A lot has been going on since the last blogs, just after I arrived in the Azores. Most important has been investigating the water ingress which has occurred as a result of some storm damage. It appears that a previous significant knock had happened to the keel - we think when the boat was being lifted out or launched as we have never had a grounding or underwater collision. Unknown to anyone this had caused a stress weakening which was further damaged by the severe weather conditions. The good news is that surveyors and repairers assure us that given the very strong construction methods used by Malo, it can all be repaired to absolute full strength.

However we have had a lot of frustration arranging to have the boat lifted. There is very limited space ashore in the marina at Ponta Delgada so some delicate negotiations were needed and then there were delays when the travel hoist broke down. Finally, we were lifted out and securely chocked up ashore late on Thursday evening, just hours before our flight home early on Friday morning.

So we have so far been unable to cruise the islands and explore other anchorages. However we have made the best possible use of our time for land based exploration of the island. We went on a minibus tour that took us to see the spa centre at Furnas where multi coloured water sources containing many different minerals emerge from still hot volcanic remains and to the tea production centre. Oranges had been a key feature of the Azores economy until the crop failed in the 19th century. Tea growing and pineapple farming were both introduced as replacements. We had a day out using the public bus service and went to Vila Franca do Campo, This has a much more sheltered marina than Ponta Delgada but all the berths are taken by local boats. The weather was pretty grim for much of the time so we did not get to see the famous green and blue lakes which need sunshine (and not heavy rain and fog!) to be appreciated. In Ponta Delgada itself we visited the wonderful garden started by Antonio Borges as well as museums and art galleries. We even found a free recital by a saxophone octet from the Conservatoire which included a setting of Nimrod! The weather remained grim and we saw several yachts that had been much more severely damaged than us, either on route or in a couple of cases in the marina. Summer arrived during our last couple of days.

We had our last night in a hotel as the boat was out of the water and caught the red eye flight to Lisbon. We had the day wandering around this lovely city; it was in festival mood with multiple outdoor parades and concert sites being set up. An evening flight took us back to Gatwick and a long drive home.

We fly back on 8 July and will then make our way to the central group of islands before setting out for the passage home.