Moving on
Sarah Grace goes to sea
Chris Yerbury and Sophy White
Fri 22 Jun 2007 10:36
Once again we had the now
obligatory road trip round Faial, this time accompanied by the "mad Dane" as
Karen calls our freind Thor. Thor is a singlehanded sailor who was part of the
radio group on the trip across from Bermuda. Faial is not a big island and has a
fairly small population but it was well worth the effort we toook to see it. You
always read travel brochures telling you how peacefull, tranquil or relaxing a
place is, and in my experience they are usually way over the top in terms of
hyperbole. At last we have found a place where it all applies. Yachties are not
noted for there dynamism or get up and go, as they seem to live a Manyana type
of life but even they slowed down, if thats possible. We visited the site
of a recent volcano that happened during all our lifetimes and were quite
belittled by the force of nature. The lighthouse that stood near the site was
now so far from the sea as to be totally useless. We then drove upto the top of
the extinct volcano that created the island and were again impressed by the
shear scale of it all. We left Faial just as it got light yesterday and after a
brief downwind sail the wind died and came round to blow from directly ahead
again!! I really don't know what we have done to upset the wind gods but it's
serious. We motored for quite a bit then once we rounded Sao Jorge we could make
Terciera and the wind came from behind, so up with the spinnaker and had a
wonderful sail for a few hours. Sao Jorge looked very attractive with green
fields,waterfall dropping straight into the sea and some caves, another place we
must come back to. It was a delightful sail under blue skies with plenty to look
at as we were close to islands all day. We arrived in Terciera after 13 and a
half hours sail, and already you can sense a different feel to this island, it
even has a motorway despite a population of only 58,000. There is a real big
city feel to the place. These islands are really most attractive and all appear
to be totally different from each other in atmosphere. They must be the last
undeveloped islands in Europe, as far as tourism is concerned, and will probably
escape the mass developement of the rest of Europe as they lack the one
essential for this type of "improvement"--Beaches. long may it remain
so.