Angra do Heroismo

Igreja Da Misericordia

Angra do Heroismo or Bay of Heros is not the original name of the city but one given to the city later in honor of battles fought and won in a civil war.  In 1983, Angra was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  After being devastated by an earthquake they meticulously brought the city back to its original historic form.  Protecting the culture of this beautiful city earned them the UNESCO designation. 

 The beautiful whitewashed buildings and the volcanic rock sidewalks all with different patterns are stunning.

I am amazed at all the time and effort they put into those sidewalks - all by hand.

And in the middle of the city are these beautiful gardens.  The Azores were an important stop in the trade route from Europe to the Indies.  When ships would stop plants were gathered and planted in the garden. It is an amazing collection of plants from all over the world.  

Mark and Cecilie - Rally folks in their bright yellow shirts

There was a walking tour of the city starting at the top of the steps.  It ended up being a two hour walking tour which we were not quite up for after sitting on a boat for so long!

 The tour took us by the magnificent cathedrals.

 
 Our friends dropped out of the tour after a bit for lunch... but we kept going.

 So pretty - definitely my favorite island so far.  But I haven't seen them all so I will reserve judgement. 

Terceira Island

-

Sailing near Sao Jorge Island

On the 1st of June we set sail for Terceira.  Horta was still a busy place and there was a boat rafted up to us.  We had told them that we were leaving at first light and sure enough they were up and ready to move their boat to let us out.  Its amazing how everyone cooperates to move the boats around.  And no-one bats an eye when you are climbing over their boat to get to the dock.  Everyone is doing it - its the European way.  They are used to rafting up - we Americans are not.  It was blowing 20 plus knots that morning and we were sailing downwind which was great.  A very comfortable ride for awhile anyway.  

Terceira Island

 As the day wore on though the wind died off leaving a lumpy, rolly sea state.  Our comfortable ride became less so... but to compensate we were visited by a large pod of dolphins.  Most of them were babies - playing and jumping out of the water!  So much fun to watch.  And then as we got close to Terceira we saw a whale.  Ben and Matt were so excited!  They wanted to move closer but I am always hesitant to inch up too close to a whale - my instinct is to move away.  The Azores Archipelago is home to many resident species of whales and dolphins.  In addition, they have seasonal visitors, migratory visitors and some that only occasionally visit such as the Orcas.  The dolphins we saw were striped dolphins - I had never seen that species before.  Pretty exciting!

Angra do Heroismo, Terceira

 The marina while protected by the sea wall still has a considerable amount of swell.  It is necessary to really secure your boat well.  Our boat and several of the other boats had their lines chafe through.  We are going to have to re-think our methods for securing the boat as swell is typical in the Med as well.  Yet another beautiful north atlantic island!

Land Ho

Amazing sunrise

15 1/2 days at sea and we finally reached Horta on the Island of Faial in the early morning.  It was breezy when we pulled into the harbor and packed.  There were sailboats everywhere - they were rafted three deep along the marina wall.  The dockhand came out to show us where to go and it was a tiny little space sandwiched in between boats.  Good luck!    Fortunately, we looked up and saw Manuel (from the rally) running down the dock to catch our lines.  We were awfully happy to see his face.  Captain Mike did an amazing job squeezing us in that tight little space without hitting anything.  

Weary sailors after a long passage

Typical rally fashion   rally control hands you beer immediately upon arrival and takes your picture.  Yes, it was 6:00 am and yes we drank the beer for breakfast!  We were not the freshest and we were exceptionally tired...but elated that we made it!! 

Peters - catching up with friends

Later that afternoon we had drinks at Peters (a tradition among sailors) and then dinner out.  Peter Cafe Sport has a special place in history for long distance sailors - in days gone by they used to hold mail for sailors.  They actually still do as we picked up our mail there from the OCC - we are now official members of the Ocean Cruising Club.  In order to gain membership to the club you have to complete a 1000 nm nonstop ocean passage.  We just completed a 1927 nm passage.  Yay Us!!  Jose - the owner of Peters is the "port captain" for the Azores so it was very nice to receive our membership packet there at such a historic place.  All the famous sailors have passed through and/or stopped at Peters.  Bernard Moitessier, Sir Francis Chichester (first person to sail single handed around the world via the clipper ship route) and Robin Knox-Johnston (first person to sail a non-stop, single handed circumnavigation of the globe).  In the case of non-stop races Jose's father would go out in a boat and exchange mail with sailors as they sailed by.  Pretty neat as that was often their only communication with the world outside of their boat.     

