Lajes das Flores (Azores) 39:24.19N 31:13.4W?

Lotus
Fri 1 Jul 2011 18:28
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1800 nautical miles and 15 days later, we were anxious to see land, but our first impression of Flores; the most western island in the Azores group, was not quite the sight for sore eyes that we'd been expecting, with big blocks of concrete and a massive crane sat on top of the part finished sea wall and the numerous freight boxes that were obscuring the views.  Still, we were glad to see land and sat at anchor for about 30 minutes before joining the mad rush of boats trying to grab the last remaining spaces in the marina that was not quite finished and therefore free.  We managed to get one of the spaces on the wall where we were soon joined by a big French schooner that tied up alongside us.  As nice as the frenchies were, we decided that we had to move as their boat was rocking side to side so much that we feared for both our cleats and our ability to get a much needed good nights sleep.  The operation to move the boat was massive as the marina was now jam packed with boats tied up alongside each other 3/4 deep, but with John organizing everyone ( about a dozen people were involved) we managed to maneuver ourselves into a pontoon which had just become vacant and in the process made friends with all our neighbors.  A short walk up the hill and we sat and had a round of beers; we couldn't believe how cheap the beer was at only 1 euro a go, they were however the smallest glasses of beer we'd ever had at around .20 l, hardly enough to wet your mouth!
 
We stayed in Flores for about 5 days, there wasn't much to do on the island and it seemed to have a permanent rain cloud over it, but we couldn't leave as there was no weather window out and the next closest island was 150nm away.
The highlight of our stay was when we hired a car from Paula; this Massachusetts born Azorean was running a one woman cartel on the island, she owned the bar, would organize diesel, laundry, you name it, she did it.  We drove round the whole island visiting the various lakes, waterfalls and other small towns, unfortunately the island was covered in low cloud so we didn't get to see it in it's full glory.