Faial Azores – The Blue Island

May 9, 2010 114 0 0

Horta Azores

We were met by the ARC rally crew, and Splendido, when we arrived in Horta, the main sailing port on Faial. It’s great to have someone to guide you in and catch lines after being at sea for 11 days. We did a quick check-in with the marina, customs and immigration and were off to our berth, rafted three deep on the seawall alongside Fizz of Cowes and Splendido.

The passage had been wet, but we got even wetter in Horta. While we were outside checking into the marina, topping off the fuel tanks and rafting on the sea wall, it poured and poured. And it didn’t stop for two days! We have never seen so much rain. It rained hard day and night. When we went out, we had to wear our heavy foul weather gear. It rained so hard we didn’t have to wash the salt off of Berkeley East.

The rain made it uncomfortable and everything was wet, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying some time on land. After toasting our arrival with champagne, we headed off to Peters Sport Café, a well known hang out (bar) for sailors crossing the Atlantic. It was packed with other sailors. While we were all very tired, we stayed up late into the night, driven by adrenaline from completing the passage. Little did we know, that we would spend most of the next few days at Peter’s making new friends, listening to sea stories and telling a few of our own.

When the rain finally broke, we completed a few minor boat projects and started to get a view of the island. Faial is a volcanic island with lush green fauna, very different than the Caribbean islands we are used to. There are some15,000 people living on the island, supported by dairy farming and a little tourism. We walked around Horta, a small quaint city with buildings constructed from blocks carved from the lava. The people were very friendly and we adjusted to being on land quickly.

While in Horta, the ARC rally team arranged numerous events for us including a bus tour of the island, dinners with other rally participants and happy hours. This gave us an opportunity to get to know the other rally participants better and get some insight into their experiences sailing in the Mediterranean.

The walls around the marina are covered with a patchwork of paintings, left by visiting yachts. The story goes that it is unlucky to leave Horta without painting your boat name or logo on the sea wall. While we are not superstitious, it didn’t make sense to take any chances with still more than 1,000 miles of ocean to cross. So we painted two Berkeley East logo’s on the wall. A small one with the other ARC participants and a larger one along side our berth.