Azores. Visiting Santa Maria, Sao Miguel

From Madeira to Santa Maria

Our trip from Calheta/Madeira to Santa Maria was rather uneventfull. We had some good sailing winds the first 24 hours. The wind slacked off for the next 48 hours and we motored to keep up speed. The last day the wind picked up and we had a great sail into the harbour in the town of Vila do Porto located on the SW side of the island. We were called by a french boat who needed assistance as their engine wouldn't start. We managed to get help via the bar in the Sailclub and they were towed in the last few 100 meters. We had some cold beers at the sailclub later on an thanked them for helping. 

Sail Club at Vila Do Porto

 

There was a great car rental on the island. We hired a nice Citroen C3 for one day paying just 27 Euro all inclusive (minus petrol). 

Our rental car.

 We had a great trip around the island. The island is very green and there were many pictoresque small vallies and comunities with old houses/farmhouses. Many of them abandoned, years ago. 

 

Overlooking the harbour/marina was a small fort dating back a few hundred years. The island had been attacked by pirates multiple times since they were populated and the locals had endured a lot of misery. 

The old fort overlooking the marina

  Today it is a very modern community. Modern shops, roads narrow but in good order and they also have a great airport with dayli flights to the other islands in the Azores. They also have flight to Lisboa. 

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Lighthouse in the southeast of Santa Maria

 After 4 days - it was time to push on to our next destination - Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel. We left first thing in the morning accompanied by 3 other boats. 2 French and one German. The voyage was just 55 nm and we arrived just before 7PM the same day. We moored in what they still call the new marina. (built 13 years ago). The marina is at the city center. But it is quite open to winds and sea/swell from the south. We had a few very rough days where the boat really bounced around in the berth. We also used the oprtunity to take a couple of days of luxury, threating ourselves to 2 nights at a hotel. We always try to get a room with a bath tub. Grete find a soothing warm bath heavenly for her troubled back. We were recommended a good local restaurant by some Norwegians we met in the marina. Not a big succsess. The sacond nite we went to a better one next to our hotel and had a 3 couse meal. Very nice. We wanted to visit a botanic garden we found on GoogleMaps. When we entered we were briskly stopped by a plain security guard who informed us you needed a permit to enter and we were given a map of where we could go. We had to strictly follow the track on the map. Turns out this was a garden surrounding the presidency of the Azores - and not the botanic garden we had ment to visit. So much for using GoogleMaps ;) 

 While in Ponta Delgada Geir received a Distress call on the shortwave radio. It came from a Hong Kong registred bulk carrier and who had lost a man overboard. It turned out they had sent  the wrong position in their call. They had written 88 degrees EAST - which we found was inland in Bangla Desh.

This was the distress call.

Here is the vessel.

 Checking the vesseles MMSI number showed the correct position to be 100 miles south of New Orleans. We phoned the US Coastguard who again phoned the vessel by satphone. They confirmed the distress situation. We later learned the man had been found by coastguard helicopter and rescued.

Santa Cruz, Madeira to Quinta Do Lorde, Madeira

Our stay in Santa Cruz was pleasant but a bit boring. Grete was troubled with severe pain in her back and was not up to any activity that involved sitting or walking for any length of time. We did however manage to visit a few of the local restaurants in town. 

 

This place had great hamburgers all had Band names.

While in Santa cruz, Geir had a radio contact with a few local stations on Tenerife. One morning Luciano, EA8AM came to see us on the boat, bringing his QSL card and a nice bottle of Tenerife white wine. (I have sinece had many contacts with Luciano) He follows us on marinetraffic.com.

EA8AM, Luciano (left)

We used the oportunity to do work around the boat. Finally painted the deck which tuned out very nice. Colour a bit whiter/brighter than the gelcoat - but much better than what it was after we stripped off the worn out teak. Under the teak we found the original deck with anti skid pattern, so we only had to paint. Also did all our laundry. Bought some new fender covers. Some were in 5m lengths and Grete made pockets for tie-laces in both ends. Fenders looked good now ;)

 

Grete did a good job on the fender covers.

 We departed Santa Cruz, filling up diesel tank on the way on Thursday 7th April. We had booked a berth in the marina at Quinta do Lorde located at the far east of the island. We arrived at noon the 11th April and were welcomed by the marineros who help us tie up. It's a pretty deserted place which is a pitty. It was built some years ago as a holiday resort but it went bankrupt early. There are lot of nice buildings and a nice area around the marina. When we were here in October 2021 the restaurant was open. Now it was closed. There is a small shop selling wine, beer and basic groceries. The marina fcilities are good. Nice clean toilets and showers, a laundry and free WiFi with good coverage. We very soon was reminded of the marina lying just below the eastern approach to Christiano Rolando airport. But the last flight passes before midnight, so we get to sleep OK. A bit windy the first days, but the marina is well sheltered. Having good WiFi enabled Geir to be on the air with his radio back home, working /REMOTE via Internet. 

 

Quinta Do Lorde marina/hotel complex

 We also met the swedish family on S/Y Josephine - we saw in Santa Cruz. Their plan was like us, to sail back home via Azores. We talked about the weater outlooks and the time needed to sail up to the first island Santa Maria. It will take us just about 4 days with an average speed of 5 knots. Today we had a good look on the forecast and unfortunately it looks like we must depart Madeira tomorrow, wednesday 13th in order to be in Santa Maria Sunday 17th at noon. The wind will increase Sunday evening. So it looks like we will have lots of time to explore the Azores, but less time here at Madeira. We can always come back here as tourists by air. Our plan tomorrow is to depart at 0800, sail to the port of Calehta at SW Madeira, fill our diesel tank and continue towards Santa Maria in the Azores.

 

Topping up on diesel at Calheta