Unfortunately, Mick Chamberlain on the diminutive Simo, who left Horta late last week, had an unfortunate incident on his way to the UK. He hit a whale which holed the boat. His efforts to pump the water out were insufficient and he ended up setting off his EPIRB and then being picked up by a Spanish fishing boat. Simo is no more… Mick is well but devastated and will be on his way bak to the UK via Vigo, next week.
Sorry for your loss Mick – but glad you’re OK.
We have now moved over to Terceira – a 15 hour sail away from Horta and the harbor’s mural of yacht insignia.
We departed at 4:00pm, managing to squeeze our way out from the harbor wall that we’d been attached to without incident (phew!) for an overnight sail with Stephanie, Joe and Matthew aboard.
We sailed out between Faial and Pico, but as soon as we got into the main channel between Sao Jorge and Pico, the wind died – until the end of Sao Jorge. We passed a very interesting village on Sao Jorge – completely isolated by high cliffs – right on the water with a single steep winding road down to it.
It was an uneventful (boring) trip – with 12 hours of motoring involved and so we arrived the following morning at Praia da Vitoria, only to find the marina jammed full – so set the anchor in the large protected harbor in 8M with 40M scope. After a lengthy (and inaccurate) check-in with harbormaster and immigration and a welcome shower, Laurie, Steph, Joe and Matthew headed for Angra do Heroismo while I stayed aboard for some sleep. This was Steph’s last day with us and the following morning they took a taxi to the airport and left Laurie and I alone for the first time in what felt like ages.
It’s been an interesting time since we moved aboard in May until now. Some things are much more complex than we had anticipated, other things are easier. We certainly are learning to take one day at a time and have made numerous changes to our plans as we adapt to the various situations.
We have been participating in an Ocean Cruising Club cruise – which I was rather fearful might turn into a stuffy event – but it’s been very nice, allowing us to have a reason to introduce ourselves to boats that otherwise we might not have – and we’ve very quickly developed some interesting friendships.
With the Azores being islands in three groups, OCC members have come and gone as they’ve seen fit and we’ve met them – or not – in other islands. We keep in touch using our radios on a morning ‘Net’ and from time to time there’s an event (like the barbecue with rude Kiwi above!) that tends to bring the majority of the group together. With all the other cruisers so much more experienced than us, we’ve found a wealth of information available – and serious technical help for some of the deficiencies around Toodle-oo! Most notably the rather poor performance of our long range radio (SSB), but also I’ve received great help with weather prediction and routing plans. Our plan had been to spend a few days in Terceira and then head for the south west coast of England – but that might be evaporating now as a high is sitting between the Azores and England – making for very light winds – and we certainly don’t relish the thought of motoring the whole bloody way! We’re therefore “stuck” here for a bit – but we’ll make the most of it. Not sure if we’ll stay here or perhaps make an effort to go to Graciosa, the one island we missed from our plan altogether. Then perhaps we’ll head for Ireland and head to the Lake District from there. Who knows – watch this space!
We hummed and hawed about walking up to the top of Pico with a small band of folk from the OCC, but in the end thought better of it – the weather didn’t look great on the day and besides, I have a pretty sore toe having stubbed it seriously about 10 days ago – I’m thinking it might be broken. The walk takes 7 or 8 hours and apparently the downhill is really grueling and not much fun.
We took the lazy way out and took the ferry over (just as the diminutive Simo was departing for England) and dragged Stephanie, Joe and Matthew around in a rental car.
Pico is an island of contrasts. Arriving in Madalena, the coast road north was in a bleak black landscape of basalt lava flows in which the Azoreans managed to eke out a living cultivating vines and figs and making wine and brandy. The red wine from Pico has quickly become one of our favorites!
We visited a wine making museum – more of a village – which was quite interesting. Grapes are grown in what looks to be rock – hardly any soil – in very small enclosures created by walls of black basalt. These walls kept the vines warm and out of the wind. The tending and harvesting of the crop was and remains completely manual.
We then moved on to a Whaling Museum – inside an old whale processing factory. It was really interesting in spite of the gruesomeness of the whole thing. Unfortunately not allowed to take photos inside – but this is the ramp that the poor buggers were hauled up to the factory on…
We then drove up on a higher altitude road that took us by way of one of the many calderas. Everything is really lush as you drive up – even the fence posts support an active biology!
