April 3, 2019:
After four days at sea, this morning we made port in the town of Horta, on the island of Faial in the Azores. There are nine islands in total in the Azores, and we are on one of the center set of islands. The islands are a fully autonomous part of Portugal, and we’re about 850 miles off the coast of the mainland here. This is one of the smaller islands in the archipelago.
The islands are believed to have been discovered by one of Henry the Navigator’s captains in the early fifteenth century. However, the islands remained uninhabited by Europeans until 1444. The existence of any pre-European habitation has not been established. From where we are docked, we can clearly see the island of Pico, and it’s mountain of the same name. It is actually the highest peak in Portugal, with an elevation of about 7,700 feet. As we look over the small town of Horta, we can see several of the distinctive black and white Portuguese churches.
There’s not a whole lot to do here, but several of the tours include a visit to the area on the western end of the island which erupted suddenly and violently in 1957. That eruption from the volcano Capelinhos was so disruptive to the agrarian life on the islands that many Azoreans migrated to the east coast of the United States, primarily in the Massachusetts and Rhode Island areas.
Jim and I chose instead to do a whale watching tour off the coast. Since it doesn’t depart until the afternoon, we first walked through the town. We immediately knew we were back in a historically Portuguese area because of the sidewalks decorated in white limestone and black basalt.
One of the things to see in the town is the signature blocks painted by various ships that have made port here. It was really fun to see the block of the Ponant ship, Le Boréal, since we sailed on her last year.
It takes all of about a half an hour to walk the length of the town, and we see some fortification walls built during the 1600s, as well as a couple of the churches. The most famous shop/business in town is Peter’s Coffee, which owns a whole block of the downtown area. They’ve even franchise this business, as we later saw the same shop in different places.
As the day has progressed, the seas have gotten noticeably rougher, and large whitecaps are present even in the harbor. Although we wondered whether our tour would go out, we joined the group and headed to the pier. There we learned that instead of a standard whale watching boat, whale watching tours in the Azores are apparently done on Rigid-Inflatable Boats (“RIBs”), which means no cover and a boat that rides really low to the water (so as to ensure that you get drenched in the process). I looked around our group of fellow cruisers, where, as usual, Jim and I are the youngest passengers by about fifteen years, and think, “What can possibly go wrong?!” Nonetheless, everyone in our group is still “in” for the adventure at this point (even those walking with canes).
At the dock, we go through the safety briefing, and they hand out some waterproof gear. Unfortunately, there’s not enough to cover our group, and I get left with a poncho, which does not look waterproof at all. Fortunately, I have my trusty Columbia waterproof jacket, which really is waterproof, so I’m hoping the poncho can at least keep the worst of the water off my camera and my legs. So down to the docks we go. Then disaster struck.
One elderly gentleman fell off the dock before he could even get in the boat, and gashed his head. After pulling him out of the chilly water, the boat operator had to send him to the hospital, and then about half the group (including Jim) dropped out. Me; I just wanted to see some whales.
So off we went in our very small open boat. The second we got out of the harbor, the wind started sending us waves that were 5-6 feet high, and I immediately got a face full of water. It was so rough, I couldn’t even use my camera and hold on to the boat at the same time, so the camera spent most of the trip under the poncho. Nonetheless, the crew gamely tried to find us some wildlife to spot, but in seas this high, there could have been and entire pod of dolphins right next to us, and we would have never seen them between the waves. Finally, another spotte boat further out, which was using sonar to try to locate the whales sent back a message that there was nothing out there to be seen and we turned back. I think most of us were secretly glad to head home.
On the way back, the crew took us in close to the volcanic shore so we were in the lee of the wind for a while. What a relief! They took us into some caves formed by cooled lava tubes. One of them even had a reflective bottom showing blue. They also took us into a cove where whale fisherman had processed their catch back in the 18thCentury.
Finally, wet and cold, we made it back to the ship. Tomorrow, we’ll be in one of the largest of the Azorean islands, São Miguel, where we will dock in Ponta Delgada.
Vaya con Gringos 