Hello from Horta, Azores
Stromboli comes home
John and Sue Chadwick
Fri 1 Jun 2007 16:03
We got into port at 2200 last night (local time - BST-1) with one thing in mind. A beer, a steak, a bottle of red, served by a pretty girl on a table (the food and drink on the table - not the girl) with a table cloth in a place that didn't moved around all the time. The marina was full so we dropped anchor in the outer harbour. Then, we broke some records in boat packing-away. Never, in the annuls of nautical history, was a boat tidied up and an inflatable prepared so quickly. We got ashore,clambered up an old iron ladder and wobbled on rubbery legs into town to find exactly what we had in mind in little place where they bring your a hot stone and you do your own steak - absolutely and completely bloody wonderful.
Today we've managed to blag our way into the Marina - poor Fia Tira is still out in the anchorage but they're coming over for drinks before we all go our for dinner. We've bought some local sort of ne champagne and filled two of our black, rubber buckets with ice+water.
Later....(next day in fact).. ....
Buried within the text on the back label of Macallan Fine Oak 'Whisky Makers Selection' is a short statement. 'Please Savour Responsibly'. Now if only we had seen this caution before last night... Anyway, after the snacks + champagne + white wine + red 'champagne' interval in Stromboli's cockpit we (us + Fia Tira) headed for a restaurant recommended by Stokey Woodall (our weather router). All I would say is that in matters meteorological Stokey is your man. Clearly everyone has their limits, and, as it turned out, Stokey was perhaps not the first person to consult regarding fine dinning. Anyway, we rounded the evening off back on Stromboli (the Macallan's taken some damage I see) and I found my way below - by bouncing off the furniture I'm told - and into (my) bunk by about 0030.
Thereafter - it seems- there were a number of alarums and excusions. Fia Tira's outboard packed up on the way out to the anchorage. They returned here borrowed ours. That ran out of fuel. They returned. Fuelled it up. Couldn't start it. (Are you following all this?) Got their own going again. Lost keys to Fia Tira. Borrowed Stromboli's bolt cutters to break into Fia Tira....
Some people shouldn't be allowed outdoors let alone......
More in a few days.
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