky and cigarettes, always a good thing to know.
Back on board we virtually had a beer an early dinner and then bed.
Overnight the test results came in negative, time to drop the dingy and get the engine back on so that we could go ashore and check in with customs and the Marina, who control the harbour.
We will have to go to the hospital to have follow up PCR tests on day 7 and 14.
What a beautiful town, we are officially in Europe, The Azores belong to Portugal with all its language, traditions, architecture and foods.
All the road signs and supermarket goods are in Portuguese although English is widely spoken so it’s not a problem in shops and cafes.
We found the best roast chickens ever !! in the supermarket, butterflied and cooked flat over coals, the bread rolls are delicious even better than the French baguettes in Saint Martin, so many local cheeses to choose from we took to photographing the labels of the ones we liked as the names are so foreign to us.
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| If you ever see this cheese grab some it's delicious |
Creamy sweet Portuguese tarts are sold everywhere and at around €0.45 each they are an affordable treat.
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| Coffees are only €1.20 |
We had our first steak in a restaurant since leaving Australia two years ago, eating out here is the best and cheapest yet.
The town is so quirky, all the streets are paved with black rock interceded with intricate pattern in white, all sorts of patterns are used in big geometric lines,or images of anchors, ships, whales, and birds are all imbedded in the roads and pavements.
The streets are tiny and narrow a lot of them being one way streets.
The pastel coloured houses with terracotta roofs and green shuttered windows give a very European feel.
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| Craig outside Peter's Cafe, a Horta must visit |
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| Many many streets like this |
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| Our first day on land |
I did notice at night there were very few buildings with interior lights on, I don’t think many people actually live in the old waterfront part of the town, a lot of the buildings are empty, but I don’t think they are empty because of Covid I just think there is not a huge population so not much need for shops and businesses. (Approx population 15,000)
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| Church bells can be heard from all over the town |
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| Crazy intricate paving |
It’s believed to be first inhabited in the 1400’s and has been invaded and fought over by the Spanish and the English
The locals are nice and very friendly the staff in the shops couldn’t be more helpful.
Anchoring out in the protected harbour costs us money !!
We have to pay half of what it costs to be in the marina but this gives us access to the showers, laundry and secured dingy dock.
I had my first real shower on land since “December” when we had one in the apartment Adam and Khiara rented “just before Christmas”
It’s an absolute luxury to let the water just keep running
We had the funniest day, we had been here a week and hadn’t really gone much further than the supermarket so we decided to hire a scooter for the day we pre booked thinking it’s fairly busy we didn’t want to miss out.
Scooter day dawns cloudy and cold, we thought about postponing but Craig had checked his weather app (I’m convinced his settings are wrong) he assured me the overnight wind was dropping out and there was no rain forecasted.....
So much so he insisted I not wear my sailing jacket as it’s too big and cumbersome and he even started to leave the boat in shorts.
He did change into jeans mostly for the safety of riding on the road.
I ended up with his windproof jacket, a T-shirt and a puffer vest, jeans and socks and shoes. He had a T-shirt and a zip up windy, jeans and socks and shoes.
The lovely lady gave us a decent size scooter I’d been eyeing off these tiny ones wondering how I was going to look perched up high on the back.
The one we had was was actually really comfortable, although the helmets were just plastic shells, almost like toy ones.
Off we putted up the hill with a vague idea of a few scenic places we wanted to visit, top of the list was Caldeira an extinct volcano in the middle of the island.
Following the signs, luckily they had icons as Portuguese words all look the same, we headed uphill, winding through beautiful lush countryside passing lots of cows grazing in green grassy meadows, being on the bike meant you could smell them before we saw them, mostly where it was muddy by the farm gates.
Faial is called The Blue Island getting its name from the blue ocean that surrounds it and from the blue hydrangea that line the roads, they are everywhere the fields are even divided by hydrangeas.
