We finally motivated ourselves to move today, we have been meaning to go for a couple of days but then we find things to do and say ‘we’ll go tomorrow’ – I think it is the comfort of being tied up with water, electric and Land after our journey!  Sailed across to Velas on Sao Jorge today and into a different world – there are a couple of hundred cruising yachts in Horta, the pontoons are packed and boats rafted, Just 20 miles away in Sao Jorge we’re in the tiny Marina with about 7 other cruising yachts.

 

The Marina staff really are so helpful in the Azores, the marina’s are cheap but the service is really friendly and good - when I checked out of Horta they rang Sao Jorge to book us a space and told us how good the marina manager, Jose, is in Sao Jorge.  As it turns out there was plenty of space in Sao Jorge and Jose ran around the pontoons to catch our lines as he was on lunch when we radioed in to say we had arrived (there is only him here – he seems to work every day). 

 

The marina is in a deep bay right under steep cliffs (in fact – all of Sao Jorge is under cliffs – the only flat land is at the bottom of the cliffs where rockfalls have created bits of land they call Fajas).   Jose told us that the birds roosting in the cliffs will make a noise from 9pm to midnight here – we have just been sat outside laughing at the noise they make.  In the cliffs there is a large colony of Shearwater’s, the noise is very entertaining – they sound nothing like gulls – they sound more like a low background noise of digeridoos (no idea how you spell that) with the occasional bird flying about going owwwwwwa owwwwwa owwwwa (well, sort of), they are very strange sounds.  Unfortunately – they also like to poo on our boat!

 

We’re going to be here for a few days as we have strong winds coming in over the weekend, but today has been fine and warm since we arrived.