Chapter 21 The Azores
Although technically we had completed our circumnavigation the previous year, crossing our wake on September 6th 2009 in the bay of Gibraltar, our voyage would not be completed until we brought ALIESHA home to Chichester. 2010 would take us into the tenth, and last year of our voyage and we were determined that it would be a great finale.
The most direct route from the Algarve to Chichester is a bit under one thousand nautical miles but during the summer months a fresh to strong northerly wind, the "Portuguese Trade" , makes that option a bad one for a sailing yacht. To avoid it the best route takes one far out into the Atlantic. Almost as far as the Azores, in fact. We decided to go there, spend maybe six weeks among the islands and then make the long passage to southern Brittany. From there we would coast-hop back home, sailing by day and enjoying our old haunts.
Preparation
Santa Maria is the nearest Azorean island to the Algarve, a little over 800 nautical miles from Lagos across the western Atlantic. (See Maps). That should take us between six and seven days, given reasonable winds and seas. Our last Atlantic voyage had been a pretty tough one and so we prepared ALIESHA as thoroughly as we had ever done. I had a particular dread of getting caught out at this stage of our adventure by getting careless and neglecting some vital detail.
So the rudder had to come off to have the bearings cleaned of accumulated salt deposits - it had become very stiff and we feared the autopilot would break down under the additional load. The autopilot itself was sent off for a service and came back with new bearings and ran a whole lot more quietly as a result. We fitted a replacement membrane to the watermaker, replaced the cutlass bearing on the propellor shaft and a couple of seacocks which had seized up over the winter.
But the three weeks or so that we spent in Lagos were not all hard work. In fact it was a very sociable time, meeting some old friends (including Malcolm and Tess from VIDA, with whom we had crossed the Atlantic in 2001 and cruised the Caribbean islands in 2002), and making several new ones, among them Harald and Beatte from TANIWANI (fellow OCC members and also planning to sail to the Azores) and Cormack MacHenry, sailing single-handed and down from Dublin. Gail and Steve from GONE TROPPO were still there, Trevor and Julie from FORTY LOVE arrived from Falmouth. Pam took up Line Dancing as an antidote to boat jobs and thoroughly enjoyed herself.
On Saturday 15th May we departed Lagos for a short, proving cruise, heading along the coast to Faro lagoon some forty miles to the east. There was a good breeze and soon ALIESHA was flying along under full sail. I went below to write up the log and heard, faintly above the noise of the wind and the water rushing past, a pump running continuously. It was the fresh water pump. Peering into the engine room I could see that a hose taking water into the calorifier had split and all our fresh water was spewing into the bilges. Now this calorifier had been replaced by the yard over the winter, along with its hoses and so we came about and headed back to port, hoping to catch the yard before the staff all knocked off for the week-end.
By mid-day we were under way again, the offending pipe having been removed and a proper, high pressure one fitted in its place.
The trip to Faro Lagoon passed without further incident but the delay meant that we arrived about half-ebb. With a spring tide the current was rushing out of the narrow entrance at about 4-5 knots and creating a series of standing waves which looked pretty terrifying. Waiting for slack water wasn't really an option as by then it would be dark and the channel into the anchorage is quite tricky until you know where all the marks are. We decided to give it a go. Flat out under power ALIESHA can make about 7.5 knots and we needed all of that to make appreciable headway against the torrent and keeping a straight course was pretty tricky too but after about thirty anxious minutes we rounded the corner with its tall lighthouse, broke free of the current's grip and headed the last three or four miles up to the anchorage.
The following morning we returned to the open sea in order to test the watermaker in clean water. All seemed fine until I looked into the engine room to check for leaks. Once again water was pouring into the bilge, not from the calorifier this time but from the watermaker's high pressure pump. Luckily there is an agent for this make of watermaker in Portimao, just along from Lagos and with the help of our mobile phone we were able to order a replacement, which would take about a week to arrive. As we had found in Greece, it is so much easier to get things fixed and replaced in Europe than it is in places across SE Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. We would have a holiday while we waited and enjoy the nearby beaches on the island of Culatra, where the streets of the village are just soft sand. We shifted our anchorage further east, finding a sheltered pool with just two cruising yachts in it and relaxed.
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Portimao offered another pleasant anchorage, although when the fishing boats were going to sea or returning their wash made us all roll heavily. Heading to the top of the inlet to have the watermaker pump replaced we came across a dive boat operating around the very top of a mast which just broke the surface. We were told that two fishing boats had collided at high speed near the entrance just two days earlier. The smaller one, wooden and maybe 65 feet in length, had tried to get back up the harbour to the slipways at its head but had finally sunk with only 50 metres to go. "The skippers are usually drunk" said our informant. "You don't want to get near any of them".
