Logbook and Photos

We safely arrive at Punta Delgada on the island of São Miguel after a complete thrashing over night.  The surge from a storm is coming right into the marina, causing all the boats to lurch and grind right at the dock!  We end up tearing out our spring line cleat as the surge literally sheers off the thru-bolts.  Oh well, just another thing to add to the job list.   It is another place to explore and we are glad to be here.  The classic yacht in this picture now belongs to us - just kidding - belongs to the ex-president of Philips Electronics (Netherlands), one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest.  We get to spend a little time aboard with her Indonesian crew.

Today we catch a 9:00 am bus to the town of Furnas, about a 2 hour bus ride away.  Furnas is known for a beautiful lake as well as numerous hot thermal pools and springs. We have been told of a quaint little hot pool that only the locals appear to use.  The valley that collects the warm water is filled with Yam plants so it is a hike through tall, lush greenery, and the pools are awesome. The water is crystal clear inside a small hot pool set partially inside a cave and we gently cook in it with ferns everywhere.   Just across the path is this small waterfall which massages our backs. Apparently, people have been coming to these hot pools for therapies for hundreds of years.

Later, we walk to the Terra Nostra Garden, now named after the hotel built in 1935 and who purchased the neglected gardens shortly thereafter. Originally, the gardens started in 1770 with a thermal swimming pool as it's centre-piece. The brown water results from high mineral content.  The park consists of paths among boundless beautiful trees, ponds with goldfish and formal flower gardens.  Our day is over too quickly.

The bus ride home is slowed considerably as our driver patiently waits to pass this horse and wagon on the narrow rode in front of us.  This is one of so many wonderful reminders of bygone days here on the islands, something I am not so sure would be so tolerated on our busy roads. 

Well guess what?   It is election time and the same 'buy your vote' practices seem to happen no matter where you are in the world.  The current president of Portugal, Victor Cruz,  is sponsoring a huge event just across the street from the marina.  Free food, drinks, hats, t-shirts, pens, flags, you name it. 

And, the entertainment for the night is the famous flamenco guitarist band, 'The Gypsy Kings'.  We've been listening to them for most of their career, so what an unexpected treat! 

WE VOTE FOR VICTOR!!

Another bus trip today lands us at Sete Cidades, a town built in the base of the volcanic caldeira that began some 29,000 years ago.  Apparently the caldeira collapsed 22,000 years ago and legend alleges that seven cities were buried.   We get off the bus at the rim of the crater and begin our magnificent hike along the rim up to the Vista do Rei viewpoint.

It's a dirt road with spectacular scenes of the lush pastoral farm lands inside the crater to the left and the Atlantic ocean to the right.  Once to the viewpoint, we have clear views down to the 2 lakes inside the caldeira.  The Sete Cidades volcano contains a 5-km-wide summit caldeira, occupied by two caldeira lakes called,  Lagos Azul (Blue lake) and Lagos Verde (Green Lake). 

At the view point, as we look down upon the lakes, we tell Joel and Gerrit how the two lakes were formed. The daughter of a great king fell in love with a shepherd in the valley.  When her dad learned of the romance, he forbid them to carry on as he had already promised her hand in marriage to a prince from another valley in return for a rich endowment.  They met one last time and the tears from their eyes - her's blue and his green - filled the crater floor.  And though they were never to meet again, their tears formed the lakes and are joined together for eternity, or so the legend goes.

On totally clear days, from our vantage point one is supposed to clearly be able to see the blue lake and the green lake.  Our day is slightly overcast so there was a color difference, but not a distinct one.  These lakes are claimed to be one of the scenic highlights of the entire Azores for a reason!

We take 'the path less traveled' down from the rim to the town.  It is a steep narrow trail deep in tall Japanese cedars and lush vegetation.  Glimpses of the lake and town appear here and there and finally after some directed bush whacking and a few scratches we make it to the water front and finish off our walk towards the town.   After a fabulous day of hiking, everyone has a huge appetite on.  We find the only restaurant in the village and, with considerable pressure from the boys, decide to stick to a safe order of hamburgers with fries.  Well, this is what we got....there are four hamburger patties, each with a fried egg on top, a pile of french fries, a salad and rice, all on one plate.  I guess we should have saved those buns that were brought with the drinks to make a hamburger bun!  It is very different but hunger smoothes out any objections and it is great!

Wednesday, September 15th we finally manage to make a clear break from the islands with Lisbon in our minds.    Joel and Gerrit spend a morning creating a note to seal inside a bottle.  Our log book notes they were launched at 1:59 pm at N 38-52.95 and W 19-23.97.  If they don't get run over by a ship at sea or totally smashed on rocks when they hit land, Joel and Gerrit are hoping for a reply one day.  With the distance currently to land and the effects of wind and current,  it could take years!!   Oh, notice the dead flat calm seas - it's like this a heck of a lot more often than any kind of storm!

Dawn arrives after a totally awesome sail through the night complete with tunes on the walkman as we are close enough to land to pick up local radio stations and Chris has found a great one.  On her morning shift, Sheila spies mainland Europe through the haze and Gerrit confirms it with the binoculars as soon as he gets up.   "Land Ahoy!"

As we approach to within 10 miles off shore, we must cross two major shipping lanes, one going north and the other south.  These shipping lanes are about 1.5 miles wide each and contain many huge ships proceeding at very high speeds.  We pause to let one ship go, make a short 'security' call on the VHF radio to alert the ships of our small boat proceeding to cross the lanes and off we go.  There is a hint of fog so Sheila is at the helm and Chris on the radar calling out and ranging hazards before they can be seen with the naked eye.  We breathe a sigh of relief once across, and once again get caught up in the sight of land.

It takes us a little while to clear the ocean and get into the bay at Caiscais, a suburb of Lisbon with a protected anchorage.  We will stay here for our visit as it is a short train ride to  Lisbon and surrounding area.  This photo was taken by our friends on s/v Nai'a, moments before we drop our anchor.  You can see the anchor off the roller at the bow of Tioga, ready to go down. 

Within minutes of dropping our anchor, our friends on s/v Nai'a deliver us a care package filled with fresh bread, fruits and vegetables and cold beer!  Other cruisers sure do know what is important after being at sea!   We invited them aboard to drink the cold beer with us in celebration of both families' accomplishments.  Though at a different time than us, they too crossed the Atlantic this year.   

It is hard to describe how we were all feeling.  Landing in the Azores was a huge feat with a great sense of accomplishment after being at sea for 26 days, but the feeling of completing the entire Atlantic crossing seemed ever so much more powerful.  Not many people can say they sailed across the north Atlantic ocean.

In our next log, we now get to do some serious exploration of Lisbon and area.  We've made it to Europe!