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| Arctic Smoke in Horta - on the outside |
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| One of the more impressive wall paintings |
Well I’ve been here in Horta 7 days now and goodness knows
where the time has gone because I’ve hardly been out of the Marina! [That was
written a few days ago. I ended up staying 12 nights in Horta]
Wim and Elizabeth on board Bengt arrived from Flores the day
after I arrived and Barry and Kath arrived the day after them. I decided to
celebrate by cooking for us all on board Arctic Smoke t that evening which I
think was last Tuesday the 13th June. It was a bit of a squeeze but
we managed it and we had a very enjoyable time.
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| From left to right - Wim, Elizabeth, Barry and Kath |
I’ve had two principal pre-occupations since arriving.
Finding someone to crew the next leg with me back to the UK and getting the
fore and back stays replaced. On the former, I had left Flores thinking the
issue was resolved but shortly after my arrival in Horta discovered that Chris,
a previous owner of Arctic Smoke had to pull out due to family issues. A shame,
Chris is both very experienced, having previously circumnavigated and he was
looking forward to it; but his withdrawal was entirely understandable. As of
today (Monday 19th June) it looks as if I have a replacement, my
youngest brother Isaac. He will hopefully be flying out to join me at the
weekend or early the following week. Isaac’s not an experienced sailor but is
very much looking forward to the trip and I’m sure he’ll get stuck into the sailing
and will appreciate the experience.
On the second. I’d been concerned about the punishment that
the fore-stay has taken during the course of the cruise to date – particularly
during the long west bound passage to the Caribbean, when with the wind behind
us and enormous seas, the genoa imposed great stresses on the stay whenever
there was insufficient wind to keep the sail full during the often, violent
rolling we experienced. As the boat rolled the sail would empty during the
roll, only to be suddenly filled again. This cause the sail to shake the whole
stay which could be felt throughout the boat. When Mick was off-watch sleeping
in the for-peak, he experienced the snapping even more. Similar conditions
prevailed during some of the passage from Bermuda to Flores. I therefore
decided that even though the stay was only 5 years old I should get it replaced
and whilst I was at it the back-stay too – given that it too would have taken a
fair bit of the punishment.
On arrival, I therefore contacted Mid Atlantic Yacht
Services established by Duncan Sweet in 1990. Duncan had stopped off on a
sailing passage a few years earlier and vowed to return. He bought a house and
one evening after a hard day’s renovating, he was having a coffee at the Café
by the harbour with his tool box at his feet when approached by a Yachty who
needed some work done… and so Mid Atlantic Yacht Services was born! In Duncan’s
words, in those days “.. you couldn’t even buy a stainless steel screw on the
island”. Now Mid Atlantic provide a comprehensive and essential service to the
hundreds of yachts that visit the island every year. As of today, Duncan and
Joul have almost finished the job. The old forestay had four broken strands and
the foil around the stay onto which the genoa is rolled up when reefed, needed
attention. The stay would undoubtedly have broken sooner or later and so I was
very glad I decided to get the work done. I was a bit optimistic with that assessment
of the work being almost finished; it was eventually completed on Wednesday 21st
June. We had some last minute problems with the furling swivel – again. On
trying to furl the genoa it kept snagging – as it did before we changed the
swivel in Antigua. Thankfully on this occasion all that was required was a
thorough wash out with warm water and washing up liquid in order to get rid of
the salt that had built up in the swivel mechanism. The bill was rather a shock
– 2000 Euros. That did include new fittings at both ends of both stay and some
remedial work on the foils but it was still a shock. However, it would have
been even more expensive and worse if the rigging had failed mid passage!
I’ve also been working through the ever-present list of jobs
(in addition to assisting with the rigging work). The jobs included reinforcing
the fixing of the Port-hand solar panel (I discovered the aluminium frame of the starboard panel had
split when in Flores and repaired that there); checking Angus’s various nuts
and bolts and oiling him and the cockpit sole and repairing the steaming light
that I noticed had packed up whilst in Flores. That involved a number of hours
up the mast and an email consultation with Mick. It turned out that the wire
ends entering the mast fitting had corroded through. It was a devil of a job
though because I couldn’t shift the screws holding the light fitting to the
mast. In the end I had to resort to cutting the plastic case of the fitting in
order to get access to the wires. The inbuilt connection terminals were of the
most ridiculous design being very small diameter pins through the plastic
housing. The wires from the mast were soldered onto the pins on one side and
the wires to the bulb on the other. However, there was no way of being able to
re-solder the wires in place without melting the plastic and so I installed
standard cable connectors that used screws rather than solder to make the
connections. They’ll last until I can get a new light fitting. After making the
new connections I taped the light fitting to the mast using Gorilla tape. That
too should last until we get back to the UK.
