2nd June Horta, Faial 38:31.959N 028:37.525W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Sun 2 Jun 2013 12:04
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"Horta, Faial, 2nd June"
It did indeed take us some time to reach
Horta. During the day it was fun to follow the wind tacking back and fore
across our GPS line. However, the wind did not play fair and kept changing
its direction so that as dark fell we resorted to motoring. At one time
the wind completely died away, the gentle swell became less, until the
sea looked like rippled pewter. The closer we got to the island of
Faial the slower our progress, any wind there was appeared to be on our nose and
was mainly made by our own progress, so 3-4 knots was the best we could
do. We finally arrived at Horta just as the dawn was breaking.
The marina reception dock was completely full with boats moored the length of it
three deep, so we joined the rest of the fleet at anchor in the
sheltered harbour, had breakfast and fell into our berths after two nights at
sea.
I was woken by Noel calling to me that some
friends of ours were just leaving! Sleepily, I went on deck to see
Nigel and Karen who had spotted us at anchor and come over to say
'hello'. They left Bermuda before us and had engine problems on the
way to Horta but were rescued and towed by another yacht in the area at the time
when the wind died on them. They have been here for two weeks and were now
ready to make the journey back to the UK. We bade them farewell
and then took the opportunity to go alongside the reception dock
and were allocated a berth in the marina.
Having settled Whisper in her berth - we went
back to our bunks and slept the rest of the day away!
Today, we woke up to a grey rainy day, despite
a good nights sleep the weather was not enticing enough to make us want to get
up. Anyway it is Sunday and I seem to recall that is traditional
to have a lie-in, so we did. The sun is now out and we are back in
shorts enjoying the warmth and pottering onboard.
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