Khepri Log 7 – Azores (Faial & Terceira)
Monday, June 4
We’ve been in Horta for nearly 3 weeks. All being told we have been somewhat
disappointed with the place – a bit of an anti-climax. Having read so many sailing books
and articles down through the years and having spoken to many who have been here
before us, I think we were expecting a real buzz from here, given the amount of boats that
pass through each year and the journeys made to get here. In reality the marina is
probably a little too big, with too many boats passing through to make the place
personable. Having said that we did meet some very nice people and had 2 sets of lovely
“neighbours” whilst there. Phil, a solo sailor on Ti Amo & Gjald & Corrina on Stella
Maris who just sailed up from Ascension Island, a 3500 beat! Phil gave Donnacha a set
of pois. If you what these are – fine, but if not I’m afraid it’s beyond my writing
capabilities and/or patience to describe them.
The weather has also been quite changeable since we arrived, and although we had some
nice days, I’m afraid it has been back to the long trousers & rain jackets for the past few
days. Patrick, Debbie’s brother, arrived over on Friday for a few days so as to celebrate
(or probably more correctly, not to celebrate) his 40th. It was great to see him, and for his
40th we had a meal out in “Peters”. Peters is a world famous yachting bar/café in Horta.
We’d a lovely meal and went back to the boat later, where the kids had made a surprise
birthday cake and we cracked open a bottle of bubbly to mark the occasion. On the
Sunday we were up early as we had booked ourselves a whale watching trip, and yeah
sure enough we did see a couple of sperm whales and a calf up close. The weather wasn’t
great, very misty and grey, and quite windy, so it meant that it was difficult to find the
whales from a distance. With a blue sky and calm sea they are more easily spotted.
Also while Patrick was over, we took the ferry to Pico and hired a car for the day. Pico is
probably a prettier island than Faial, particularly because of the mountain it’s named
after, but here again the scenery is much like the green pasture fields and hills that you
find in Ireland, so it’s not something that we get that excited about. Patrick left today
after a flying 3 day visit, but it turns out that Faial airport is closed due to the mist and
fog, so he ended up having to take a ferry to Pico to get another flight to Lisbon.
Going back a week or so, we also hired a car in Faial for 3 days. The island itself is quite
small and you could drive around in a couple of hours, but there are a number of
interesting things to see and do. On the western side of the island is the new volcano
which is 50 years old this year. The volcano added an extra 2.5 km to the island. In fact it
is quite funny to see the old lighthouse, which 50 years ago was on the shore, now hidden
behind this new high ground.
There are also some very nice pools to go swimming in a Villa Douro, though the water
is noticeably cooler here compared to the Canaries.
We also walked the Caldera in the centre of the island – this is a walk of about 8km
around the rim of an old volcano at the summit of the island. This was very much like
walking at home, meeting cows on the way and with mist and rain coming down you
could hardly see 50 metres ahead at times. Off course have any amount of compasses on
the boat – but did we have any with on the mountain?
We were hoping to meet up with Granuaile in Horta, but when there we get a text from
them saying that they can see Pico and they’re on their way to Sao Miguel, so we make a
loose arrangement to meet in Terceira, the following week, which is now. The weather as
mentioned has been unsettled and after looking at it again, although we originally decided
to leave for Terceira on Tuesday, the new forecast is given 35 knots by 18.00 on Tuesday
with strong to gale force winds for the next few days. Thus skipper announces we’re
leaving in an hour – much to Saoirse and Donnacha’s delight as they are really looking
forward to being in company their own age again.
We say goodbye to Gjald & Corrinna and are underway shortly after 22.00. There’s
hardly any wind now as I write (3.00 am) and we are motoring at almost 5 knots down
the channel between Pico & Sao Jorge. Although it’s cloudy, thankfully the fog and mist
which has persisted for the past 2 days is now gone and we can make out the lights of the
island and other boats & ships easily.
The mist comes down again in the morning and the breeze picks up briefly but shortly
after we are back to the motor, arriving in Angra do Heroismo, Terceira at 13.00.
