Category: Azores

I am in the marina in Angra waiting for the Customs officers to check Amy and me and give us permission to travel to England. Our plan is to leave today in the afternoon for the Isles of Scilly.
The sail over here from Horta was rougher than expected and I arrived very tired on Sunday around noon. The harbour master was very friendly and told me with a smile that because of the celebration week of San Ioannis there would be no sleep possible between 12 midnight and 6am for the next week. I thought he was joking and happily accepted being overjoyed to get a berth in the marina despite the huge fiesta.

Continue reading “Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira (Azores)”

Horta is a magic place. There are so many people on boats coming from and going to all sorts of directions and the harbour is full of energy. The first few days I got even less sleep than at sea because I was constantly meeting people, hanging out in bars or boats or just on the pontoon and exchanging stories. I guess this must be like Mekka for yachties. Some people I had already met elsewhere like Andi and Kudi of course or Manuel from Switzerland whom I had met in Bermuda and Alex from South Africa. I had met her first in Tobago and then again in Antigua. Her crew had left here and she was looking for new crew. But just as new boats are arriving daily from everywhere, so are hitchhikers roaming the harbour and looking to crew on boats for a ride home or to far away destinations.

Continue reading “Horta, Faial (Azores)”

We left Bermuda on Monday night, May 21. It took four weeks to arrive in Horta, Faial. More than I had expected. The weather window turned out to be much less than perfect but in retrospect there weren’t (and aren’t at the moment) any good weather windows so I don’t regret having left when we did.
We had total calms for 6 1/2 days in which we just lowered the sails and waited for wind. With 60l of Diesel we had no other choice. We drifted backwards towards Bermuda. Later we had to tack into the wind and waves for over 24h only to find ourselves at the same spot where we had started tacking a day earlier.

Continue reading “Bermuda to the Azores”