The last of Faial and sailing to Sao Jorge (July 29-30)

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We know we owe you a blog entry or two but we have been keeping busy. We are no longer on the island of Faial as we left there July 31st and sailed to the island of Sao Jorge. We spent a busy week on Sao Jorge and on August 7^thwe had a great 10 hour sail to the island of Terceira with 2 other boats. To catch you up to date we will split up the blog entry. We will first finish up with the last couple of things we did on Faial before we dive into the beautiful island of Sao Jorge in the next blog.

During the last couple of days on Faial we took a quick walk up to the Observatory which is located in Horta overlooking the harbor. This was built in 1901 and was done at the request of Prince Albert of Monaco because he realized the importance of getting accurate weather observations from this location would help in predicting weather for Europe. We weren’t able to go inside but it gave us a great view of the area around Horta.

Quite a few people told us that we should not miss the Scrimshaw Museum in Horta so on the day before we left we made time for it. We received a great guided tour for 2 euro ($2.45). The collection is housed above the famous Peter Café Sport bar in Horta, the collection belonged to Peter (the grandfather of the current owner). When we first heard about this we were somewhat skeptical, a museum above a bar, but we were wrong. It includes work done in the Azores and other magnificent pieces from around the world done on whale teeth and bones, elephant tusk and warthog tusk. The themes vary from subjects that were important to the sailors and whalers of the 1800s up through modern day topics. The drawings show the longing for home and loved ones back on shore to portraits of historical people, the daily life activities and the modern artists even attempt to make political statements with their art. It was a fascinating place to explore – a great way to spend the afternoon.

A very large week long festival was to begin August 4^th in Horta and they were already busy setting up tents in the marina and across streets in anticipating of the activities. For a moment we thought about staying, but as it was another week before it would even start, we looked at the calendar and decided we would sail to Sao Jorge to explore another island. We were glad we did. It is a beautiful island with a great marina and Jose, the harbormaster, who welcomed us to “paradise” (those are his words and they did ring true). As much as we loved Flores we fell in love with Sao Jorge. We will fill you in on Sao Jorge in the next blog entry.

Once again we hope you are all well and enjoying your summer. Best wishes to you all from both of us.

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Photos

View from the Observatory
A view of the Horta harbor on the left and swimming beach on the right from the observatory location in Horta.

Still in Use Today
The observatory was built in 1901 and is still being used today at this very strategic location in the Atlantic on the island of Faial.

The Fort at Night
Fort Santa Cruz is all lite up at night – it is quite the backdrop at the marina in Horta.

Getting a Chance to Meet
We were happy to have had a chance to meet up with Trevor, one of the two crew members that was on SV Drum that we had been in contact with during our Atlantic crossing. What a great guy- but we aren’t surprised as he is from Grenada! Hopefully our paths will cross again some day.

A New Hiding Spot
It may be hard to see but Sailor found a new hiding place – under the dinghy that is up on the deck when we are at the dock. We lift up the dinghy so we can get air down below and it gave her room to get in to hide, but still look out.

The Scrimshaw Museum
A few examples of the scrimshaw that was in the museum – it was nice that they didn’t mind photos being taken here.

A change from white
Anyone like yellow? This definitely was a break from the traditional white buildings that you saw in Horta.

Getting Ready to Party
Another of the big tents that was taking up a large area in the marina for the festival week coming up in August.

Getting Ready
This must be quite the festival to put the tents over the roads closing traffic over a week ahead of time.

The Market
As always we had to go to the fruit and vegetable market in Horta however we were surprised at how small it was. Fortunately we were able to find a few things to buy there.

Last of Faial
Our last view as we left Horta on our way to Sao Jorge. It was raining when we left but cleared up after about an hour.

Checking the Chartplotter
We are happy on those rainy days to have the enclosure for the cockpit area of the boat to keep us dry while at the helm.

View of Velas on Sao Jorge
Our view from the sea of the village of Velas on Sao Jorge. Note the large cavern on the left – these are quite common here.