And that is what happened. We eventually pulled into the harbour at Horta at 0900 after 3 or 4 hours motoring towards and around this beautiful, lush island. We were welcomed at the Marina reception with civility and friendship, formalities took hardly any time, and by 1000 we were safely rafted up against the marina wall with electricity and water at about £17 a day which is not bad for 51 feet of boat. We walked to the famous Cafe Sport for a massive breakfast to celebrate our arrival, generously paid for by Joe and Karin, then it was off to arrange some diving, boat cleaning etc. Great to be here and a respectable12 days 20 hours! And we are all still talking to each other!

Saturday was spent washing the boat, lunch on Phil at Cafe Sport, Karin and I did a big shop at Modelo, such a pleasure to be back in Portugese territories, the prices are so low, compared to the Carribean it is all for nothing. Big clean of the inside of the boat ready for Carols arrival tomorrow. Booked some diving for Monday and Tuesday.

Carol duly arrived and I met her at the nice little modern airport, reat to see her again. We had hired a car and spent the day driving around Faial, had a look at the North end of the island where the 1957 submarine eruption had increased the size of the island by several acres, the lighthouse now stands several hundred yards inland, behind a hill! Pretty fascinating stuff. Took Phil to the airport the following morning and had a shake down dive in the fternoon with Norberto dive services, nice visibility but a chilly 20c, cool after the 30c we are used to. Following day we took the ferry to Pico and Maria, the cab driver, took us on a day tour of this unusual island. Very interesting, we saw the whaling station, the wave powered power station, which is incredible, giant swells force compressed air through a turbine and supply 10% of the islands power supply. Why not build lots and all the worlds power problems are over! Guess it is not that simple. Following day, Wednesday 2^nd July, we went for a dive on the Princess Alice Bank. Dive of a lifetime, 50 miles offshore, this pinnacle comes from 3000 metres to 30 metres, we dived it twice and saw about 30 Manta rays, as well as countless jacks, tuna, free swimmming moray eels and it was an awesome experience to be in mid Atlantic, felt a little vulnerable. Joe and Karin shot some fantastic still and video footage. £rd July was taken up with outstanding jobs before our planned departure for St Jorge tomorrow.