Like many other sailboats, we wanted to explore a group of 5 islands not far from each other, creating an ideal area for island hopping. The challenge was to find secure places allowing us to stay long enough to visit and work.
Leaving homebase Terceira
As described in our previous post, we loved our stay in Angra de Heroismo on Terceira.
During the last month, the high pressure system was well established over the Azores islands providing delightful sunny days associated with little rain and little wind.
Magestic Pico
The island of Pico is dominated by a volcanic peak of the same name, culminating at 2351 m. It is the highest mountain of Portugal.
Pico island offers little secure places for visiting sailboats, so our intention was to take the ferry from Horta.
Famous Horta
Known as the Sea-City, Horta has a great nautical tradition and centuries of history linked to navigation. Located on Faial, Horta has always been a popular landfall for yachtsmen arriving after an Atlantic crossing from the Americas.
Horta marina is extremely busy. Boats are asked to anchor first next to the marina and then take the dinghy to the reception to see if there is a place available. At first, we thought that we were very lucky when we could make fast on a finger pontoon in the very quiet marina for 1 week or more. Unfortunately, on the second day, we were suddenly told that we would need to leave the next morning at 9 am.
Contingency plan
Because the wind was blowing in the right direction, we decided to sail back to Terceira. The repair of the bow thruster, precious to manoeuvre securely in marinas, will have to wait. But we needed functional sails and Yan had to climb up the forestay because some screws had become loose. We left the next day, finding solutions to fulfill our professional obligations while on the move. In Angra de Heroismo, we hope to solve several problems: repair the bowthruster and fix Yan’s back.
Stay tuned for some pictures of the gorgeous island of Sao Jorge in our next post.