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| Ponta Delgada to Horta, 155 NM |
The time finally came to set off for our next destination, Horta on the island of Faial. Horta is 155 nm west of Punta Delgada, about 31 hours sail. The weather had been quite windy from the south for days and waves/swell pretty heavy when we departed. Luckily there was a little wind from the SSW, enough to steady up the boat with our mainsail up. We motorsailed untill we reached the entrance to the Sao Jorge channel - the stretch of water between the islands of Sao Jorge and Pico. We motored all the way into Horta arriving there just after 7PM.
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| Alongside in Horta, checking in. |
Checked in at the marina and they gave us a berth at the pontoons. Our plan is to stay here approximately 2 weeks. The next day we just had to go visit Peters Cafe Sport, which is a legendary waterhole amongst the sailing community.
Here we met Duarte, who we knew from our last visit in Horta. He and his friend used to bring us water and groceries and sometimes take-away - when we were anchored here in 2020. At the time we were not allowed ashore because of COVID-19. Duarte remebered us/boat.. he said: Oh yes you who bought all that water ! Hehe... he was right, we bouth 15 x 8 liters of drinking water. That water lasted us long into our second trip. I think we emptied the last container in January this year.
We hired a car and went on a day trip to see the island. A great day with lots to be seen.
We also finally met up with our friend Lars Hedman who arrived with his boat from the Carribean. We tried to meet him in November in Las Palmas, but we got there too late, as Geir was down with a bad cold, we later think it could have been Covid. As there were no space in the marina, they were told to anchor on arrival. Lasse had no dinghy and Geir went over and picked up Lasse and took him ashore for his check-in. They were glad to having arrived as the past few days had been very rough. We shared a few beers and compared notes. It was very nice to finally meet Lasse again.
A couple of days later we were invited by Lasse for a dinner at the Atletico restaurant and enjoyed a great meal with Lasse and his crew. They were leaving the next morning for Lagos in Portugal and we for Ireland. We hope to meet him again somewhere :)
