Freitag, 6. Juli 2012

Flores & Corvo



We had a smooth overnight trip from Horta to Flores. We sailed north around Faial to come up a bit higher on the northerly wind. Last year the harbor in Lajes was all new to us and we had the big surprise to find our Chagos friends Anne and Phil with their kids on Abracadabra moored in the tiny new marina. They had fallen in love with Flores and bought some property there as a land base. This year we knew that Abracadabra was in the marina and that it had the innermost place on the long pontoon, the one we took last year. Now we found a place as the outermost boat on the long pontoon.

The marina is small, and doesn't have many spaces for larger boats. On the other end, the is in the middle of the Atlantic and smaller yachts are the exception. Still, the young marina manager told me that they had fitted 35 yachts into the marina at one point, but that it was normally not possible to have more than 20 visiting yachts.

Despite the decent number of visiting boats that the new marina has brought, no new local businesses have grown and there is really nothing but a pizzeria near the harbor. Of all the Azorean Islands, it is definitely Flores which has the most isolated feel to it. 

But the island is one of the most beautiful. Again we rented a car at the gas station up on the main road and toured the many lakes and the spectacular west coast with its Faja Grande.

Our friends are now very busy, hard working on their the old houses (our should I say ruins), but one can start to imagine how nice it will look once done. We will probably check it out next year again.

But we had a nice get together in the evening up at a beautiful picnic place overlooking the marina. In good old Chagos manner, everybody brought something to eat, drink and put on the barbecue. Visiting friends of Anne and Phil as well as nice folks from an American trawler joined in. It was a very nice evening.

As we had planned to leave for Sao Jorge he next afternoon, all of them dropped by next day to say good bye as they were on their way out of the harbor for a day trip to Corvo. They had made a quick decision to stop working on the house for a day and all to get on board of the trawler. Once they had left we thought we might well do the same, sail Taniwani to Corvo and leave from there in the evening.

The wind was still from the west, and while quite weak, enough to sail close hauled. We all anchored off Vila Nova on Corvo, we found excellent holding in about 18m on sand. Could easily have stayed there for a few days, as long as the wind is from West to Northeast and not too strong.

We enjoyed inspecting the cozy little town and a beer in the harbor pub. While maybe smaller than Lajes, Vila Nova is not so scattered out and more contained and has a nice flair to it.

When we weighed anchor in the evening, the wind was still from behind and we had to get the motor to help. But soon it followed the forecast and started turning clockwise, so that by the time we arrived at Sao Jorge, we were close hauled again. While clouds were hanging low, and there was an occasional drizzle, we had a rather smooth and nice sail to Velas.

In Velas the marina was full, at least for boats of our size and we joined four other boats anchoring outside. At this settled weather it is actually a rather nice alternative.





















































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