There are flowers everywhere and they are just starting to bloom, mostly cottage plants the most prolific were the hydrangeas, Yellow evening primrose, pink dog roses, daisies, bougainvillea, hollyhocks, I even saw some unrepentant wild strawberry plants.
Speeding along at 40 kmh was fun, we kept climbing zig zagging up the mountainside getting higher and higher into the clouds, it was chilly just on the open roads so once we were out of the weak sun and into the descending clouds it started to get damp and cold, the further we went the wetter it got until it was actually raining.
My only discomfort is I’m covering my ears to block out the wind, Craig is getting wet and I’m sheltering behind him.
We keep climbing, we actually didn’t realise we had to go so high up, Craig’s ears popped twice.
It took forever, I’m cursing Craig for stopping me from wearing my nice and warm waterproof jacket, he’s trying to convince me to give him his jacket that I’m wearing, fat chance buster.
We are now shivering and soaked through.
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| The scooter was a decent size for the two of us |
Eventually we make it to the rim, they have cut a tunnel through the side and created a viewing platform and there are information boards that are in Portuguese and English.
We cannot see a thing !!!
It’s a white out !!
It looks like it would be spectacular if we could see it !
We are supposed to see the entire rim, lush vegetation, and stunning scenic views. We are supposed to do walk around the rim but not today.
A couple roll up in a hire car, they are laughing at us, yeah we know we picked the wrong day to hire a scooter and climb a mountain.
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| Brrr it was a bit chilly |
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| At least we had shelter from the drizzle in the tunnel |
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| The rim walk should have been beautiful |
The worst part was it’s a dead end and we had to turn around and do it all again, but this time there was a reward we could feel the air getting warmer as we descended.
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| This is what we should have been looking at |
It’s pretty sore on your bum riding passenger and your legs get stiff trying to keep your weight on the pegs to stop you from sliding forward into the driver.
We stopped at a craft shop just to stop the wind rushing past and to try to warm up. Probably the opposite to being in a nice cosy car, you don’t stop cause your nice and warm and it’s cold outside.
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| A quick stop to warm up |
Back on the scooter we keep scooting around the coastline through pretty villages with nearly all the buildings built in the local black stone.
At Vulcano dos Capelinhos the Azores youngest volcano, it erupted in 1957, we visited the volcanic interpretation centre, built below ground, an impressive building actually an award winning interactive information centre.
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| Its all so dramatic |
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| Just like a moonscape |
It’s on the site where 50 years ago a volcano erupted from the sea, so close to the island that it completely obliterated a whole village.
The landscape was so barren they could have filmed the moon landing here.
Off we zoom passing pretty stone houses with terracotta roofs, set in tiny cobbled streets, taking the coastal road the scenery is stunning,
the huge Atlantic sparkling in front of us at every turn, it takes us a good couple of hours to round the island.
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| The land is so beautiful and fertile |
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| We went a little off the beaten track |
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| Its all so pretty |
A lot of the coastline is steep dramatic cliffs and as we turn back towards Horta we stopped at a black sand beach, Praia Dos Almoxarife, the sun had come out earlier in the day but it had disappeared on the way home and the wind had picked up again so only a quick stop to look at the dramatic pounding swell crashing on the rocks, the two poor surf lifesavers were huddled in their tent, no one was swimming today.
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| Black sand beaches are the norm here |
| Every beach has lifesavers |
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With the scooter climbing up the last hill we could look down on the pretty crowded harbour and see Adriana anchored among the fifty or so other yachts that had crossed an ocean to get there.
It’s quite an achievement crossing the Atlantic we could see boats from all over the world arriving from the Caribbean islands, a lot of French boats had come from Guadeloupe and Martinique, there are a few German flagged boats, lots of British and boats from The Netherlands.
And a few Australian ones too, yay we have friends.
Adam and Khiara on Millennial Falcon arrived about a week after us, then Scott and Deb on Expedition arrived a few days later.
