Hi. Well we're still in Horta 38:31.97N 28:37.50W and a bit storm bound. We've got a low nearby (993) which is creating F8-9 occ. 10 and is portrayed as 'slow moving' (i.e. not likely to clear off soon). Seas are being described as 'rough or very rough becoming high' (high is worse than very rough). Still there's a high slowly edging in and we're hoping to be away by Sunday. The thing is that if the low moves E then we go out into the northerlies on its 'back side' and of course we want to go north so we have to wait for it to clear if we're to make any realistic progress. All rather trying. Weather here has been a little better today - sunshine and showers but the showers are fairly squally and you have to remember to slam the hatch shut in time. We're getting a little cabin fever so tomorrow we may take the ferry over to Pico (4 miles) and explore there. On Monday we hired a car and toured the island seeing what we could in driving rain + 20' cloud base. There's a slightly complicated section of road in Horta where there's a number of one-way streets, restricted turns and a sort of round-about system which involves driving through a small car park. With the usual British knack of backing a looser we got it rather back-to-front and in one magnificent, yet dignified, manoeuvre we contravened all these regulations and brought about a certain amount of good-natured chaos with other road users and pedestrians. From the air it might have looked like one of those scenes from the Italian Job. Anyway it got us off the boat for a few hours. C flew home yesterday and so the ship's company is now just R, S and J. Last night we had dinner on Fia Tira - fish - followed by a few rounds of Poker Dice. All I can say is that if John (one of Fia Tira's crew and head chef) passes you 'Three Aces' expect to get something resembling a train crash.
More as and when. J
