Bem-vindo aos Açores!

Landfall.  Land Ho!  We made it to the Azores!

Last night at 3am, in absolutely glassy conditions, we motored ever so slowly into the harbor at Horta, following a fishing boat into the entrance.  We intended to drop the anchor for couple of hours until the sun came up just inside the breakwater.   As we approached within a couple of miles of the island Faial, we suddenly were aware of land smells – the previous day as we rounded the islands of Corvo and Flores, we had both been disappointed that we never really “smelled” land – this is something that everyone who has been at sea for any length of time seems to mention, and we had felt a bit unworthy.  However, as we were much closer to Faial, we suddenly would catch a smell of something floral, then a smell of cows (for real!), and then a real earthy/green smell.  It helped keep us awake in the wee hours as we were trying to keep focused on what we were seeing and making sure we agreed that what we saw was what the chart said we should see.

Although we had been adamant not to approach an unknown harbor at night, with the calm conditions and boat to follow, we decided we could make a careful approach.  In addition, the lights in the harbor were plenty bright, and the kind security guard at the fuel dock plenty helpful, so we were able to tie up and get several hours of zombie-like sleep, instead of dealing with anchoring.  We even pulled out our bottle of champagne to make a quick toast and christen the boat, “Shearwater” (side note: this is something we should have done a few months ago, but had not been able to find the time yet…and after the crossing, I think we were both thinking a bit that being on Neptune’s shit list was a bad-bad thing).  Needless to say, we were asleep within a minute of falling into the quarterberth, as we did not have the energy to clear the v-berth of the spinnakers and foul weather gear.  At 7:30am, we were up, straightening things up and getting our papers ready to clear into the Azores.

Right at 8am, Justin took all of our paperwork into the marina headquarters, which apparently also housed customs and the Port Authority, and within 20 minutes, we were cleared into the Azores.  We refueled since we were at the fuel dock anyway (we ended up using only 17 gallons of diesel from Annapolis, which included 12 hours of motoring through the engine-only zone of the C&D Canal and the nonexistent wind in Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, as well as approximately an hour a day for recharging the batteries…using an electronic autopilot does have its drawbacks sometimes).  We motored 500 feet to our new spot on the marina quay and allowed ourselves to relax and look around in wonder.

Everyone who sails into Horta has to make a crossing of at least 2,000 miles (coming from the US or Caribbean) or 1,000 miles (coming from Europe).  The boats in the marina were international and quite salty – there are no daysailors here, unless you count the kids taking lessons in Optis in the harbor!  The quay that we are tied up to has hundreds (thousands?) of paintings made by the cruisers/yachties for their boats – it’s bad luck not to leave a painting, so before we left Annapolis, I made a quick stop at a Michaels to have a few painting supplies.  We’ll do that later this week, after we have scoped out the area for where we might want to leave our artwork.  We have three days here before we plan to depart for the continent (leaving Saturday, as it is bad luck to leave on a voyage on a Friday, of course!).  Tomorrow, we’re going to rent a moped and see the island.  The Azores are incredibly green, and as we look up the slopes from the marina, we can see terraces that must have been planted to deal with potential erosion.  We’ve read that blue hydrangeas are planted everywhere, and with the beautiful green hills, it’s a place that is difficult to classify based on what we have seen before.

We’ll put up some pictures shortly.  Also, I should note – quite happily – that we did see whales in the afternoon before arriving in Horta.  We saw what must have been a group of at least 10 whales in the distance with lots of blows.  We also had a brief visit by a large pod of common dolphin (~50 or so!) that included some fantastic acrobatics!

From Justin – And a fun factoid as we sit here in Café Sport staring across the harbor at the magnificent volcanic peak on the island of Pico, which is just a stone’s throw away.  40 years ago this month Lyn and Larry Pardey completed their first ocean crossing on Seraffyn, arriving in Horta.  20 years ago this month Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger completed their first ocean crossing on Silk, arriving in Horta.  Arguably, these couples are two of the most famous cruising couples of this era, and both went on to complete circumnavigations.  Following in their footsteps we hope.  Someday.

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