Distance Sailed: 70nm
Saturday, June 23
Have been in Terceira for 2½ weeks. Up until about 3 days ago the weather had been
fairly miserable, wet and windy, and sure enough the wind that was forecast did come in
the night of our arrival, blowing gale to storm force. We later heard that 2 of the pontoons
in Horta broke free during this weather, and some boats got damaged. Lucky then that we
left when we did!
Granuaile had arrived in Terceira some hours before us, so the day was spent drinking tea
and chatting about all the different places we had visited, people met on the way etc.
Another Irish boat also arrived in, Paddy Barry’s “Ar Seachran” (??I think is the name). I
know Paddy & Ruairi who were onboard and we met the others when they called over to
Granuaile one evening where songs were sung and plenty of wine drank. As it turns out,
Paddy had to get his boat lifted here as a rudder bearing was giving trouble, plus he had
to get his mainsail repaired.
Granuaile & ourselves hired 2 small cars for 3 days to go exploring the island, which in
our opinion is a lot nicer island than Faial. Although the weather wasn’t great we did get
a couple of good, if somewhat strenuous walks in, the scenery being a mixture of
mountain woodland & green pasture. Also visited a couple of caves / lava tubes which
were very interesting, and visited an area with fumaroles. This area is quite boggy and
thus one can see steam rising from cracks in the ground. Geologically speaking the
Azores are very young islands, and the volcanoes and weaknesses in the earth’s crust
aren’t over quite yet.
Angra do Heroismo, where we are moored is a Unesco World Heritage City and is a very
beautiful, busy but relaxed place. In 1980 the city suffered an earthquake in which almost
¾ of the buildings were damaged and a number of people killed. All the buildings have
now being repaired, but the new red roofs that replaced the old dominate the skyline. We
all like it here and seeing that their festival started yesterday we decided to stay on for
another while. There was a wonderful parade last night, with a wonderful atmosphere
around – adults and children all out until the early hours.
A favourite in Terceira is bull running in every village. So far we have come across 2 of
these, where a wild bull is released onto the streets, whereby young and old alike do their
best to torment the bull with shouting and waving and then making their getaway when
the bull gets thick. Although the bull has a rope around its neck and is controlled by up to
8 handlers holding the rope, the rope is very long and there is plenty of scope for the bull
to do as he pleases.
Wednesday, July 4
Well, a month in Angra and we are partied and burnt out. The 10 day festival here was a
truly magnificent event. Four live concerts every night, more bull running in the streets,
more parades and something different and new to see and do each day. Have to say that
they really know how to put on a festival here. Oh, and a euro for a beer on the street on
in the bar isn’t bad either. A Dutch couple Yabb & Laura decided to stay for the festival
also, although they had planned to go to Horta, but Debbie persuaded them otherwise.
They too had sailed up from the Canaries, and their friends Jan & Johanna also arrived to
meet them in their boat. Very nice people. We all decided to “dress” our boats for the
festival, which means that we found whatever flags we had and fired them up the rigging.
I’m sure there’s some formal way of doing this, but I don’t know. With the 2 Irish & the
2 Dutch boats all done up fancy, the French & the Belgians followed suit.
The marina here was full of children on boats for the festival. Two of the French boats
and one of the Belgian boats had 14 children between them, and again all real friendly
people.
Nick & Cathy from Fairwinds also arrived towards the end of the festival – we had not
met them since Madeira. On one of the nights after the big concert we stopped in a
“garage” bar. The couple here had converted their garage for the festival and were selling
beer and local dishes. The marsala, which is perhaps our equivalent of black pudding, is
great stuff. In the bar we met a local couple Pedro & Paula and their young son Rodrigo.
After chatting to them Eilish invited them to Granuaile the following evening and the
evening after that they invited us back to their house for a barbeque. Again, we were
taken back by the friendliness and hospitality of the people here. Very enjoyable night.
The plan had been to leave here for Ireland on Tuesday (yesterday), so it was all systems
go, but on Tuesday morning, one last look at the weather gave a different picture, with
the likelihood of gales when arriving to the Irish coast. There was no plan B as such, so
rather than chance it, both ourselves and Granuaile decided to head over to Praia de
Vitoria on Terceira for a few days and see what the weather would do.
