Whilst we have been waiting we have had time to spend time with friends and spend time exploring the island of Faial and neighbouring  island Pico.

We took a short ferry ride to visit Pico with Debra, Paul and their latest crew member, Georgina.  Whilst on the ferry we also met up with Pia from sailing yacht Peter.   Peter had left Faial for it's journey back to Hamburg but Pia had decided to stay in the Azores for a few more weeks.    Pico is not only the name of the island but the name of the volcano that dominates the skyline  (it is the tallest mountain in Portugal).    After exploring the small town of Magdalena, we were waiting for the Fiesta to commence, we decided to take a taxi ride to view the volcano.     By transport you can only get part way up the rest would mean a 10-12 hour hike (of course time was against us on this one!)   The top was shrouded in cloud so the views were a little disappointing.  However later in the day, when back in the town, the clouds cleared and we enjoyed the magnificent site of the volcano in all it's glory.

The town of Magdalena was now alive with Fiesta visitors - the main part of the celebration was the 'bread giving'.  Everybody on the island was handed a very large ring of fairly sweet bread.   Very nice too, makes great toast and brilliant bread and butter pudding (Karen was to produce one of these later on in the week).     After a tasty lunch and a few glasses of the local wine, we headed back on the early evening ferry and rounded off the day with a G&T in the famous 'Peter's Bar'.

The following day we hired a car with Debra, Paul and Georgie to visit the island of Faial.   This of course took in a trip to the island's volcano, Capelinhos. This volcano became active again on December 16, 1957; this lasted until May 12, 1958 and connected the islet with Faial, effectively enlarging the island by 2.4 km² and extending the "Ponta dos Capelinhos" into the western ocean.  We also visited the caldera of the largest volcano on FDaial.   Faial is not a very large island, approximately 67 square miles, so we were able to drive to get to see a great deal of this beautiful place.

On Monday evening we took the crew of Peter out to dinner as a "thank you" for their 14 hour tow into Horta….and they left the following day to start the last leg of their journey back to Hamburg.