There is a long history of sailors visiting Horta doing a personalized painting on the docks to commemorate their visit. What I did not know is that this tradition grows out of a long held superstition and a fear of shipwreck.
The marina and harbor here in Horta consist of a large horseshoe shaped stone bulkhead to protect the harbor from storms. Additionally, there are two massive bulkheads that face the sea and keep things from getting dangerous in the harbor when the weather gets rough.
I have put a white mark to show where Pandora is anchored.
You can see how busy it is in the harbor and this is nothing like it was when we arrived a week ago. Again, Pandora marked with an arrow. We are very close to the docks, which is very convenient.
The harbor is very busy, especially when boats are migrating from the Caribbean and the US east coast for summering in Europe and the Med.
It is amazing how many yachts are crammed into the harbor, seemingly thousands, well hundreds for sure, rafted three deep on the bulkhead and the anchorage is way too tight in the harbor.
On the walls of the marina are thousands of paintings, commemorating those yachts that have made Horta a port of call as they crossed the Atlantic on their way to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Legend has it that by doing a painting on the dock, commemorating their visit that they will have good luck on their next voyage and to not do so should be done at your own peril.
It is said that to ignore this tradition would be done at great risk to boat and crew. Ok, I am not taking any chances so paint we did.
Ted, Jason and I had a hand in the finished product.
Sadly, later that day someone slid down the piece, smearing the paint all over the place. Today I went back and restored it to near glory. Sorry, to cheap to purchase three more cans of paint but fixed the white. Painting in place will insure, I hope, Pandora’s safety to the next port.
The shear variety of these carefully painted pictures is remarkable, with some clearly new and others faded to the weather and history. Pandora’s neighbors…
It is said that these paintings are the largest collection of marine painting in the world, with examples on a nearly every space you can imagine, vertical on bulkheads and on the sidewalks.
A friend of mine, and fellow Salty Dawg, left this one in 2019. It looks new…
Another Salty Dawg family from the rally, the good ship Spring.
No end to the places that are covered with paintings. Even the garbage crib is fair game.
Very creative and clearly international pieces.
This clearly tells a story that is meaningful to the artists.
Some are pretty creative and artistic. I watched this one being painted a few days ago.
Many years represented on a single wall.
Horta harbor is most popular marina in the Azores where the bulk of yachts clear in and out of the archipelago. They say that with1,500 yachts making landfall in Horta that it is the 4th busiest marina in the world. And no, I have no idea what the three are that have more traffic. Having said that, I doubt that any have a greater number of blue water cruisers making landfall than Horta.
It is said that the yacht, “Cleopatra’s Barge,” the first American pleasure craft to sail across the Atlantic, tied up at Horta in 1817. She was built in MA in 1816 and was wrecked, under different ownership in Hawaii in 1824. It is unclear if there was a painting on a wall here commemorating her visit to Horta. Unlikely…
Well, the crew of Pandora isn’t taking any chances so our painting is completed.
Interestingly, a few hours after we completed the painting, someone slid down the wall and smeared a lot of the paint. So, I spent an hour yesterday touching up the smears. Within a few hours there was yet another “smearer” nearby, a small boy, sliding down the wall, again and again.
I waved him off but doubt that he was going to stay gone for long. I went back to the boat and got some tape and skewers to build a protective tent while the paint dried.
Not pretty… I’ll know if it kept the “smearers” at bay long enough to dry…
Smeared or not, there will be a piece of Pandora here in Horta for years to come.
Let’s hope it keeps Pandora safe. Legend has it…