We had a gentle sail / motor the 13 miles to Praia, with Shane (from Sligo) and Peter
having arrived in from Angra a couple of hours before us. We hear of a bull run a couple
of kilometres away and Declan & Richard tell the 2 lads that we’ll show them what it’s
all about. Peter has in fact being to these before. Debbie, Eilish & the children decide to
give it a miss. We walk the 2K to Casa de Ribeira and the “boys” have a beer after our
strenuous walk, and we find ourselves a nice low wall to stand on. Plenty of space here.
At the stage we know why, as bulls can be very good jumpers, but we have our escape
routes planned should the bull take too much interest in us. Each bull is let out on the
street for ½ an hour or so and the 4 boys spend our time running up and down the street,
trying to stay a safe distance away and yet at the same time to be close enough to the
action. All this bull running is very thirsty work and of course after each bull run is over
we have another beer, the side effect being that we are also getting braver and more
stupid. At half time, so to speak, Nick and Cathy arrive, along with Will and 2 Kiwis,
John & Paul. Cathy has more sense than to get involved in this lark, and Nick is driving
(not drinking) and they stay a safe distance back. However the 4 current experts tell Will,
John & Paul what to do and how to avoid getting killed or seriously injured. (All joking
aside people do get hurt & killed –mainly American tourists with cameras!). So more
beer and more bulls. There were a couple of fairly wild ones, jumping over walls, into
people’s gardens and a few very quick escapes were required. At one stage towards the
end of the evening, the last bull got into one of the local bars. Jaysus, it was mayhem –
tables, chairs, bottles, people, drink & food flying all over the place – mad! Now I don’t
know if a bull was actually ever in a china shop, but I have seen with my own 2 eyes a
bull in a bar and on these grounds alone I reckon the phrase “like a bull in a china shop”
should now be changed. Just one other mad scene at this “Tourada de Corda” (official
name for the bull runs) was with a bull standing beneath a high garden wall. There were
loads of people on the embankment here and one lady had her young 3 year old daughter
by the arms, dangling her over the bulls head. Every so often the bull would make a go
for the girl, but mom would whip her away in time. The girl was loving it. Of course this
sort of irresponsible behaviour is terrible if one was to analyze it coldly but at the time it
all seemed like great fun.
After the last bull had had his run out, Declan. Richard, Shane, Peter, Will, John & Paul
retired to one of the bars. This was indeed the same bar that the bull had been in earlier.
Now this is what I would call a real man’s bar. There was bullshit and bull spittle on the
walls, and a recent customer’s blood on the floor from the encounter with the bull. The
round which was a brandy and 6 beers came to €5.00, and we got free food, marsala, ribs,
olives & bread. In the bar we compare injuries from the evening’s activities – Will has
scraped arms & toes, squashed and scraped toes are the order of the day for the Kiwis, as
they being inexperienced in this manner of things were ill prepared and were only
wearing flip flops ( not great when there’s a 100 lads running away from a mad bull),
Shane a twisted knee and Declan, cut knees and other miscellaneous abrasions to his
lower limbs when leaping over stone walls. Oh, and another pair of €5.00 sun glasses
fecked. Yeah, life doesn’t get much better than this……….
In the bar, one drunk, who hasn’t a word of English and none of us have a word of
Portuguese, managed to explain to us that he has got a very sore arse. Apparently, he was
in the bar having a quiet drink after work, when this mad feckin bull comes in and roots
him up the hole for no reason at all – poor fellow!
Then when talking to another local, he tells us that tomorrow night is the big night.
Tonight’s bulls were the quiet ones, tomorrow get the mean bastards. There’s no’s 53, 72,
22 & 64. Again he tells me, these are bad bad bulls. No. 52 is not a great jumper, but very
very strong and can easily knock down concrete walls to get to his victims. No. 72 very
fast, but doesn’t turn well, so if caught with no. 72 tearing down the street at you, simply
hold your ground till the last moment and then do a little sideways adjustment. Tomorrow
is no. 22’s first time out, so nobody really knows his form, but great things are expected
of him. And then there’s no.64, known as “The Ghost”. 64 is a very very bad bull and not
only does he have an attitude problem, he also has all the skills and talents necessary –
fast runner, good turner, strong and most impressive of all can scale really high walls.
