The dolphins were jumping all around the boat, the whales blowing and sun shining as we approached the Azores.
We were up on deck making the most of the last warm days. After today it is two days in the Azores and then back home. After the Azores we’ll be out of shorts. The days will be colder. This feels like the last dregs – but then the last dregs are often the sweetest!
We have a good little writing group on board. We discuss each other’s work. I completed the second draft of my new Sci-fi novel today! 68,000 words. Schizoid is nearly ready to go!
I was up at dawn as we drew near the Azores. The sun rising behind the volcanic islands painting the clouds in orange and pink. The volcanoes themselves were shrouded in thick cloud. It looked very stormy.
I was still in shorts though I am now wearing a fleece. Hopefully it will get warmer as the day progresses. Eyeing the thick cloud, I’ll take a rain cape with me!
Horta looks beautiful from the boat – a rather pristine, typical Portuguese town with its churches and civic buildings. Very pretty. It doesn’t look at all run-down like some of the places we’ve been to, just idyllic, nestled on the side of an active volcano!
We’re about to head off – we will try to find a taxi and see the sites and sights. I’ll keep you posted!
Eight of us negotiated a taxi and headed off up the volcano. Stunning views until we hit the cloud then it all went cold, dark and foggy. Couldn’t see the caldera at all with its fabled blue and green lakes.
We headed down and around the coast, into the sunshine! Went to the end where the new volcanoes had blasted a whole new section of the island in 1957/8. Quite spectacular. It buried houses and the old lighthouse. We climbed up the new lighthouse for spectacular views of volcanoes, calderas, coves and layers of ash. The basalt rocks out in the sea were jagged and amazing.
We then dove through villages and up to the heights for a view over Horta.
Then it was into town – a walk through, taking in the views, a stop in a café for coffee and cake, a stop in another café for a glass of wine/beer and then a slow walk back to the boat.
In the harbour lots of crew had painted little pictures.
In the port they had some photos of the eruption in 1956 that created a whole new section and buried the lighthouse! It looked powerful!!
Nice and warm! Tomorrow might be my last day in shorts! We’ll see!
Wonderful Faial and Horta. We had a great holiday there some years ago. T wants to go back to some of the other islands but I really feel I am a long way from land! A speck in the google map ocean. Your trip seems amazing. Brazil I would love to…
It was amazing. We were so lucky to get it in before the world went crazy. Sometimes in the midst of the ocean you got some perspective on how tiny we are.
Yes, I felt that even on land on Faial!
It’s all about perspective.