There was an Australian flagged catamaran tied up on the dock wall but we didn’t ever see the owners.
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| Porta Pim beach |
The constantly changing parade of boats in the harbour was a challenge it’s very busy and harbour control asked everyone to anchor in the south end where we were, on a our arrival we had dropped anchor in the north end way out the back which was lovely when it was calm but not so comfortable when the sea state picked up, we are paying for this so why risk our lives getting in and out of the dingy we might as well get in close where it’s calm and have close access to the marina wifi and facilities.
We had a bit of an altication with a French boat that was anchored too close to us. 
Not us, but boats were swinging into each other all over the place
As you know boats swim around on anchor sometimes swinging from side to side but in a lot of instances they can turn the full 360 degrees as the wind direction changes, well this one had dropped his anchor in front of us, we had 40mt of chain out plus the length of Adriana so he must have had 60 because as the wind picked up and the boats were pulled to the full extent of their chains, he fell into line behind us !!
He had been so close the night before we could clearly hear the girl onboard phone conversation, except it was in French so no idea what she was saying.
By morning their bow was right behind our stern and as the wind dropped the boats were riding forward and bit by bit they were getting closer. “Craig you’d better come and have a look” I yelled downstairs, the first time Craig had a look but let it go, I stayed up top to keep an eye on things.
We weren’t the only boat having this issue it had been happening around us as the boats changed direction with the winds, we had passed two almost touching with only a dingy width between them and now it was happening to us.
After our dingy started getting tangled in their chain and their bow was almost in our cockpit Craig came back up and yelled out to the owner asking him to “Please move” “We are going to hit” he then suggested maybe If you put out more chain” the two girls onboard were smirking and laughing, they said we don’t understand English, Craig yelled back “Bullshit, you understand well enough” then the French man came out and tells “US” to move, we yell back “We have been here for a couple of weeks” he then yells “GO HOME, GO BACK TO AUSTRALIA YOU DON’T BELONG HERE, THIS IS EUROPE, I AM EUROPEAN”
We were in shock I think, I always feel everybody has either been to Australia or has a relative there so we have always been welcomed, we have never felt this sort of discrimination before.
I’ll just say there was a bit more yelling and swearing and some hand gestures as the French man started to pull up his anchor slowly passing us.
He got his karma though when he got to the last bit of his chain he was stuck, his anchor must have been snagged under a rock (this anchorage has a bad reputation for this happening)
We then had a fun hour or so watching him drive around his anchor trying to get a good angle to pull it up, he eventually had to call out marina services who had a look over the side of their dingy using a snorkel hovering over his anchor, from their gestures it seemed like the chain was jammed between two rocks.
We then watched the French man don his wetsuit and dive gear as he dived down and freed his anchor. Re anchoring far away from us.
About half an hour later we easily and quickly just lifted our anchor and motored in to tie up on the dock wall. We want to fill up our diesel fuel and maybe have a couple of days of almost land life.
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| Tied to the wall right next to the marina office, busiest spot in the whole of Horta |
What a luxury stepping off the boat and being on shore, we won't need the dingy for a couple of days.
It’s a tradition for yachts to paint their logo on the Horta Marina walls and the paintings are everywhere, every inch of footpath and wall is covered. Actually it’s considered bad luck if you don’t.
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| We spent hours checking out the logos, it was so hard to decide what to do for ours |
What an amazing group of Islands The Azores are, there are seven islands we are on Faial it’s one of the central islands and sits opposite Pico Island, from our boat we can clearly see Pico with its iconic mountain top.
The mountain dominates the view, the peak is covered in cloud most days, you don’t even know it’s there but when the clouds part it truly is a magnificent sight, we were told it’s actually higher than any mountain in Australia
Mount Kosiosko 2,228 m
Mount Pico 2,351 m
The magnificent mountain is visible everywhere you go, I was walking through the supermarket car park ( the supermarket is up a big hill) when the clouds parted and wow there was the peak right on front of me, at what seemed like eye level.