The watermaker pump was changed in two hours, we had some stitching repaired on the dinghy cover and returned to our anchorage from where we explored the old fishing village of Ferragudo. This is delightful and offers superb grilled fish from a couple of quayside restaurants.
Then it was back the six miles to Lagos to provision and say our farewells.
Early on the morning of 24th May we finally departed for Santa Maria.
Out to the Azores
Weather plays an important part in any ocean passage. Modern forecasting gives ocean sailors a view of what to expect for the coming seven days but of course the reliability of the forecast decreases with time. We start to tune in to what is expected to happen about a week before our intended departure, concentrating first on expected wind direction and then on strength. The chief goal is to avoid a headwind and the ideal is a wind from abeam or astern. In port or a marina, with WIFI available, we can choose from a multitude of forecasts. Once at sea we rely on GRIB files, the raw material for all shore-based forecasts but issued straight from the computer models and without the input of experienced human meteorologists. GRIB files are received over the SSB radio and can be displayed on our lap-top where the wind arrows overlay the chart of the area through which we are sailing. Fronts, which often bring strong winds and rain, are not shown on GRIB files but you can deduce their presence from kinks in the isobars.
Well, after all that, the weather looked favourable for the first four days from 24th May and then a bit iffy but we decided to go. We left Lagos early in the day, a sunny morning with scattered clouds and a good breeze from the North West. We were both excited to be tackling a long passage again - our two years in the Med had not involved much "real" passage-making. By lunch-time we were off Cape St Vincent, the most south-westerly point in Europe. Passing Sagres, from where in the 15th Century Prince Henry the Navigator had dispatched his caravels to venture into the unknown in search of new lands, we wondered at the bravery of those sailors who made such incredible voyages with such basic ships and equipment.
And, talking of equipment, ALIESHA was sporting a new device, AIS (Automatic Identification System). All ships and fishing vessels and yachts above 15 metres in length are now required to carry an AIS unit which transmits its course, speed, rate of turn and a host of other details, including the vessels Name. Much of this data comes from the GPS on board and the transmission is via the VHF frequency band. Yachts like ALIESHA can carry just an AIS receiver. When coupled to our own GPS and VHF radio and navigation lap-top we can see a symbol for every ship within a 50 mile radius. Even better, by clicking on any such symbol we can display all the data known about that ship including the closest point of approach and the time of that closest approach.
This little black box proved its worth as we crossed the busy shipping lanes that lie to seaward of Cape St Vincent. Although the visibility was excellent it can be quite difficult to judge if a ship will pass too close for comfort and so require us to alter course. AIS made everything clear. Even so, we called up a couple of ships to make sure they had seen us and that they would not turn towards us as they came round the "corner". Calling up a ship by its name always gets a response, whereas calling "Motor tanker about 5 miles SSW of Cape St Vincent..."doesn't. Pam was instantly converted, as I was.
We soon fell into the rhythm of a passage, three hours on watch and three hours off at night, a less rigid regime during the day. Sail changes, plotting positions, speaking to chums on the radio (TANIWANI was also en route), cooking, eating, doing the chores. Spare moments we spent watching the seabirds wheeling and performing endless wing-overs just above the waves. Sometimes we might read or listen to music. We saw a few ships, rather more on the navigation screen courtesy of the AIS but none came near enough to bother us. I tried my hand at fishing but without success. And Pam discovered a book on meteorology and spent hours studying the clouds and learning to read their story.
During the night of the 28th a front came through, bringing 30 knot winds and rain and a violent, 90 degree wind change. It was all hands on deck for an hour or two, reefing the sails and settling the boat onto a new course. This even required some hand steering for a while as the sudden change in wind direction had caused the autopilot to go into a sulk from which it took an hour or more to recover. Nothing got broken, apart from the hinge on the toilet seat! I contrived a repair of sorts and we carried on.
The Thursday was bright and sunny. For company we had pods of dolphins come to play in the bow wave, shearwaters and petrels in the air, a couple of young turtles and even some distant pilot whales. We thought, "it doesn't get much better than this!"
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About 0600 on the Friday morning I caught my first glimpse of Santa Maria, green and hilly. At 0900 a large pod of dolphins came to play. By 1000 we had reached Vila do Porto and entered the small marina where Harald and Beatte from TANIWANI waited to take our lines. We had sailed 875 nautical miles. We were in the Azores!
Santa Maria
First discovered in 1427, Santa Maria is home to some 6000 people who mostly earn their living from fishing and farming. Mass tourism has yet to reach here and it is a tranquil place, its people friendly enough to visitors but with a slight reserve. The main town, Vila do Porto, has the only harbour and a modern marina with about 25 berths for cruising yachts and rather more for local fishing boats.
