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| Black and white plaster and basalt church and convent as seen from the harbor of Horta |
Land-ho! The Azores (which are part of Portugal) were a fantastic view for someone who has been at sea for a long time!
After being at sea for over a week and seeing nothing but open ocean….. lots and lots of water….
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| Water from the Mid-Atlantic, how exciting. |
…and more water….
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| Dolphins! A very welcome sight on an otherwise incredibly dull voyage |
…and sometimes the occasional dolphin friends would join us to play in our wake….
We arrived very late at night in Horta and docked the boat in the dark. Once secured, the crew quickly ran off to join the old salts, sailors and yachties gathered at Peter’s Bar. The world is a really small place and when you run into people you know on a tiny rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, it feels even smaller. Unexpectedly reuniting with old friends in ports around the world is a nice, comforting perk of working on yachts.
The bar itself is decorated in a very interesting collection of boat paraphernalia left by passing sailors. Check out the whale bone carvings of whales in the case above their heads. More on that in a minute.
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| The harbor of Horta |
The next morning, while the boat was fueling, we had about an hour and a half to hop off the boat again before we were to set sail.
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| Street along the waterfront where we got coffees, crepes and pastries. |
Horta itself felt very much like a small town. Almost not even noticing the few tourists at all, the locals all went about their daily lives getting coffee, papers, lunch and whatever other errands (like laundry) they happened to be running. I’m not sure what exactly I expected to find on such an isolated rock, but it was neat to see how “normal” everything felt.
Gorgeous lush green hillsides behind the city. It would have been ideal to have more than a few hours to see what the island had to offer, but as you can tell, there was some weather brewing so we had to leave as quickly as possible.
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| Whale bone whale figurines in the souvenir shops |
We played speed tourists and after grabbing our first bite of non-boat food in over a week, we ran off to peek in all of the little shops. After seeing these little guys everywhere, I just had to pick one up for myself!
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| Franticaly penning postcards to family and friends |
After buying a massive assortment of pastries for enjoyment back on the boat, we ran into a shop to buy postcards to send back home.
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| Mailing postcards from the middle of the Atlantic! |
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| Showoff. |
There are a few things to note in this picture of the boys skateboarding on the dock before we left.
One) the wall behind them is covered in signs painted by the crew of the boats that have stopped here over the years. We didn’t have time to paint our own, but we did find two painted by the crew of our boat in the past.
Two) the deathgrip on the pink bag of pastries from the pastry shops we hit when we got into town. What a treat after being at sea!
Three) their facial hair. Typically the men don’t shave while we’re underway so at the end, they’ll sculpt it into amusing displays before eventually shaving it completely.
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| Our boat docked around the far end of the harbor from town. |
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| View leaving the dock, part of the volcano visible in the distance beneath the clouds. |
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| Members of the deck crew sporting their foul weather gear to take in the fenders as we head back out to the open ocean. |
Back out to sea after less than sixteen hours in port. Better be ready for another week at sea!