Dinner at Restaurante Canto da Doca with a multinational group!

From Peter's we walked up the street to Canto da Doca - also known as the "Hot Rocks" restaurant.  The restaurant gave us a platter of various meats and a very, very hot lava rock upon which we cooked our own food.  Very yummy!  Smiles all around.  

Talaria's logo

We slept so sound that night and probably could have slept all day - but of course there was much to do the next day.  Cleaning, laundry, repairs and of course painting our boats name on the harbor wall.  It is traditional for boats crossing the Atlantic to paint their name on the wall as Horta is typically the first landfall after days and days at sea.  And actually it is considered bad luck if you fail to paint your boat name on the wall.  So... tired and rushed as we were we made sure we left our mark.  Lord knows we wanted no bad luck!!  Dinner that night was at the Capelinhos Volcano Interpretation Center and was hosted by the Faial Tourism Board.  Beautiful place and wonderful food.  The tourism board had small plaques made for each participant boat in the rally - what a nice surprise.  Such a great evening.  Next day we are sailing 70 nm to the next island in the Azores - the island of Terceira.

The Long Passage

Sky after the storm

It is 1800 nautical miles from Bermuda to Horta - which is on the Island of Faial in the Azores - as the crow flys.  But longer if you happen to find yourself dodging weather.  1800 nm is a very long way - that far out in the ocean no-one can rescue you.  Or at least no coast guard can reach you out there.  Maybe a fellow sailor or a commercial ship.  Which is the whole reason you cross an ocean with other boats traveling basically the same path at the same time - a Rally.  We received our weather forecast from the fellow we use and it was not great.  There is a very nasty low pressure system that will be a full out gale in the higher latitudes.  So...he said we had two options.  Option A: Go south and bob around in the ocean with no wind for a few days making no headway towards our destination while we wait for the low to pass (sounds awful)!  Option B:  Go northeast but we must reach 35 degrees N/47 degrees W in 6 days.  Well that is a long, long way from our present position and we will still have no wind for the first few days.  So that makes it even harder to reach that "safe spot".  We took a vote and went with option B.  Starting day for this passage was 5/15/19 - we were across the starting line at 1102 and found ourselves quickly motoring in lumpy seas.  Light and variable wind, sails luffing and lots of swell.  Trying to conserve fuel as there will be even less wind later in the passage.  There is an area of high pressure (no wind area) which sits between Bermuda and the Azores - the trick is to be on the edge of it so you still have wind, but not too much wind. 

Seas starting to subside

On the 17th we got on Chris Parker's (weather guy) net and listened in.  A boat near us was a subscriber so we listened in on the advise given to Fruit de Mer.  There are actually 2 lows - one very nasty, large low forming off of Newfoundland and a second one that we hope we will miss.  There will be gale force winds (possibly as high as 50 to 60 knots) with the big low we were dodging north of latitude 35 degrees.  But there is also a cold front associated with that low that will push very far down - possibly as low as 31 degrees latitude.  We were at 33 degrees latitude but after listening to the net we changed our course to head back down to 32 degrees.  The plan was to just ride that latitude east until the front passed on the 23rd. There were two problems: fuel and weather.  We were working to conserve fuel AND doing our best to stay out of 40 plus knot winds.  For folks watching the tracker it must have been confusing with all the boats heading northeast and us heading east.  There was a reason for our madness.  Other than the concerns with the weather which was a daily discussion- life on the boat was good.  We were eating well - Michael made great dinners night after night.  I made brownies which the guys (Ben and Matt) loved.  We were trying to get enough sleep but that was not always easy.  By the 22nd the wind had shifted southwest.  Southwest wind means an approaching cold front and sure enough that was what we expected.  In the evening the wind was up to 20 knots consistently and the seas were starting to build.  Good news was we were sailing fast!  Seas were confused though - there was swell from the north and wind chop from the southwest.  No sleep that night as there was too much uncomfortable motion on the boat.  By Thursday the 23rd the seas had been building all night.  Now we had some waves breaking in the cockpit.  Waves were 12 feet with the occasional 15 foot wave.  We were down to just the staysail and the wind was now 29 knots steady gusting up to 34 knots.  We were being pushed every which way by the waves.  No-one was able to eat dinner - we were all just exhausted.  And then at 7:00 pm the wind veered west and then northwest as the front passed us and that was it.  Immediately, the wind dropped to 14 to 16 knots!  We breathed a sigh of relief, put the mainsail back up and started on a direct course to Horta. 

