Brenda arrived a few days ago after what turned out to be challenging Uber ride to JFK and a way-delayed flight to the Azores. She had booked the car days in advance only to have it canceled one hour before her pickup time. Anxious? You bet.
Oddly, the exact same driver re-booked less than an hour later and ended up arriving nearly an hour after that. Well, at least he arrived. The good news is that Brenda had allowed several extra hours, just in case. Smart girl…
Her driver, pleasant enough, spent much of the ride (four hours worth) sharing his life story, including his ongoing battle with schizophrenia, how he was doing well off of his meds (yikes!), his difficulties with ADHD, PTSD and his long and turbulent “history” with his mother. She came close to saying “ok, drop me at the next corner” but persevered and arrived at JFK without incident. The bad news is that the run from CT to JFK took twice as long as expected.
Her plane was then delayed by four hours, departing for the Azores at midnight and then, to add insult to injury, they lost one of her bags, the one with her “vitals”. Anyway, here we are two days later, her bag arrived and she has, mostly, recovered.
I say “mostly” as she picked up a bug on the plane. As Rosanne Rosannadanna often said, “It’s always something”
But she is here, only a little worse for wear, and I am thrilled.
We moved into a hotel for a few days and it is beautiful. Our room is the top floor center on the right, the double windows.
Our view of the nearby park from our room.
On Saturday there will be a festival in the park. Lots of booths going up and it will be fun to see what it’s all about.
Last evening we had our Salty Dawg Azores Rally arrival dinner at Pete’s Sport Bar, the iconic sailor bar that is usually the very first stop for anyone arriving by boat in Horta.
Every wall and the ceiling are totally crammed with burgees from every imaginable yacht and sailing club. Burgees on burgees…
We had a very nice event with about 18 attending, representing all but one of the 11 boats in the rally.
Boat number 11 has suffered a lot of delays and is not expected to arrive until the middle of next week. I feel for them as their trip, beginning in Florida, with a brief stop in Bermuda may end up totaling nearly a month underway.
I did a free raffle for several SDSA shirts and a bottle of Pete’s special gin which was enthusiastically received. Pete was a good sport about the whole thing. I presented him with a rally flag.
Which he promptly displayed on the wall.
Pete’s has been in business now for 4 generations and is always packed with many sailors, some so look the part as a “vagabond of the sea” and extensive tattoos are the norm. The bar, and it’s not a very big space, is so crowded on most evenings that they have a large tented pavilion outside to handle overflow patrons. I expect that the 3 euro beer, pints, have something to do with the popularity of the place.
After dinner, we assembled outside for a “photo opp” with the iconic Mt Pico in the distance. Pico is the tallest mountain, at nearly 8,000′ in the Atlantic basin. Note: It is WAY bigger than it appears…
Assuming that Brenda has sufficiently recovered from her bug, we plan to rent a car to tour the island in the next few days. Lots to share, I am sure.
One way or the other, we are settling into life here in Horta as many of the Dawgs move on.
And, speaking of “moving on” there is a tradition, here in Horta, of the crew of visiting yachts to paint a mural on the dock which is supposed to give good luck and ensure that they make it safely to their next landfall and the crew of Pandora are happy to oblige.
There are thousands of paintings and Pandora’s crew will be adding our own piece to the collection. To learn more and see our “art” check back soon. If you want to be “warned” when I post, sign up at the top of this page.
And speaking of “getting there safely”, I am pretty concerned about being attacked by an Orca as I make my way to Spain in July so I am painting away… I want to get there safely and am not taking any chances.
But, for now, I am happy to celebrate with the Dawgs and the successful completion of what I hope is the first of many Salty Dawg Rallies to the Azores.