We were at about half the height of the big volcano, but already right at cloud level. The scenery had now changed to very similar to the high moors of the Yorkshire dales – only lacking in sheep! Amazing the contrast to the other end of the island. Lunch was a wonderful event in Ponta da Ilha – though paying for it was tough as they only took cash and even Matthew had to chip in!
We drove back along the south side of the island and discovered the beautiful little port of Lajes do Pico. I wish we had the opportunity to go there, but sadly not…
We arrived back at the boat at about 7pm and then had an enjoyable evening drinking aboard Saltwhistle 3 with new friends Tony and Rachel. All good.
We’ll be leaving Horta on Saturday and sailing with Stephanie et al to Terceira some 90 miles away. Planning to make it an overnight trip which should be interesting!
So we arrived at Horta, the main town on Faial and a large yachting harbor a week ago and have enjoyed the island and the cruising camaraderie. The Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) has organized a 2 week cruise in and around the islands and so the 15 or so signed up yachts have a common theme – but are nicely lost in amongst the hustle and bustle of one of the largest cruising harbors in the world.
The OCC held an official kick off dinner – we got to sit at the top table as recent ‘Qualifiers’ in the organization having just completed our 1,000 mile non-stop voyage. That’s not a patch on Mick – a really interesting guy who sailed in from Somewhere aboard his 25ft wooden boat. Mick left yesterday for Falmouth – single-handed. Fair winds Mick!
We said goodbye to Jane and Mike and hello to Stephanie, Joe and Matthew.
Faial’s biggest tourist destination is at the far end of the island, and is the site of the 1957/58 eruption that added a couple of square kilometers of land area to the island, which is already being eroded away by the constant winds and sea action. We hired a car for the day and enjoyed the sudden and dramatic change from more typical Azorian landscapes to suddenly a lunar landscape with little vegetation and fine grains of basalt sand. They have an underground museum at the site of the lighthouse that was destroyed during the eruption, but left the tower intact – which we were able to climb to the top of.
One of the famous aspects of the harbor at Horta is that everyone gets to paint on the harbor wall – to not do so is considered unlucky. We had brought along paints from America and duly picked our spot where now a Toodle-oo! logo can be found… The marvellous mountain in the background is the volcano on Pico – Portugal’s highest mountain… We’re bound for there next – by ferry…
We left Corvo at around 4:30pm and headed for Graciosa. There was no wind so we motored L but were soon enchanted by a group of dolphins that enjoyed playing in the bow wave – in the clearest water imaginable.
Graciosa lies some 150 miles to the east south east, so we’re in for an overnight sail. I decided that we should run the watermaker – to keep the membranes active and fresh, so started the generator accordingly – only to find that it was giving zero amps! Since we had nothing better to do, Mike and I set about reading the book to find out what might be wrong – and ended up diagnosing a blown capacitor. The unfortunate thing was that in order to get to said capacitor, one has to lift the generator from it’s sound enclosure, the fortunate thing: the previous owner had left a spare capacitor aboard… A couple of hours later, we were back in business and making more water…
Overnight the wind avoided us, allowing just a hint of such that we flew a headsail which added about .2kts to our speed – but the watch keeping was easy, if dull. Come morning the wind picked up a little, but we were unable to head directly for Graciosa – though Sao Jorge was in our sights… OK change of plan – we’re going to Sao Jorge and the boat was sailing again – peace and quiet!
Sighting land was interesting – our first sight was of the top of Pico – at about 4,000M high – a well impressive volcano, peeking out above the clouds.
We arrived in Velas, Sao Jorge and were able to secure a berth inside the wonderful marina which is new and equipped with laundry and excellent shower facilities.
Sao Jorge is a long skinny island, famous for its cheese. Velas is a very pretty little town and the night we arrived the town was holding a fishing celebration – and catered some wonderful food – free! How cool can this be? All the boats in the harbor were dressed for the occasion with flags and music was playing – though oddly sounded like Irish tunes!
We rented a car and toured down the island stopping close to the top of a hill so that Laurie and I could trek down (J). What wonderful views we had – all the way down to the Caldeira de Santo Cristo where a village, complete with restaurant and big church is accessible only by foot or by ATV. We met Mike and Jane there who had walked the 1 hour in from the other direction, had a great burger at the restaurant and then walked back to the car and then on to the boat.
We toured the island from top to bottom, visiting cheese factories, small ports, watermills and waterfalls. Sao Jorge certainly caters for walkers with magnificent walks in abundance. We also enjoyed a really silly climb on the edge of a caldeira – that was falling into the sea… impressive photos huh? Both of us got severe vertigo (ok, I really did!)