The town was built along a bluff which runs at right angles to the coast and which offered protection from the raids of pirates in days gone by. Today there are many empty and dilapidated buildings, signs of depopulation. The houses which are still occupied were all well maintained and with modern doors and windows and sound roofs. They get a lot of wind and rain here in the winters.
With Harald and Beatte we hired a car and spent a day touring the island. The central and eastern parts and high and steep cliffs fall to the sea. The western end is one vast flat plateau and here, in WW2, the Americans constructed a huge runway, later extended, which was used to ferry planes, men and equipment to the war in Europe. Nowadays it is little used.
Take a look at the photo gallery to get an idea of what we saw. The statue is of Christopher Columbus who stopped here on his return from discovering the Americas. The old arch to the left of the tree is all that remains of the chapel where he prayed. The red desert is an anomaly, quite barren amid lush vegetation.
The only problem was the weather. It was mostly overcast, with some light rain, warm enough but disappointing. Looking at the synoptic weather charts we could see that the Azores High had moved well north, giving long spells of fine settled weather to the UK but leaving the islands that give it its name in its cloudy sector. still, there were the usual boat jobs to do and, as a few more yachts came in, plenty of socializing. We particularly remember MORNING CALM 111, a huge Trintella owned by Les and Marie and with a professional skipper, Cameron. Les owns a malt whisky distillery and was generous with his hospitality. We were sorry to learn that we were heading in opposite directions.
On to Terceira
Our friends Chris and Heather Saint on HALO had left Chichester with us in the early summer of 2001. Like us they were towards the end of their circumnavigation and had reached Horta on Faial a couple of weeks earlier. Family reasons were urging them back to England and so we decided to miss out Sao Miguel (the largest and most developed island) and to sail directly to Terceira, where we had agreed to meet.
We duly set sail on Thursday 10th June under grey skies and covered the 130 odd miles in just under 24 hours. The marina in Angra do Heroismo found us a berth and to our delight there was HALO only a few boats away from us. It was great to meet up again and we spent a very happy day and evening catching up on each others' news.
Bull fighting is big in the Azores and nowhere more so than in Terceira. The following evening we learned that there was to be a running of the bulls in one of the city streets. We all went to watch. Essentially a bull is released into the street. Having been cooped up in a steel cage for several hours he is not happy. Having two long ropes attached to his neck does nothing to make him feel better. He espies a group of local men and youths, waving anything from hats to umbrellas. He charges. The men flee. If they are lucky (and they mostly are) they escape, perhaps by speed, perhaps by jumping over a wall or fence. If they are unlucky and the bull is fast and agile, they get caught and tossed, even gored (but the horns have brass tips to reduce the injury risk) And not a Health and Safety Executive in sight. Two teams of men in traditional garb hang on to the ropes and prevent the bull from leaving the area, but they can't hold a determined animal, merely slow it down and steer it a bit. Take a look at the pictures.
The following day we hired a car and toured the island. Sadly the weather was bad, low cloud and rain. We visited a lava tube and a fumarole area and a huge lava bubble with amazing stalactites but of the scenery we saw very little. The next day Chris and Heather set sail, aiming to go directly back to England. We explored the city.
Back in the days of sail the Azores were an important stopping point for vessels bound from Europe to the Americas, to the Cape of Good Hope and the East - in fact. to almost anywhere. Terceira had one of the few reasonably sheltered anchorages and so the city of Angra do Heroismo came into being. Now a World Heritage site and beautifully restored after a devastating earthquake in 1980, it is a jewel of a city in a beautiful location. We stayed a week longer, partly because the main annual Fiesta was shortly to begin. This included a huge evening parade, a Portuguese style bullfight, fireworks and all manner of diversions in between. We met more cruisers, some outward bound at the start of their adventure, others like ourselves, making for home.
Sao Jorge
Sao Jorge is only a day sail from Angra and we motored most of the way in sunshine, a pleasant change. Coming up the south coast Pam spotted the tail of a large whale, possibly a sperm whale but too far away to be certain. The island has high cliffs along its entire length and waterfalls cascaded down to the sea in several places. It was the greenest island so far by quite a long way.
The main port is Velas. It has a tiny marina, with berths for about 12 visiting yachts. Among them we found TANIWANI, who had stopped in Sao Miguel. The formalities were swiftly done and we relaxed. Across the channel to nearby Pico loomed the cone of Mt Pico, iconic landmark of the central Azorean islands.
