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Published: September 24th 2012
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Inter-island ferry
Ponta Delgada is an active port with numerous inter-island ferries coming in such as this one. Many container ships come with deliveries at this port as well making the marina roll some when they move in and out of the harbor. Ah, the joys of sailing! The last blog entry stated that we thought we would leave for Santa Maria on September 16
th. Instead we set off at 7AM on the 17
th, the winds were predicted to be better. It turned out to be not bad, we had enough wind to sail the 10 hours arriving in Vila do Porto at 5PM. The ride was rolly because the wind was directly behind us and the waves were hitting us on the beam (non-sailors, on the side), but it is much better than “on the nose”. This gave us more time to play tourist therefore as a result we have a few photos to show you from the last couple of days on Sao Miguel and our arrival on Santa Maria.
Instead of going far afield the last few days we explored more of Ponta Delgada, the largest city in the Azores. One of the 3 campuses that make up the University of the Azores is located here and it was on the way to the major supermarket so decided to walk through one Saturday. Bob commented on how empty the campus was as compared to being on a campus in the
US, but we then came to the library and student association building and found a few students around. The library was opened so we went in and met the librarian. Like any good librarian she explained to us that the library is the heart of the University! The 1
st year students were to start school the following Monday, but some returning students and visiting researchers were here already working. The University is located on Sao Miguel, Terceira and Faial with a connection to the university on the mainland, Portugal. The library itself was quite new and well designed with a central corridor running up the 3 floors. The librarian was proud to show us that there was even a special US section that had been donated by the American consulate, however it was quite poor and contained mainly old short story collections. Pre-med and engineering are only 2 of the specialties this location offers with students then finishing their last 2 years on the mainland. As we walked through the city we had noticed several very large pieces of artwork painted on the sides of buildings. The librarian explained that these extremely creative and very well done pieces of artwork
Seaward direction
One of the churches in town gave us an excellent vantage point for looking out toward the sea. were done by the architecture students.
In the evenings we got into a routine of eating dinner and then about 10PM going for a walk into town or along the marina walkway. In the evenings typically there was some type of live music offered at a variety of different venues. There is a tent located at the marina that offered music and even a fashion show one night. In town there is a park where there is a merry-go-round, food and drink booths, tables and chairs, craft vendors, popcorn for sale and a stage where a wide variety of musicians played until midnight. We many times wandered down to this location to find out what was going on or went to an outdoor cafe for a drink and to listen to a musician playing the keyboard accompanying an excellent singer. Midnight wasn’t a problem, but we found that by the time we got back to the boat we were wide awake and then stayed up working on our computers for a few more hours. Needless to say, our wake-up time moved to a later hour. We found it nice to listen to the music, but even more to people
Housing Complex
Looking away from sea you can see a large housing complex as well as some green space in the city of Ponta Delgada. watch. Even though the hour was late and many nights were workdays, we were always surprised to see families with kids of all ages come out for the evenings activities. It was extremely common to see large family groups simply walking along the waterfront until well after midnight. There were also numerous groups of adolescents that seemed to be on their own at these late hours. We never saw any difficulties or ever felt that there was even the slightest safety issue. It was delightful.
We finally got that window of opportunity to sail to the next island that is south and east of Sao Miguel, Santa Maria. This is the 3
rd smallest island in size and has a population of only about 5,500. Many people leave for the mainland from Sao Miguel due to the angle of sail, but as the tropical storm Nadine was coming toward the Azores we wanted to move to be in a more protected harbor which we heard Santa Maria had. This gives us a chance to get to another of the islands in the Azores and explore it before we have to wait out the rain and winds that we will inevitably
Toward the Hills
Traveling away from the sea you can start to see the rolling hills that rise up behind the city of Ponta Delgada. get. Another bonus is that we will meet up with our friends Sylvie and Guy (SV Takari) who had left earlier on their way south toward the Canary Islands, but were held up due to weather as well. You always have to be flexible with your schedules when you live the cruising life.
We enjoyed the variety that we discovered on the island of Sao Miguel –from the large city of Ponta Delgada that had plenty of restaurants, stores, gardens and music to the tea plantations and rocky coastline in the north to the beauty of the Sete Cidades area with its lakes to the interesting displays of volcanic activity of Furnas. There were a couple of people that we had a chance to visit with, but not as in-depth as many of the other islands. We feel that the size of the island and the larger population here definitely had an impact.
As we have said before each of the islands is unique, but what they all have in common is their incredible natural beauty. We are actually ready to leave Santa Maria tomorrow to head to the mainland so will fill you in on this island
More Farms Here
There is much more farm land on this island as you can see on the hillsides in the background. in the next blog entry. As always we enjoy hearing from you so don’t hesitate to send us a comment!
We hope you are all well and enjoying the fall. Take care.
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