Nowhere or nobody is safe when no. 64 is in town………..
Well some of us did go again the following evening. Suffice to say, some we know will
be appearing in the 2007 Video & DVD highlights!
On another night in Praia, Will had an Origami party on his boat, an Achilles 24. He
managed to get 14 people onboard, all making origami. It did mean that his cockpit was
more like a bath. But wow, this is a small boat, when you’ve come from Khepri, and Will
has been to the Caribbean from Nazare in Portugal and back to the Azores in the past 7
months. The boat that John & Paul, the Kiwis bought for a song in Florida is falling apart
on them, so they are going to hitch a ride back to Spain with Will, leaving their boat in
Praia for the winter. They will come back in spring/summer next year to fix her up. Paul
& John have an absolutely brilliant picture of themselves and their beer supply before
leaving America for here.
Anyhow at 12.00 we are underway in beautiful sunny weather, our destination being
Dingle. Granuaile is also leaving at the same time bound for north of Spain. We say our
farewells, but there is a plan to meet up again in Kinvara for the Cruinniu. The people
from the Azores say that there are 8 Azores islands, and Terceira “the party island” – I
think we did them justice!
P.S. Forgot to mention that the price of marina in Angra was €10 per night and Praia €5
per night, both of which included free wifi.
Distance sailed: 13nm
Some extracts from Ships Log during passage from Azores to Ireland. Debbie’s entries in
italics.
Tuesday, July 10
12.00. Depart Praia de Vitoria
Wednesday, July 11
00.45 Position 39º 19’N 26º’ 16W. Distance to Dingle bay 1017nm. Sailing in light
winds, speed 3 knts. Dolphins, shooting stars, Donnacha on watch also.
02.00 Warm night – t-shirts.
06.15 Engine on. Speed 4.8knts. Dolphins jumping clear of water. Sunrise 06.35.
10.15 Engine off
12.00 Days run 105nm
Thursday, July 11
06.30 55 miles off track to port. Average speed 5.2knts. Moderate visibility, cloudy.
11.26 Pissin rain. F6 up our arse – are we mad to be heading back to this?
12.00 Days run – 128nm
Friday, July 13
01.00 21 miles off track to port. Speed 5 knts. Very very dark night, no stars. Not too cold
but rain!
06.00 Incredible red sky, clouds very red also. Sun shall be up soon.
12.00 Days run 123nm
Saturday, July 14
01.30 Speed 5.2 knts. Very wet. Dark dull skies. In met area Charcot.
08.30 Now it’s sunny – yippee
11.50 Has been a very gusty & squally 18 hours or so. Seems to have passed for the
moment. Tour on deck reveals a seam on the jib coming apart. Will need to keep an eye
on this.
12.00 Days run 135nm
19.30 2.7 miles off track to port. 5.5 knots.
Sunday, July 15
06.45 Speed 5.7 knots. Beautiful sunny morning, incredible red skies reflected on the
clouds. Looks clear. Swell slowly decreasing. Quite pleasant really. Nice if it would stay
like that.
12.00 Days run 131 nm
18.30 Just spotted blow of Blue Whale about 6 miles away.
Monday, July 16
06.45 13 miles off track to starboard. 5.2 knots. Rough night, poor visibility. Showers and
gusts this morning. No sunrise, just clouds. Seems the low is slow moving.
Concur, fairly miserable night. Lashin rain, and with gale gusts lasting for up to 20
minutes at a time. Had to free off some more, and more rolls in the jib, but therefore
losing miles to starboard which I would prefer not to give away at this stage.
12.00 A new day and a better day. Moderate NW wind, fair swell, and not too many
menacing clouds around. Days run 131 nm
19.00 Speed 4.8 knots. Pleasant enough evening. Just sighted ship to starboard on
horizon. Swell still running. Should be entering Sole met area soon.