Next day Harald and Beatte persuaded us to join them in a tour by car, Harald doing the driving. It is a very pretty island, essentially a high plateau falling steeply to the sea. In places there are small coastal flats called Fajas where people originally made their villages and farmed. Dairying and cheese production are the main sources of income. OK for a visit, rather boring in winter, we felt. Take a look at the pictures.
The last shot shows the improvements being made to the fishing harbour. We enjoyed the bustle of the port, with a ship coming and going on most days and the obvious excitement that brings. In the marina we started to meet cruisers who had just crossed the Atlantic from the Caribbean and were making their way towards Europe. There were many drinks parties, another great social scene.
Faial and Horta
For ocean sailors, the island of Faial and its port, Horta is one of the great destinations. Just about every west to east Atlantic crossing arrives here. Yachts sailing south often stop here as well. We had been reading about it for years. On Sunday 27th June 2010 we arrived there ourselves.
It was one of those disappointing days. Misty in the early morning, so that the cone of Mt Pico was obscured, then the clouds came over and a wind sprang up from dead ahead so we ended up motoring the last five miles. Then we found the two marinas were both full and we had to berth on the very end of the south breakwater, on the outside which meant that every ship movement caused us to surge up and down, wearing warps and fenders and our tempers. Still, we had made it.
Horta is famous among yachties for two things. One is Peter's Cafe Sport, for several decades the favourite watering hole for ocean sailors. Jose, grandson of the original patron, is the OCC's Port Officer and so we were made doubly welcome when, the next day, we arrived for lunch. It has an amazing collection of nautical knick-knacks on the walls and ceiling and good beer but the food was a bit of a let down. Mind you, the Azores are not famous for their culinary delights. Upstairs is a museum devoted to scrimshaw, the art of decorating ivory from whales' teeth and the tusks of narwhal. It is well worth the time to visit.
The second thing for which Horta is famous is the tradition that every visiting yachts must leave a picture on the sea wall, or bad luck will surely follow. Neither Pam nor I are at all artistic but we knew we had to follow the tradition. so we came up with a simple design, intended to symbolise our circumnavigation, bought paints and brushes and set about finding a place. This is not easy but tradition allows over-painting of really old works of art and so we found our spot and went to work.
Great art it is NOT but we enjoyed ourselves, met lots of fellow cruisers in the process and, as always, enjoyed the social scene. It seemed that every fourth cruiser belonged to the Ocean Cruising Club and so a very jovial time was had by all. We didn't do a lot of sightseeing outside Horta itself but we did take the bus around the island, a two hour trip which revealed lots of green fields, lots of neat houses and not a lot to excite us. The attraction lay across the channel which divides Faial from Pico. So we joined Harald and Beatte one more time, took the early ferry and hired a car in Madalena for the day.
Pico
Pico, like all the islands in the Azores, is volcanic. The last major eruption of Mt Pico took place in the late 1700's and much of the northern end of the island is still a savage jumble of lava rocks. Incredibly the inhabitants have cleared the ground into tiny plots and piled the rock into walls a metre or so high to surround them. Here they grow vines and from the vines they make the wines, both red and white, for which the island is famous. While we were there we drank a lot of lava wine, as it is called. and brought half a case back with us. Sadly, either it didn't travel well or our tastes changed because, back in France, we found we couldn't drink it.
Pico was also a major whaling island. The Azoreans continued to hunt whales from open boats propelled by sail and oars until whaling was banned in 1984. Their only concession to modernity was that petrol-engined launches would tow the boats from port to within a mile or so of the quarry. Most villages still maintain a fleet of whale boats and these are raced in competitions through the summer months. Meanwhile whale watching has become a significant business and brings many tourists to the islands.
So our visit took us through the wine growing area, along the coast to visit a former whaling factory, now a museum, then up to the highlands to catch glimpses of the summit and to see the high pastures and finally to Lajes do Pico where there is an excellent whaling museum. It was a really interesting and varied day.
By now it was 8th July and almost time to head north. We decided to sail ALIESHA down to Lajes do Pico on the SE coast of that island, where they have built a really tiny marina. There are just six berths for visiting yachts and the channel is very tight but we had inspected it from the shore, drawn ourselves a little chart and felt that this would make a fitting end to our Azorean adventure. There was no wind and so we motored the whole way, a four hour trip with Mt Pico dominating the skyline high (7,700 feet) above us. Here we relaxed as we watched the weather patterns, looking for a good few days of favourable winds to get us started on our way north. This passage would be about 1250 nautical miles long, about ten days at our normal passage speed.
On Sunday 11th July the forecast looked good and on a cloudless morning we sailed away. It had been a wonderful time among beautiful surroundings, pleasant people and with lots and lots of history to absorb. One day we hope to return.
