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.
I met Andi and Kudi of course and Gerrit who had sailed over here with the Regatta. The first night it became quite clear that the harbourmaster had not been joking. There were marching bands and processions all day and at midnight there was a band that played on the big stage in the harbour until around 2:30 am. After that came the DJ until around 6 am. This happened every day and every night. The whole island was in a sort of state of emergency. Only there was no emergency. Everybody was ready to party for a week non-stop. At 5 am you would find people of every age group (little children to very old people) hanging out or dancing or singing. The energy and atmosphere was unbelievable. All very happy and peaceful despite lots of alcohol being involved. I enjoyed it a lot. But as the sleepless nights progressed, I became increasingly tired. I visited the bull fights in the streets. The bulls don’t get hurt but they looked to me like they would rather go home after a while and I left when I had seen enough.
One day I rented a bicycle together with Andi and Kudi and we went to the center of the island and did some hiking around the old volcanoes and some caves. In the evening there was a yachtie party organised by the crews of some French boats. We had a jam session on the breakwater and a great evening.
Once again it will be hard to say goodbye to this place and I think I will be back to see more of the other islands. It is staring to really feel like I am going home now. It’s 1200 nautical miles to the Scillies. I am hoping for fair weather.