We left Sao Jorge yesterday and sailed to Horta – the famous harbor of the Azores and a really nice looking town that we’re anxious to explore.
Click on photos to enlarge. Having difficulties uploading images sensibly – as you can probably tell…
Mike and Jane arrived by plane on Friday and we picked them up in a rental car and toured the island some before returning to the marina in Lajes, then on Saturday we left…
Corvo is a small island lying just north of Flores with 430 inhabitants – looking after 3,000 cows – but there are no facilities there and if the wind is in the wrong direction, the harbor is untenable. There wasn’t any wind to worry about so we motored all the way from Lajes on Flores to Vila Nova on Corvo some 20 miles away, and anchored in 10M of water (yes, we’ve gone metric now that we’re in Europe!)
Our quick stop in Corvo was delightful and we took a lazy taxi ride up to the caldera. Managed to walk some of the distance back – giving opportunity to photograph Toodle-oo! lying at anchor in yet another exotic location! Then we walked back through the older portion of the town with very narrow winding streets – feeling like you’re in everyone’s backyards…
We arrived back at the boat in the afternoon and set off for the main trip – to Graciosa, lying some 150 miles to the east – an overnight sail that we would begin at least with the engine drumming through the night.
(Click on photos to enlarge…)
Flores is a very dramatic volcanic landscape: Several Calderas filled with water and lush vegetation, steep cliffs coming right to the sea, black jagged rocks capable of shedding a wayward boat in an instant. Then there are the little villages spotted around the place with houses painted white and with red slate roofs, so typical of Portugal. There isn’t much going on in the villages – it’s tough to identify what’s a shop and what’s a house – there aren’t many shops! and as an example, yesterday when we rented a car with another couple and ended up for lunch in Santa Cruz, we gave ourselves 90 minutes to discover the town before regrouping to chose the favored restaurant for lunch… 25 minutes later we’d covered the town and only one couple had found the (apparently) only restaurant in the place. Food was good though! I get the feeling that social events are centered much more around community festivals rather than daily socializing that is more common elsewhere. Seems all rather nice.
Monday we did an interesting walk down a steep path to the sea and an area of microclimate where bananas are grown. Quite a challenging walk back in the heat of the day. Yesterday we toured the entire island in the car – and had great views over to Corvo.
Today is a boat maintenance day, Friday our friends Jane and Mike arrive and Saturday we sail for Corvo and then on to Graciosa.
Will try to upload photos when I have a decent internet connection…
(Click on photos to enlarge)
With 500 miles to go, we started planning our arrival in Flores – seems ridiculous compared to our trip to Bermuda – where with 500 miles to go we’d barely left the US! The good news for us was that we were able to sail the rhumb line to Flores – moreover it looked like we’d have good wind – albeit from directly behind us which is not the most comfortable point of sail. We motored a little when the winds dropped below about 5 or 6 knots apparent, suffering the noisy slatting of the main, but otherwise sailed wing on wing and took the consequential rolling motion – which made sleep difficult to come by.
It looked at one point as if we’d be able to make it in on Friday evening – but to do so we had to maintain a 7.4kt average. The winds did not cooperate however, so on the Thursday we quickly decided to plan for an early Saturday arrival and take it nice and easy. Good decision indeed – removed all the stress to get there and we were fortunate to have a really beautiful Friday and spent most of it in the cockpit. I took advantage of the nice weather to obtain a really good sunburn too!
Land Ho! just after midnight on Saturday with the sighting of the leading light of Flores. The wind was up and we had to slow the boat down to below 5kts so as to not arrive too early. When we finally turned towards the harbor, the wind was blowing 30kts – and we had an interesting time anchoring in 50ft of water, anchor down at 3:45EST – 7:45am local. Made it! We sat on the anchor for a couple of hours, getting various things arranged so that we could proceed into the tiny marina to find a slip and then motored on in to find a very tight marina behind a breakwater and squeezed ourselves into a spot adjacent a 33ft ketch that had been single handed from Connecticut by a twenty something young lady! We quickly met up with various other cruisers – Brits and Aussies – and planned drinks for the evening!
Since arriving we’ve basically been sleeping, drinking and doing laundry.The only thing we know about Flores so far is that it’s steep, lush, has cold beer available, no Laundromat, a good general store (but not open on Sunday). I’ll update with some photos when we’ve had a chance to really look around.
