Chapter 16 An Island Cruise August—September 1993 The nine islands of the Azores are divided into three groups. The western group of Flores and Corvo are separated by 120 miles from the five central islands which in turn are 80 miles from the western group of São Miguel and Santa Maria. All the islands are steep-to and most of the harbours are nothing more than a stone jetty for loading ships in a rocky bay. They are protected only from certain wind and swell directions and you must be prepared to leave if the wind shifts. There are in fact only three all-weather harbours, all man-made, in all the islands and we were in one of them at Horta on the island of Faial.* After recovering from the hangovers of Sea Week (where Oborea won a trophy for third place in the single-handed race) we left for a cruise of some of the other islands. From Horta it is only a five mile hop across the channel to Madelena on the island of Pico, and we motored across in a flat calm and picked up one of the free moorings for yachts. Pico is the second largest of the Azores, 42 by 15 kilometers, and has the highest mountain in Portugal at 2351 metres. It has no large town, but three small ones and many villages. It appears much rockier and without the rolling hills of Faial and is a center of grape and wine production. The vines are not grown on wires here, but on low rock walls—miles and miles of them—they provide shelter from the wind and the black lava rock absorbs the sun's heat and radiates it backi into the grapes. From Pico it was a 15 mile sail to Velas, the principal town of the island of São Jorge. This island is long and narrow, 56 by 8 kilometers, and almost entirely surrounded by cliffs giving it a forbidding appearance from the sea, but the interior is of rolling green hills, and they make the best cheese in the Azores. Next stop was Angra do Heroismo on the island of Terceira, another 40 miles on. This is probably the most beautiful city in the Azores. It grew rich when the Spanish and Portuguese treasure galleons stopped there on their return voyages from the Americas and there are many beautiful 16th and 17th century buildings. The city was severely damaged by a new year's day earthquake in 1980, but it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage City and has been rebuilt exactly as before. We had been there less than a week when strong winds from the south forced us to move from the poorly protected harbour of Angra to Praia do Vitoria in the north east part of the Island. This is the second all-weather harbour in the islands and is being developed as a big container port. There are no special facilities for yachts, but the holding is excellent in sand and we rode out a southerly gale with no problem. Praia has one of the best bathing beaches in the Islands, but the presence of the big USAF base nearby at Lajes has rather spoiled the area. On next 80 miles to São Miguel, the largest and most populous of the Azores and the capital city of Ponta Delgada. The crossing took two days and a night of very light headwinds and on arrival we found crowds and traffic and even high rise buildings—all concepts with which we were no longer familiar! They have even gone beyond supermarkets and have two hipermercardos. It was all a bit of a shock. There is a new marina here (just in its second year) It is more expensive than the one in Horta, but one still has the option of anchoring in the harbour for free. This island has some of the most spectacular scenery in the Azores. We took the bus to the town of Furnas in a deep pine clad valley where we swam in a lake fed by hot volcanic springs and where they cook a local stew by burying sealed pots in the hot earth. We met a friend from Toronto who was visiting his parents in the north part of the island and we were invited their home and rode horses up the hills and down into a volcanic crater so large it contains seven lakes, innumerable farms and a small town. The near vertical sides of the crater were covered in the huge yellow flowers of wild ginger and eagles or açores soared in the updraughts as the sun sparkled on the lakes far below. While in Ponta Delgada we made a major change in our plans. We had earlier fallen in love with the island of Faial and had considered buying a retirement home there. We were torn because we wanted to continue sailing fo a while, but on the other hand real estate prices would never be as low again as even here things are always going up. We had looked at several houses and were interested in one in particular. We had left however without coming to any sort of decision. In Ponta Delgada we were waiting for our friends on the Toronto monohull Here and Now  to arrive, they had followed us from Florida to Bermuda to Horta, and when we had left them there we had agreed to meet again in Ponta Delgada and sail to Europe together. Instead of Here and Now though we got a message that they were still in Faial. They had been offered the job of caretaking a house for an American woman who was spending the winter in California and they had jumped at it. This decided us and we have sailed back 150 miles to Horta and bought the house in which we were interested (for less than $12000 Canadian) It is in the rural village of Cedros about twenty-two kilometres from Horta and we have bought a twenty year old Austin to commute. The house is a typically Azorean single story structure with stone walls two and a half feet thick. Right now we are still living on Oborea  as we have to do some renovations, but we hope to move in by mid November and then we will be landlubbers until at least next spring, when we can continue our voyage to Europe knowing that we always have our home to return to.

THE END OF OBOREA’S THIRD CRUISE