Some days the clouds sit low over the island and the peak can be visible above the clouds.
The trip over on the ferry, it was a kinda grey day
We decided to catch the ferry across, hire a car and spend a day exploring the Island we shared the car hire costs with Adam and Khiara from Milenial Falcon now the good thing about hanging out with youtubers is they film everything so I don’t have to write about it and we can all watch the episode and see where we are.
Its Episode 139, "We make our mark on The Azores "
Their episode on Bermuda is excellent it really show cases the islands, then there are a couple of their passage across the Atlantic so they are worth checking out to get a good visual of where we are.
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| The approach from the ferry |
The area is famous for the black volcanic stone walls they built to protect their grape vines from the wind, the black walls also retain a lot of heat from the sun.
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| The walls protect the grapes from the harsh winds |
On our trip around we never actually found a winery to do some tastings but we tried to order a glass of local wine once we were back in Horta, the guy behind the bar insisted we should have mainland wine, the local wine is not the nicest he advised us.
A bit of CSI with morning tea
Our first morning tied up on the wall was rather eventful, I’d trotted of to have a shower and as I’m walking back I could see a police boat towing in a 40 odd ft yacht with two guys onboard and there are at least 15 police waiting to catch the lines. We had noticed the boat out in the harbour it had been there for a few days.
They swarmed the boat and the two guys onboard were taken separately into the marina office for questioning, they were not handcuffed and seemed to be smiling and relaxed.
Ooh what’s going on we wondered making a cuppa and settling in the cockpit to watch. The boat was tied up right next to us.
In came the sniffer dog and a guy with a portable square machine that we assumed was an X-ray.
Police divers went and looked under the boat, they mustn’t have found anything as an hour or so later the police all left and the guys and their boat were free to go.
Later we found out the full story...the two guys off the boat had been drinking with a couple of local undesirable fellows and the police suspected them of drug running so pulled them in to search the boat.
The next morning we saw the same thing happen this time to a huge catamaran, apparently there are lots of drugs coming up from the Caribbean, quite often they have delivery captains who don’t know they are running drugs.
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| Our view of the unfolding drama |
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| You can just see the sniffer dog |
We thoroughly enjoyed walking around the pretty cobbled streets, having beers at sunset and eating Portuguese roast chicken but it’s time to move on as much as it’s nice having access to hot showers we are a bit overloaded with being on the dock.
Two different cruisers approached us to say hello, the first one was a lovely lady from The Netherlands, her and her husband have cruised for many years and as part of their circumnavigation they spent a lot of time in Australia, not only sailing around the continent but hiring camper vans and seeing a lot of inland Australia too.
“We were treated so well in your country we would like to pay it forward, if there is anything you need or any advice we can give you, we would love to help”
Janneke is her name, we then chatted about our future plans “ Don’t go to the Mediterranean” she says, “Go to the UK, cross to Ireland on the way up, when you get to Scotland you can cut through the Caledonia Canal cross Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, head to Norway for Summer then come and visit us in Netherlands “
“Oh that sounds interesting” we said, was this the answer to our dilemma.
We had planned to cross to Portugal then head to the Mediterranean, Spain, Greece etc but we were really unsure, our Schengen time had already started by being in The Azores.
The Schengen Area is an area comprising 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy.
All up we would be allowed 90 days, not much time to cruise from country to country.
Quite by chance we met another cruiser who said “Don’t got to the Mediterranean, go to the UK, head to Scotland and go through the lakes and up to Norway”
Georges Meffre is a Frenchman who spent a lot of time in Tassie, his son is a professor at Hobart university and seeing our Australian flag had stopped to say hello. Chatting to his partner Kika she reassured me we could do it in our fiberglass boat but we will need to install a heater hmmm.
We left the dock at Horta with a bit of drama....