Wim and Elizabeth have fed me twice and so I returned the
favour "last" night – I managed to cook a stir fry reasonably successfully
despite not having a Wok. Yesterday being a Sunday also provided me with an
excuse to take a day off boat jobs and after getting up late and passing by
Bengt where I got a second breakfast, I went for a walk around one of the local
trails and enjoyed some wonderful views.
‘Today’ (Monday 19th June) was taken up by more
jobs on the boat – checking the engine oil, filling the stern-gland greaser and
re-applying sealant around the locker in the Loo. I also did a little shopping
and started on the more pleasant task of leaving an Arctic Smoke painting on
the Marina walls amongst the hundreds of others. So far, I’ve only applied a
base primer coat of paint to a patch of wall on which a now very faded previous
painting had existed. One couldn’t make out any details of the previous
painting and so I think it was OK to replace it.
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| Arctic Smoke's Wall Painting |
I also helped Duncan and Roul remove the backstay.
The rest of this post was written on arrival at Pria do
Vitoria on 25th June and I cannot account for Tuesday at all, other
than I must have done some more jobs on the boat! Wednesday was taken up with
helping Duncan and Roul fit the new backstay and in sorting out the problem
with the furling swivel.
I got fed by Wim and Elizabeth again one evening. Oh, and I
also added Arctic Smoke’s mark on the Marina walls amongst the many hundred
others. My artistic skills leave a lot to be desired but at least I managed
something.
On Thursday, I did a tour of the island by bus with Wim and
Elizabeth. It was on the public bus system not a tourist excursion and so we
had no commentary or guide but it was nevertheless a fascinating trip and
served to the emphasise the need to spend more time on Horta and the other
islands. That’s the problem with sailing around in an old boat – you have to
spend so much time getting ready for the next leg that you miss out on the
sight-seeing!
On Thursday night Barry, Kath, Wim, Elizabeth and I went out for a meal to mark our various forth-coming departures for different shores. The Restaurant - "Genuino" is run by an Azorean two fold circumnavigater, is full of his memorabilia and made a fitting location for our get-together.
However, Friday was a proper tourist day. Wim, Elizabeth and
I took the ferry over to Pico and hired a car to explore the island for the
day. The volcanic landscape is most obvious on Pico with the most striking
feature - apart from the main volcano cone itself – being the acres of volcanic
stone walls that cover much of the island. These are built to enclose thousands
of very small patches in which the wine vines are grown. The walls provide
shelter from the wind, rain and sea.
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| Madalena, Pico |
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| Wim |
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| Elizabeth |
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| Vineyards |
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| Volcanic coastline |
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| One of the many public and free sea-water swimming pools |
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| Me by Wim - sea view by the pool |
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| Views South |
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| Views East to Sao Jorge |
Lajes is the centre of Whale Watching on Pico. A large Whale Watching Centre/Museum was under construction. There is a small marina into which a few visiting yachts can be squeezed.
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| Traditional Motor Launches in Lajes |
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| Fishing boats in Lajes (Marina out of shot to the left) |
The wine is very good and at least when
bought locally in the islands is also very good value. 3.50 euros buys one a
very good bottle of Pico wine in a local super market. It was a great day but
once again I was left feeling that I could easily spend more time on Pico.
Barry and Kath will be renting a cottage there for three days when their
friends visit them and I’m sure they will have no problem finding things to do
whilst they are there. They very kindly fed be that evening. They will be
staying in the Azores for a few more weeks before heading for Ireland and will
then over-winter in St Catherine’s Dock in London before heading for the Baltic
next year. I will therefore see them again later this year.
Wim and Elizabeth are wintering in the Azores before heading
south to Patagonia next summer. They are due to arrive in Pria this evening and
so I will see them again before we leave for the UK. Maybe Sharon and I will
manage to fly out here next spring to see them and more of the islands before
they leave. I say “we” here because after several false starts I now have crew
organised for the passage back to the UK. My brother Isaac flies into Pria
this evening. There’s not much wind around and so we may spend a few days here
before setting off.