Tuesday, July 17
01.00 8 miles to starboard off track. Speed 5.6 knots. Clear night, just a few clouds,
visibility is good. Sea state ok.
12.00 Days run 124 nm
12.10 Light NW wind. Just enough to keep us sailing at 4 knts but falling off to leeward a
bit.
13.15 Engine and tillerpilot on. He idea of being close to Ireland (240nm), meant that we
were getting fed up of doing 4 knots, plus it doesn’t look as if we’ll do any better.
19.30 Motor sailing. Speed 6.1 knts. Course 022º to get back on track.
Wednesday, July 18
01.00 Motor sailing, speed 5.6 knots. Jib & main up also. Just about to approach
Shannon sea area. Starry night, sea state slight..
Engine still on. Could probably sail at 4knts, but not in the right direction. Still, making
good progress in easy conditions..
05.00 Speed 7 knots. Hard to fathom, as only a light breeze, F3 maybe with sails only just
managing to make use of it and engine on, riding into a small but northerly swell. Gulf
stream??
07.00 Speed 6.2 knots. Lovely morning, pilot whales. Sea state slight.
12.00 Days run 135
17.00 Speed 5.6 knots. Course 039º
22.35 Skellig light spotted. Ireland is in sight.
Thursday, July 19
0.00 False alarm., reckon it’s a fishing boat with strong deck light.
02.50 Playing dodge the fishing boats for the past couple of hours. Helps pass the time.
Skelligs now definitely in sight.
05.00 Paddle of self steering breaks off. There is a safety line, so easy to bring back
onboard. Lucky we are only 25 miles from Dingle, if this had happened a few days ago, it
could be a serious matter indeed, entailing us having to hand steer. Not worth thinking
about! Tis a dark grey morning that welcomes us back to Ireland, but still and all the
rugged Kerry coastline is a lovely sight.
11.00 Met by Johnny at Dingle marina. Days run 113nm. Total distance sailed. from
Azores to Dingle 1125nm.
Friday July 27
It seems that half of Kinvara is in Dingle for their holidays. Have met loads of people
from home and else where while here for the past week. Again, it’s great to meet and
catch up. We leave Dingle marina at 06.30, and have a hard earned 10 miles motor sail
out to the Blaskets against a moderate westerly wind, swell and rain. Blasket sound is
fine but lumpy seas as expected off Sybil Head for next hour or so. Left in company with
2 French yachts. Day improved and we sailed for a few hours, but in order to keep our
speed up over 5 knots we motor sailed quite a lot of the way. The 3 boats that left Dingle
all arrived into Kilronan within ½ hour of each other, having been in sight of each other
all the way. Arrive Kilronan 22.30. Late dinner went down well given that both Declan &
Donnacha felt somewhat sea sick on the way up. Strange, as we were all fine on the
Azores-Dingle trip and the previous La Palma-Azores where weather / sea state was not
that kindly!
On Saturday morning a couple from a British registered boat called over (Mike & Mo) to
say hello. Turns out they recognized us from Ponta Delgada, Azores. They had a tough
and rough trip back, 19 days and 3 gales with some breakages, and have had tough
weather here in Ireland since they arrived. They left the Azores about 5/6 weeks before us
and thought that they would be back in Scotland by now. By comparison we had a very
easy passage.
Distance Sailed: 84nm
Sunday, July 30
Spent 2 nights in Kilronan, and leave around 12.00 on the last part of our journey. It’s a
beautiful day, something rare in Ireland this summer, and we have a very pleasant trip
back to Kinvara, sailing goose-winged for a good part in easy conditions. We arrive
Kinvara quay at about 18.00 and there’s a big gang of friends, family & neighbours there
to welcome us home. It’s great to see so many people and at the same time it’s hard to
believe that we’ve been away for 13 ½ months. Still ‘n all, it’s good to be home – we’ve
had a fantastic time. Would highly recommend it……………………
Distance Sailed: 28nm
Total Distance Sailed since leaving Kinvara: 5,200nm