When the Catamaran that was being searched for drugs was tied up next to us it was blocking the fuel dock, a boat came in to fuel up and they were advised by the harbour to raft up to us. One of the reasons we had stayed on anchor so long was that we didn’t want to get rafted up to any other boats.
These guys had just been cleared through customs and were free to be on land that day, so they were itching to walk around and have a beer or two.
They claimed their dingy engine wasn’t working and could they stay tied to us.
“We are planning to leave at 4am” says Craig, which was true we are heading to the island of Terceira 80nmiles away.
After the guy had been in to complain to the marina staff and they had come out and said “You have to sort it out between yourselves” we had no choice but to let them stay.
We agreed that they would come back later in the day and move their boat so we could get out, then they could have our spot on the wall.
Well we did all our chores and last minute bits and pieces.
We waited, and waited and we were still waiting at around 7pm.
Adam and Khiara returned from their hike to the top of Pico (that episode will be worth watching when it comes out) and had stopped in to visit, a cup of tea in hand, to share their adventures, they were now tied to the wall next to us with the fuel dock behind them.
We got sooo sick of waiting we said stuff them let’s juggle these boat around so we can be free.
Let’s see if I can explain this.
We moved Millennial Falcon back along the wall so she was tied off at the fuel pumps, that left just enough room for us to walk the offending boat backwards from beside us, into the spot MF had just vacated.
We released Adriana and moved forward, springing the bow off the wall first and using the thrusters to clear the boat in front of us.
Once we were free we motored off and anchored at the harbour entrance. Leaving Adam and Khiara to walk the two boats forward and tie them off to the wall.
Speaking to Adam later those rude people didn’t return to their boat until the wee hours. So glad there were no repercussions for manhandling someone else’s boat.
After a good nights sleep back on anchor we were up early (around 5am) it was still dark when we headed out through the harbour entrance, goodbye Horta we have really enjoyed visiting this lovely Island Faial.
Straight out from the harbour we hit a huge swell, that bumped around for half an hour or so, but it didn’t take long to flatten out a bit once we hit the open water.
We are on our way to Terceira that has the ancient capital Agora de Horisma but we are going to the town of Pria do Vitória.
To get there we have to take a beautiful passage between Pico and the Island of Sao Jorge.
We motored along with the foresail out but really there was no wind.
OMG the view is stunning.
As the sun was rising the top of Pico emerged through the cloud, giving us an unprecedented view of it’s stunning peak, Looking from this angle, we are much closer and with the sun making a shining glow it’s absolutely stunning, watching the clouds speed over it as we pass by.
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| We were in awe of Pico |
We thought Sai Jorges was a long flat slim island but we had no idea how spectacular the view from the water would be, the island is dotted with lush vegetation, small villages, volcanic mounds everywhere then at the furtherest end huge crevices with waterfalls.
Tried to sail but our mainsail got stuck !!
On our last passage the furling line that pulls in the mainsail snapped, while in Horta Craig had replaced the old line, splicing it to create a loop, this line is used to pull out and retract the main sail.
The sail came out about a quarter way and then jammed.
We said to each other “lucky we are only island hopping not going on our next full passage”
Craig was able to manually wind the sail back in, we played with it for a while taking it in and out it seemed to get jammed at different stages and seemed a lot more bunched up inside the mast than normal.
We wound it in and had to motor the whole way to Terceira. We will have a good look at it when we are safely at anchor.
Ohh a new Island how exciting somewhere new to explore.
I wasn't going to put up any photos of Pico but it was such an interesting island so here are a few more
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| We drove up to the information centre on Mount Pico but it was covered in cloud, the very top did clear for a minute or two so I'd say we were as high as the band of cloud in the top picture |
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| So many interesting buildings, the stonework is incredible |
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| Certainly not the oldest building |
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| Narrow roads with high stone walls made for a nervous trip |
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| There are always at least two churches in each town or village |
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