Horta here we come
Blanshard
Mon 14 Jun 2010 17:46
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Position 38 32.00N 28 37.00W Log
reading 14705.2 distance covered 48 miles
Horta at last. Arrived Sunday evening at 9pm
after a slow and painful beat round the corner and using the last drops of
diesel. 2285 miles covered so far so time to party!
We proudly sailed
into the Marina with the Ensign streaming behind and tied up next to a
beautiful (almost as pretty as Depeche!) Swan; almost immediately though we were
thrown into a bit of a panic when the crew of the Swan told us the restaurants
would all be closing soon. So putting our priorities in the right order we
secured the boat, ignored customs and went ashore to fill our stomachs. A
short distance along the seafront we discovered a very salty bar where beards
were in fashion and the decor was 'Flags'- unable to resist we got some beers,
ordered steaks and claimed a table. We did all feel somewhat disconcerted by the
lack of movement underfoot, luckily beer did seem to cure us so we didn't hold
back there. Turns out the cows must be forced to run up the volcanic mountains
pretty often judging by the tough steaks, couldn't complain though as it was all
fresh at least! We eventually made it back on board and all turned it for a
solid nights sleep.
We woke to sun streaming
through the cabin and numerous insect bites, I guess that's one advantage to the
middle of the ocean! After a good meal last night our thoughts turned
to Depeche and we did customs and made sure she was fuelled (+ extra jerry can),
watered and provisioned, new filters for the engine were also obtained just in
case.
Horta itself was beautiful and
had an aura of crumbling magnificence with old Portugese architecture
everywhere, best of all was the marina though with thousands of paintings
everywhere by sailors who had passed through. As a last mark we bought
blue, black and white paint and found a small patch on the inner wall that was
empty of any previous work. After layering on a white base layer we retired to a
bar and designed a small masterpiece over a lunch of soup and chips. We then
painted this on, signed it off with our names and date and left it to be
re-found when we next pass through (next to the phone box near the bar, if you
beat us to it).
We're now motoring into
the evening with Faial fading behind us and unfortunatly little wind
forecast, 1016 miles to Gibraltar! Al signing off
.....
Fortunately, no more reports of the
phosp.........
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