(click on photos to enlarge)
Arrived at 3:45am EST (7:45 local).
Anchored behind breakwater – hoping to get into a slip later on. Will update then…
So we’re into our 10th day now. The engine is humming in my right ear as I type this – we’re motoring and have been since about 10:00pm last night. There’s a concept – 10:00pm… Eastern time or UTC (Universal Time) or Azorean time? Fortunately, Azorean is the same as UTC… Laurie has moved onto Azorean time, I’m still on the East coast – which is what explains why I had Indian Curry for breakfast this morning!
It’s been an interesting few days since I last reported. We received an excellent forecast from our weather router Herb – for three solid days of 20 – 25kt winds abaft the beam and enjoyed the first immensely. It was a day for biology: In the morning I discovered a dead squid on top of the coachroof! We then had sighting of a solitary whale and with an excellent book we have aboard, we are pretty confident that we have identified it correctly as a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale – an unusual species. We saw flying fish off in the distance and various birds – mostly Shearwaters and a few Petrels. We were then joined by a pod of a dozen dolphins – looked like pairs of mothers/calves with dads swimming alone. Difficult to identify – we went from Striped Dolphins to Cylmene Dolphins with the second pod of 20 or more that joined us – to finally Spotted Dolphins (much more common) when the third group arrived and I briefly identified spots that I’d not previously seen. (Presumably each group were of similar make-up over the 2 – 3 hour period we were watching them.) The last group was difficult to watch well as we were amid a sail-change – stronger weather was in the offing.
We were looking forward to the second day of a forecast that Herb had given us the previous day, but the winds were climbing already to the high end of his predicted range. When we reviewed the forecast with Herb on the evening SSB Net, he decides that yes the winds will be solidly in the 30-35kt range (!) tonight and the following day – it was about to get hectic. The winds were as he foretold. Also the seas were up and I estimate that while the majority of waves were around 15ft, there was a couple of swells compounding – such that we often had waves in the 25ft range. How can you tell? Difficult – but standing on deck with my eyes parallel with the solar panels that are mounted at about 15 – 18ft off the sea, it was pretty clear that the tops of the waves (from the bottom of the trough) was a solid 25ft… Fortunately, we were running with the wind and the wave trains, so every time a monster wave would approach us, the stern would simply ride up it – and then fall off the backside as the wave traversed through. (Unfortunately the one exception to this occurred when Laurie was hand steering while I was on the SSB attempting to talk with Herb – she got dumped on by a following wave – the only one that has so far managed to soak the cockpit. Adding insult to injury, we were unable to contact Herb that night due to poor propagation.) We were well positioned for these big winds and seas – being able to run with them with just a portion of our jib out and 350ft warp (rope with a short piece of anchor chain at the end) being towed out the back. This was our first use of a warp – it did really well at keeping the boat pointed in the right direction – rather than riding up a wave to port or starboard – followed by the inevitable wobbly fall-off. We managed the boat like this for 24 hours.
Sleep was tough to come by and we were in touchy recovery mode all the following day – when the winds had abated and the seas were calming – and we were once again sailing in good conditions and making sail changes galore.
Last night the winds died away such that we motor sailed for a good stretch and then finally brought in the genoa and let the engine do its thing. It’s been doing its thing since about 10:00pm…
Challenges:
Charging the batteries is becoming a little touchy. Without the wind generator we are down some anyway – and the engine alternator/charging system is only putting out a fraction of what it should. However, yesterday a new problem appeared – there’s apparently some suspect wiring in the generator circuits – I was unable for a long time to get the AC running. Tried this and that and in the end did nothing and the problem just went away. Needs looking at – probably by someone that understands arcs and sparks! We can’t lose our last method of charging!
Our ship’s compass and all the electronics are out of synch. We knew this going into this passage – and the problem is manageable since our position is reported independently by GPS and how we get there doesn’t really matter – just join the dots to get there. Would be nice to understand headings a little more clearly however. All this requires is some calibration routines – that require riding around in circles in a flat calm sea…
Our Monitor Wind Vane ‘Gail’ has been great – as long as we’re heading into weather. When running she’s useless. We therefore have to use the autopilot – exacerbating the energy issue – plus we are nervous that Otto may suddenly quit on us… Need some changes to the control lines on Gail once we get in.
Progress:
We’re doing great – just 400 miles left to Flores…