Yesterday morning I sat on deck, enjoying a cup of coffee and the view of Horta, here in the Azores.
It was the first time that it was calm, and warm enough to sit on deck since I arrived nearly two weeks ago. Most days it has been fairly windy and always a bit to chilly, especially in the mornings.
The view of the town is really wonderful, especially when the harbor is calm.
I had been warned that Horta can be very busy this time of year, with many migrating from winters in the Caribbean or from the US, heading to the Med or northern Europe. They weren’t lyin…
The harbor was packed and I had to re-anchor three times the first day to avoid bumping into someone when the wind shifted.
Boats were rafted three deep on the docks and there was a waiting list to tie up.
Today things look a lot different with open spots available. The harbor is also nowhere near as busy.
We have been happy to remain on anchor as it’s easy to get on and off the boat. However, with a planned trip to visit friends on the nearby island of Pico for a few days, I have to identify a way to keep Pandora safe for the few days that we are away as I am not comfortable leaving her on anchor unattended.
To that point, the holding isn’t all that great with a very fine volcanic sand that is quite soft. Yesterday we had a brief squall and Pandora started to drag. We moved and reset the anchor so all is well now with a bit more scope out.
It seems that this is easier said than done to put Pandora on a dock as someone has to be aboard at all times in case it needs to be moved. No unattended boats allowed! I am told that there is an outfit that will, for a fee, take responsibility for your boat while you are away.
As we want to visit friends on nearby Pico Island for a few days, we need to find a way to have Pandora secure and looked after while we are gone.
It has been nice just hanging out here for days on end after being on the move for so long. It’s hard to believe that the process of getting to Horta began in early May when I arrived in Trinidad to retrieve Pandora where I had arranged to have her hull painted following a major refit the summer before.
I can still recall, way back in the fall of 2012, when Brenda and I first took Pandora down the ICW to Florida and onto the Bahamas, that it took me several months to get relax and enter “cruiser mode” as opposed to being on vacation and needing to get as much done in the short time away before going back to work.
After more than a dozen years afloat, I am getting used to underachieving. As Brenda likes to say, “nothing happens aboard Pandora until noon.”
Along with watching the boats come and go in the harbor, nearby Pico mountain is always a treat to watch as the clouds come and go.
Yesterday, we were treated to a particularly nice veiw of the mountain. Note the “cap” cloud. That is a unique feature caused when moist air runs up the side of the mountain and condenses into a cloud that hangs, like a cap, above and to the lee of the island summit.
Actually, and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see this, but to me it looks a bit like a presidential comb over, if perhaps the wrong color.
So, here I am, fairly inert and enjoying Horta. Soon we will have to turn our sights to San Miguel, an island about 150 miles east of here where Brenda will be flying out in mid July for Scotland and my crew will arrive so we can begin our 1,000 mile run to Spain.
All I can say is that I still can’t believe that we are here and that I sailed Pandora across the Atlantic Ocean, well almost all the way. Spain awaits…