More Bermuda

This will be just a picture post.  Some photos from our tour of the island.  First, is Talaria in the "Convict Bay" anchorage.  Not sure how the anchorage got its name.

 This building is the St. Georges Dinghy and Sports Club.  Operations headquarters for the ARC rally and where all the festivities take place.  

 More pretty pastel houses!  Are they not beautiful?  Love the purples, yellows and orange colors.  

 This is the Royal Navy Dockyard in Hamilton, Bermuda.  

 The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity in Hamilton, Bermuda.  Beautiful church.

 Different perspective on the church.

 Gombey dancers at Harbor Nights - a street festival in Hamilton, Bermuda.  This form of dancing was not considered respectable by the "slave masters" so slaves were allowed to dance only once per year.  They danced in masks to hide their identity for fear of retribution from the owners.  All the costumes are handmade and intricate - no two alike.  Very lively dance with amazing drummers keeping the beat. 

 And finally a testament to Bermuda's sailing tradition - a sailing ship wind vane on top of the clock tower.  Very cool indeed.

Arrival of the ARC Fleet

St. Georges, Bermuda

While we were out enjoying Bermuda the rest of the ARC fleet started trickling in.  They had a rough go of it coming from the BVI as there was either no wind or a head wind!  Neither scenario is good.  St. Georges is the check in point for Bermuda and where the rally is headquartered so we will all be here.  28 boats in all.  There were at least three boats that needed to be towed in for various reasons but all boats eventually made it to Bermuda.  

 We felt so fortunate to have had a week exploring as some of the boats got in and had at most two days.  Not much time to see the island.  But now the rally fun has started beginning with a Pirate Party.  Followed by rum tasting sponsored by Goslings (of course they gave you rum free first, and then offered it for sale).  Folks were free with there checkbook after all the "tasting".  

 And then there was the fish fry and prize giving for the "race".  I am sad to report that even though we were the only boat that left Portsmouth and arrived a week ahead of everyone else we did not receive a prize.  Guess you can't race against yourself!

Fish Fry - Prize Giving

 After just a couple of days we were off again - this time for the big passage.  We are all fueled up, topped off the water and bought more food.  Ready to go!

The start of the race

 For the start they had a starting line and a precise starting time.  Official.  It was actually alot of fun seeing all the boats start out.  The rally officials were standing on a rock at the harbor entrance waving goodbye.  Only 1800 miles to the Azores!

Uniquely Bermuda

Pink Sand

The really great part about being a week ahead of the rest of the rally boats is that we have all this free time to explore Bermuda.  What a superb week!  We took a day and  rented scooters to explore the island.  It sounds cliche but it truly is difficult to capture the beauty in pictures.  The water is so beautiful with varying hues of the bluest, blue.. so clear and perfect.  Bermuda is surrounded by coral reefs, hence the pink sand beaches.  And the houses are painted in the prettiest pastel colors to match the landscape.  

Pastel houses

 Bermuda has no cars for rent and every resident is allowed only one to own.  They are small cars as the streets are narrow and many are cobblestone.  Water is at a premium on the island so all the houses have a special roof for collecting water and a containment system below the house.  Makes you wonder why everyone doesn't use that system.  

Roofs

The roofs are grooved to slow the flow of water and then it flows down pipes and into their containment system.  Pretty clever.  On our exploring day we visited Spittal Pond which is the largest wildlife sanctuary in Bermuda.  There were several birds and skinks... but this one heron stopped to have his picture taken.  I got quite close and he just stood still like he was posing for me.  

But for the crew (Ben and Matt) the highlight was the night that s/v Isjborn sailed into the harbor.  Isjborn belongs to Andy Schell of 59 North Sailing.  A sailing legend that both Matt and Ben follow.  Mark Rutherford (another sailing legend) sailed in on Andy's other boat.  They were in heaven - and they got to meet their hero's.  If that wasn't enough the next night the Volvo Ocean Racing boat Scallywag pulled in.  What luck!  

Captain and the Crew

A great time was had by all - rested and ready for the big passage!