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Wednesday, June 28th, Horta, Faial, The Azores
The Azores is a group
of nine volcanic islands located about 930 miles west of
Portugal. It was settled in the fifteenth century
by pioneers from Portugal as well as small groups of
Flemish settlers. It quickly became an important
center of trade between Europe, America and India,
offering shelter, provisions and services to the trading
vessels. The Azores are an autonomous region of
Portugal. The two northwestern islands are Flores,
population 4,000, and Corvo, population 360. We
passed between them on Saturday on our way to Faial,
population 15,000. Although Flores is supposed to
be gorgeous, the anchorage is no good in a northerly or
easterly wind, so we didn't stop.
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After a day of
celebration and recovery (Sunday), and clean up
(Monday), we embarked on a day of exploration in a
rental car on Tuesday. The island is dominated by
lush green vegetation that grows in abundance up and
down the volcanic hills and valleys. There are
maybe a dozen (I can't find anywhere that tells me
exactly how many) of these "caldeiras" on the island of
Faial, which mark the center of volcanic eruptions.
The whole archipelago is situated at the junction of
three tectonic plates so earthquakes and volcanic
activity dominate the geographic history and landscape
of the area.
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The most recent
eruption on Faial, in 1957-58, buried a small village
under piles of volcanic ash. The year long event
began just offshore and was so abundant that it actually
added a square kilometer of land to the island. We
hiked over and around this site, which is too new to
have sprouted the dense growth characteristic of the
other caldeiras.
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We stopped first at the
nearby rocky shoreline, where the little girls and the
big boys decided to go for a swim despite the chilly
water and our lack of preparation for any aquatic
activity!
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We actually got our
activities backwards as the swim would have been much
more refreshing and cleansing AFTER hiking up the dusty
volcano. It was an eerie, barren landscape
culminating in a precipitous vertical drop into the
ocean.
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The city of Horta is a
beautiful seaside town on the southeast corner of the
island. The architecture is old world and
beautifully maintained. Black and white stone
buildings are topped by red tile roofs and accented with
flowers everywhere. Huge hydrangea bushes grow
wild, lining the streets and highways with ribbons of
blue. Flowering trees and an endless variety of
wild flowers add brilliant color to the rich texture of
the vegetation that grows thick on every hillside. There
is indeed something to be said for nice fertile volcanic
soil!
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More than a thousand
boats a year pass through Horta Harbour on their way
from the Caribbean and North America to Europe, so there
is no lack of social activity for those who are so
inclined. We have seen our old friends Gerry and
Monique on "Taranga," who participated in the Caribbean
1500 with us in November. They are also on their
way to the Med so we look forward to seeing them more.
We also met Luc and Nicole on "Yakataka," the Switch 51
that was built just after ours. We had been in
touch with them through the boatyard and were thrilled
to finally meet them in person. They too love
their boat and we should see them again as well on our
travels through the Med.
Of course, it has been
wonderful to be here with our friends on
Cenou. The four girls have been
running around the marina, playing and exchanging
stories non-stop since we arrived on Sunday. They
all get along marvelously and I'm sure both pairs of
sisters are happy to have a different playmate than each
other.
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Claude and Rike have
made good friends with Andre, a Norwegian single-hander
who has been cruising for the last five years. He
is full of wonderful stories and always a great sense of
humor. Claude and Andre have promised to cook
dinner for all of us tonight so we are sure to walk away
with more great memories of our time in Horta.
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Glenn, Claude, Matthew (Cenou's crew from Bermuda),
Andre, Rike, Christy and Joe at lunch yesterday.
All our best,
Christy, Joe, Cassie
and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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