The Voyage of Swift – Part II

Swift sailing into Horta after 19 days at sea!

It is a tradition in Horta for boats to paint their names on the harbor wall,( in fact it is considered bad luck if you don’t). 

 

You can see our artwork!  We had a very small amount of red paint so I was able to draw the stripes on the flag. 

It may only last one season but we have left our mark in Horta!

 

We began our tour of the island of Faial (Horta is the capital, Faial is the island).

Murphy would like us to believe she deserves to sit in the front seat, but it is a myth!

 

 

The first hill as you leave Horta has a wonderful view back towards the harbor.  You can just make out the

breakwater for the marina.  On the other side of that thin spit of land is Porto Pim (pictures in part 1),

the original harbor.

 

Most of the islands have wind turbines to generate electricity.  Some might say they damage a good view,

but I find them fascinating.  In this picture we are looking Northeast over Faial.

The green hillsides are mesmerizing, the gardens are full of flowers and blue hydrangeas grow along the edge of the road.

 

 

 

I guess this might look like a valley because we are so much higher looking down, but you can see from the cliffs

that it is still quite high.

This beach is on the north coast, that is sand although it is a bit gritty.  Into the water the edge

shelves very quickly.  Murphy was chasing around the beach with her ball  and decided to let

 it go.  She happily watched it roll down to the water.  Of course she won’t go in the water,

so I had to rescue it which is how I found out about the shelf – I caught the ball just in time.

The sign says (in four languages) “No Lifeguard on Duty”.

. 

 

All the islands of the Azores are volcanic.  Faial has a large volcanic peak in the center of the island which we never

saw the top of because of the clouds. The volcano is extinct and they have created a national park inside the center

of the volcano called a caldeira.  Of course it was cloudy the day we visited the volcano but you can see into the

center where it is quite green.  On Pico (the island with tallest peak) people camp in the center.

There was a volcanic eruption on the northwest corner of the island in 1957. 

You can see the resulting landscape.  The lighthouse used to be on the edge of the ocean

but is now about a half a mile inland.

 

 

It was a good tour, the island is small and we saw it in a day.  After two weeks in Horta it was time

To move on.  This is our last view of Horta as we sailed away.  What a sight!

There was no wind the day we left so we motored the 20 miles to the island of Sao Jorge.  Along the way

we interrupted this flock of birds searching for dinner.

 

The birds (Cory Shearwaters) spend the night in the cliffs above the marina.  They start to arrive home at sunset

and shriek and squawk until 1 in the morning.

Sao Jorge is bigger that Faial but less population (15,000 in Faial vs 10,000), the marina was in Velas,

the main city – Velas was relatively flat but the hills overlooking the town were quite high.

At the top of one of the hills at the entrance to Velas was this ruin which was built for

 the whale watchers when they used to hunt the whales.

 Sao Jorge is very popular with hikers and you can see why, very few cars and when you’re at the top of the hills it is relatively flat.

 

Sao Jorge is also known for its Cheese and Beef (which they call cow meat)

 

One evening about 9pm we glanced out and saw this group walking down the dock.

These large ferries take people on the long journeys, at first we thought this was a cruise ship but we kept

seeing it every few days and finally I asked the dockmaster.

 

We wanted to press on towards Madeira and the wind picked up as we left Sao Jorge for the 200 mile journey to

Santa Marie the most southeasterly island in the Azores.  We know Murphy is thinking “Where to NOW?”

Santa Maria is quite a small island but at one end was this plateau where the Americans built an airfield during

WWII, it is now the island’s airport.  Apparently the island was quite prosperous just after the war because

it was the only island in the Azores with a proper airport.  Unfortunately the other islands caught up and Santa Maria

became a sleepy little island of about 6000 people or as one brochure said 5956 – very precise.

 

The island is off track for most sailors especially for heading to mainland Europe and therefore not visited very

often, however they have just opened a brand new marina so maybe more boats will visit.  We had it almost

all to ourselves.  To get to the town you had to climb a very steep cliff which gave a great view of the marina.

This beach, just beyond the marina, did not look very attractive but was packed on the weekend.

 

It wasn’t for us, because just up the road was a pumping station.

 

 

The island had some great walks, we all enjoyed walking along the coast below the wind turbines.

 

 

 

 

In the other direction on the plateau was the lighthouse,

Behind the lighthouse was a sundial, the time seemed to be correct!

 

From out on the plateau  there you could look back towards the harbor and the turbines,

it looks quite desolate and we only saw one person fishing during our entire walk.

 

Murphy got a ride over rough ground, she acts as if she was born to be carried but you have

to be pretty strong to carry that 45 pounds for very long.

After a few days we were ready to move on to Madeira which was a five day journey.  So we left Santa Maria behind

(the plateau on the left is where the lighthouse was.)

And finally on the way I managed to photograph a dolphin, well at least you can see it if you look closely

 (lower middle right) – I will try again

The next installment will be about Madeira – here is a teaser of the view on our approach, a very imposing island!

 

Adios!