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.

Horta

Looking at the weather we saw nothing nice coming and it seemed that if we wanted to leave Velas within the next five days, that we should return the car in the morning and sail to Horta, with the wind still from Southeast. Later Southwesterlies lasting for at least 4 days were forecast.

In theory we could also have used the SE t get to Flores, but there the weather would be even worse and certainly no good to explore the island. So we thought we better be weather locked in Horta, with more possibilities ashore even on a rainy day.

We also hoped that the bulk of the boats that wanted to go to northern Europe, would use this opportunity and leave, so the the marina would not be totally filled. So, on Thursday, June 21 we cleared out again in Velas and headed across the channel towards Horta. Near Pico the wind accelerated and then dropped to nothing. Only to pick up from the other side some 3 miles further. Put up quite a wave in the channel between Faial and Pico and the clouds driven around the big volcano on Pico looked really spectacular.

Our guess was wrong, no boats had left or where leaving Horta and the Marina was bursting, with boats rafting up 4 deep, in the marina and on the long reception stone wall. So we decided to anchor in the harbor and clear in with the dinghy. The guy in the marina confirmed, that we could possible raft up somewhere, but no decent space was available and so we chose to stay anchored for a day or two and then check again.

Now it is a week and we are still anchored in the harbor. At first more and more boats arrived and none left for three days. The weather got ugly and gusty winds were driving through the harbor. There was a lot to see off course, overlooking the entire harbor basin from our vantage point on Taniwani. The ground is very foul and rocky, so many boats had problems with their anchors. Two times we saw another boat bringing up an orphan SQR anchor with chain on it, but now boat obviously attached to it. A swiss Amel dragged her anchor with nobody on board, left the harbor and was just on the rocks of the marina breakwater, when two other Yachties saw it and got on the boat in the last minute. Fortunately they were able to start the engine and bring the boat back in where they anchored her. A totally astounded owner showed up when they were just finishing the anchoring maneuver. I don't think he ever realized that his boats was already on the rocks.

The night from Sunday to Monday was worst with wild gusts blowing through the harbor, yanking the boats around on their anchors. By now it seems all anchors had found something to hold on to. Certainly Taniwani didn't move an inch. Still we were up in the cockpit around midnight, just to see what is going on, when a panicked Mayday call came in on VHF. A frightened women's voice just crying Mayday. Came up twice, with no more info and then did not respond to any inquiries any more. You were wondering what had happened to the poor folks, and the cries were still in our ears for some hours.

Two days later we read in the local news, that a french yacht with a couple had stranded on the south coast of the island. Not a nice looking shore as we know. They must have been caught by surprise and somehow, with the help of the local fire brigade they were safely brought ashore and to the hospital.

Monday the weather cleared up again, the wind went to NW and many boats started to leave. By now there are still boats rafted in the marina, but only two deep on average. It would certainly be possible to get a good place in the marina, but we didn't ask any more. Used to be at anchor we enjoy it out here.

 

Driven by curiosity, I went snorkeling to look what our anchor found to hold on to. I found our anchor deeply engaged with a steamer size chain, which it had dragged under a big rock. While we could possible have lifted the big chain with our strong windlass, so that we could get a rope underneath to free our anchor, it would not have been possible to pull up the anchor the way it was locked under the rock. I had to attach a line to the anchor and have Beate pull it back from the rock using the dinghy at full reverse, while I went down to wedge the chain out from behind the flukes.

Finally I moved the anchor over the chain towards the ship, that way it may not be holding the next storm, but we could get it up easily we thought. Well, today the wind picked up from the north this may well drag the anchor back into the chain in the other direction. We shall see. At least we are safe here.

Weather is still nowhere near perfect, but we think, with the northerly winds we should be able to just about lay course for Flores. If the reports don't change significantly, we plan to leave tomorrow Friday afternoon, and sail over night to Flores. Stay tuned….

Sao Jorge

A smooth overnight sail of some 135 miles brought us to the little town of Velas on the island of Sao Jorge. Jose, the very nice man in charge of the marina was already on the pier waving and welcoming Taniwani, he had seen us approaching on the Marine Traffic website, which tracks the AIS signals sent by all big ships and now also by an increasing number of yachts.

We were lucky, as another boat had just left the T-end of the first pontoon, which is long enough to accommodate us. The little can take about 10 visiting yachts and is quickly filled. The next T-end one pontoon in, which we had also used in the past is now occupied by the new pilot boat and all the inner berths on the long pontoon paralleling the breakwater are now assigned to permanent local boats. The good news is, that it is still possible to anchor outside, reasonably sheltered most of the time. Still, June is probably the only month in which the marina fills up.

Long before there was the marina, we had anchored at the coast of Sao Jorge, looked at the island and regretted that we couldn't leave the boat alone a explore the very interesting looking place.

Now, back in the new marina for the fourth time, we still love to get a car for a day and drive around the island. It is very pretty, with lovely sights and every time we discover something new.

Again we started by driving east on the southern side visiting places like Urselina and Calheta, the second, but less sheltered harbor on the island. Along the south coast, with the island of Pico just across a 10 mile channel, one has a feeling of being at the shore of a large lake. Sheltered by the whole length of pico, the south coast of Sao Jorge is milder and friendlier than any other in the Azores.

The eastern tip, called Toppo has a nice natural swimming pool, a freshly painted lighthouse and a flat round island just off the eastern cape. Pico isn't visible any more, but in the far one can see the island of Terceira. Turning back west again there is a road with magnificent views leading straight over the hilly highland with green meadows and happy cows.

Then over to the north side which has those beautiful "Fajas", flat land down at the sea, created by major earth slides many years ago. Many have only been accessible by boat, but now hard to maintain small roads lead down along the cliff sides. Down on the Faja, at a small restaurant, we hoped to have our lunch. All he could offer was a really very nice vegetable soup and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

We didn't drive all the way to the western end, with its derelict army facility and damaged lighthouse. Just before that end, there is a nice little park and a hill with great view in all directions. That's where we turned around and drove back to Velas. Still we had done 130 km with the car, the island is quite long.