The Azores

Silhouette
Pieter, Pauline, Robyn and Kerry Lindeque
Tue 8 Jul 2014 17:14
After our long Atlantic Crossing, spotting the small island of Flores on the 18th of June was a welcome sight! First we anchored in Porto das Lajes, but later we tied up in the marina. Unfortunately, it was a bit rocky in the marina due to swell, but we had a ‘swell’ lunch to make up for it! We ordered a bit too much food there, though (as in in 2 T-bone steaks for 1 person!) and had to get a doggy bag. But we had a delicious stew later with it later, so all’s well that ends well! The next day we hired a car and toured the stunningly beautiful Flores. We saw many cedeiras (large hollows created by volcanoes, that were mostly filled with water and turned into lakes). We then went to Santa Cruz for lunch, the island’s capital and it was the quietest capital I have ever seen! Barely anyone was awake!
 
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On the 20th we took Silhouette up  to Fajã Grande, a little anchorage that had a lovely restaurant, where we had octopus for dinner. We once again ordered too much and ended up having octopus stew for dinner the next day! 
 
We set off for Horta, in Faial the next day. It was a long journey so we only arrived on the 22nd, the next day. When we arrived, as we were tying up on the fuel pontoon to wait until we were told where we were to berth, we spotted Pilgrim! They are some English friends we met in Spain and it was really great to see Celeste and Solomon again. When we were tied up on the marina breakwater, we started to design and plan where we would paint our boat logo. It’s a tradition to paint your boat logo on the floor of the marina breakwater and now it is believed that if you don’t paint our name on you will be cursed with bad luck! So of course we got started the very next day and completed our Silhouette logo on the 24th.]
 
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However, before that, Alan went to pick up Jan at the airport! She was going to have a weekend in the Azores with Alan. Kerry and I also went to the beach with Celeste and Solomon and 2 girls called Alice and Hattie on there boat called Cariad! Unfortunately, the water in the sea was so filled with jellyfish, you couldn’t do any swimming. Fortunately, this prompted us to create the... Jellyfish Squad! Dedicated to freeing the beach of jellyfish! We picked them up with spades and placed them in a bucket filled with water so we could study them. We also learned from a local you could hold the translucent ones with no tentacles. We also met Martin and Susan, a Dutch couple on their boat Saluki who we met through Margeux. They were very excited by the Fifa World Cup,as Holland were doing extremely well. Sadly, I couldn't say the some for England. And then, on the 25th Alan and Jan left us! It was really lovely to have Alan sail with us and he was an excellent chef and washer-upper! It was great to have Jan as well! On the same day, we hired a car and toured Faial. We took lots of pictures and went to a cafe for lunch that had delicious food and a beautiful garden. Then we went to a museum that’s dedicated to the volcano that erupted only 50 years ago and created some new land. Our next island was Pico, which we took a ferry to get to and hired a car. We drove to the top of Mt. Pico, but it was too misty to see anything. After lunch, we went for a swim in a tidal pool, which was really nice!
 
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Early morning, on the 29th we set off for Terceira, which has been my favourite island so far. We saw loads of dolphins on our sail their. We tied up in the marina, in Angra do Heroismo. The next day we visited the town a bit and we got a tour of the main church. We went inside the 16th century cemetery of the church and we saw quite a few bones! We also went for a shop n the town market, which was very colourful. It was a very beautiful little town, filled with cobblestone streets (perfect for bullfighting on the street, a tradition in Terceira!) and quaint shops filled with trinkets. I really enjoyed it there!
 
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And then, on the 2nd of July, we set off for La Coruna, Spain. This trip will take us about a week and I can’t wait to get to Europe!