Arrived
Piccolo
Andrew Yates
Mon 25 May 2009 16:23
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"Land Ho" was the cry as Katie spied land in the
early hours of Monday 25 May. After 17 days at
sea Piccolo is in the Azores and all is well with her and the
crew.
The final day saw low winds with a miserable cover
of cloud that brought drizzle for most of the afternoon. The now customry
fresh bread was baked and on top placed Heinz Baked Beans and grated
chesse. The crew were very content after lunch. A snooze was had by
some and the weather inproved to bring a fine evening but still with low
winds. Sailing had been abandoned mid afternoon and the engine brought us
closer. A curry and a hoisting of the sails was had before sun down and
then the countdown was on. Heidi finished her watch - no land, Matt took
over. He thought he was nearing the end of his shift when he thought he
saw land, Sam arrived for his shift with Matt looking, straining to see if the
light he could see was land, Matt went to bed.... it was a yacht, no town or
village has one white light with just below a red one. Sam's watch passed
without incident, then arrived Katie. The sails were lowered as we were
within 39 miles and with the skipper's fuel calculation we could motor towards
Horta on the island of Faial. Sam slept and during Katies watch she saw
land and was very excited to have done so, soon the crew were rising to witness
something they had not seen for 17 days (well, they all rose except Sam who
wasn't too fussed about the sight of land - although was rather impressed when
he did crawl from his pit to see what was occuring up on deck). The motor
towards the Horta Marina was beautiful, flat calm seas, a grey sky and a
wonderful volcanic island covered in lush greenery with hedges as thick as a
portugeusse eyebrow. As Katie adjusted her mascara and the colour of
her lipstick to match that of her hat (watch out boys) Piccolo glided her
way towards the fuel dock of Horta Marina where customs and immigration were
passed without fuss and fuel taken onboard. Piccolo now sits next to a
norwegian boat with the crew cleaning and the sun warming her.
The hightlight of yesterday was the early moring
sighting of 3 Fin whales by Heidi. Matt was up on deck and was quickly
joined by Sam. For 45 minutes the whales were showing off their impressive
physiques for the crew to see. Heidi was screaming for Katie, Matt was
knocking on the door, Sam was photographing the impressive mammals, Heidi
screamed for Katie. The whales 18-33 meters in length played with us and
showed us just how magnificent they are. Then with one last blow and an
arch of the back Katie arrived to see the final dive and the whales were gone
below. The whales were talked about all day and the photos looked forward
to with great anticipation. This highlight was potentially out highlighted
by something quite extraordinary later that night. Heidi had taken over
from Katie on watch, the crew were sleeping or trying to. Heidi called out
that there were dolphins, nothing great you would think, we have been blessed
with many visits by these fine swimmers. The difference this time was the
phosphoresence was in full luminous effect. Katie rushed on deck, followed
by Sam to the sight of luminous dolphins torpedoing around Piccolo. Dancing,
spinning, playing off the bow and the stern they were a truly amazing
sight. For 10 minutes they looked like something from Gandalfs staff, it's
hard to put into words how beautiful a dolphin speeding through water covered in
luminous green light and leaving a 15 foot trail of light behind it looks.
Stunning barely does them justice. Matt sadly missed this but to round off
a perfect day saw the same thing on his watch. We are lucky, lucky
people.
So tonight will bring Matt his meat and a drink or
two for the crew at the famous Peter's Bar. Tomorrow will bring a
slight ache to the head and some general boat chores. Life is good and
land is a place where blogs are not written so expect no update for a day or
three. Ciao.
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