Monday 15 June,  2015

North  Atlantic Ocean – on passage to Flores, Azores  38 33.9N 29 07.0W

Today's Blog by David  (Time zone: BST -1.0; UTC)

It was just like I remember it from our visit in 2001.  Café Sport, a café founded in 1918 by Henrique Alvarez and an iconic yottie meeting place for more than 60 years, best known when owned by his son Peter and now by his son Jose, is still going strong, serving excellent food at affordable prices.  The  marina continues to be overcrowded, despite expansion in the intervening years and the same, smelly vegetable market opens every morning and John Van Opstal, now 78 years old, continues to make and market excellent quality scrimshaw – albeit at a price!

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Horta Harbour from Van Opstal’s house

Dr Manuel Arriaga; Tribune of Faial  and President of the Republic of Portugal 1911 – 15

overlooking the tallest mountain in Portugal – being the volcano on the island of Pico, as viewed from Horta

The Azores have been Portuguese since the early 15^thC. The economy is little changed in that period.  There is almost no industry, agriculture being the mainstay:  crops being fruit grains and vines.  Cattle, sheep and pig farming are important on all the Azores Islands, and butter and cheese is a primary export.  The abundance of cattle notwithstanding, there is no fresh milk for sale – only UHT.

The sea is also significant source of income. Tuna is the primary catch and is canned locally.  Big Game fishing is also an increasing revenue earner and a number of world records have been established here. But whaling – which was the second largest revenue earner until the 1980s – has now ceased.  Although Whale and Dolphin watching is a big tourist attraction – to some at least.

Thar she blows!

Thar she goes!

Terry and I went along but we saw only sperm whales which are resident in the Azores so present all year round. In addition, other whales migrate through the islands in May and June so, for example, fin whales, blue whales are supposedly evident – but not when we were looking!  We have seen many, many dolphins at sea though!

Finally, our report on our stay in Faial could not be complete without mention of our visit to the Interpretation Centre at the Capelinhos Volcano at the west end of Faial, in particular our attendance at Horta’s  “Joe 90 Revival Festival”:  

The crew of Serendipity at a showing of a 3D film on the development of volcanoes in the area.