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Welcome to Horta
Mosaic in a church yard |
After a day of calm, and another of almost 50 knot winds and rolling seas, we lucked out. We had sailed out of the roughest of weather and anchored off Faial Island in sight of Horta in somewhat improved conditions. The seas were far from calm, swells still rolling rhythmically by, the wind still blowing a brisk breeze, but Prinsendam positioned herself around her anchor chain as a windbreak with middling success.
Tender lowering took some time, and bringing them alongside the opening in the ship's hull to provide a secure connection between the tender boat and the narrow two steps acting as 'access platform' at the ships door proved to be a tricky maneuver. I watched a while assessing the physical acrobatics required to leave Prinsendam, and joined the eager passengers lined up and piled up adjoining the 'gang way' to the tenders. This was not going to be either a quick operation nor a comfortable one, as the tenders kept banging against the ship's hull (huge fenders needed to be re-positioned several times), mooring lines snagged around protrusions and jarred the tenders around, and the actual passage was all but stable or reliably level.
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| Typical black and white coloured buildings |
The number of wheel chair bound, walker bound and cane bound travellers awaiting tender embarkation was staggering. Well, first the person - somehow - and some individuals are quite corpulent...then the mobility aid. A few moments of panic ensued when it appeared that one of the wheelchairs had fallen into the drink, but it just had needed a couple of attempts to get it onto the boat reunited with its worried owner.
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| In summer, all these hedges are bright blue with Hortensia |
A few facts about the Azores. The remote archipelago consists actually of three small groups of Volcanic Islands. They mark the point of intersection of three major tectonic plates: the Eurasian plate, the North American plate, and the African plate. Each of the three groups of islands occupies a different one of those plates, making for a curious and unique natural phenomena. Earth quake and sea quake activity is varied in strength, but almost constant in the surrounding area. Volcanic eruptions happen at frequent intervals.
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| Lookout over shore line, cinder cones and cliffs |
The last major eruption happened in 1957 at Graciosa Capelinhos, a volcanic cape at the wet of Faial (Portuguese for Beech Wood) Island. During the series of eruptions which were happening almost daily and lasted almost two years, ash and lava formed a small islet off the coast, on which the British planted a Union Jack in the barely cool enough surface. A diplomatic kerfuffle ensued between Portugal and Britain, however, nature put a peaceful end to it, by letting the contested piece of hot ash disappear under the waves again, flag and all.
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| Upper left hand corner, note half buried house.... |
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| A road leading through ashes - to nowhere.... |
Today, there is still an eerie black barren landscape, in start contrast to the almost overwhelming lushness of greenery of the rest of the island. Ash had buried many houses and fields - fortunately without loss of life. One may still see old house structures partly uncovered, and half buried roads leading into the sea and nowhere. A lone light house is now the only landmark towering from the bleak mountain side.
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| Light house on lava flow.... |
Horta people have turned part of the area into parks, and installed giant basalt and lava BB Q's at vista points and in lush groves, and the populace enjoys their leisure here and celebrate with some of local wine, whose grapes are cultivated on volcanic slopes.
The islands themselves are in effect volcanic craters - or caldera rims, which emerge from the sea and are augmented at the very top of smooth sided mountains several thousand meters high and totally submerged except for the lush Azores Islands.
Customarily the islands are referred to as the archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic, however, in reality they are located 1/3 of the distance away from Portugal, and 2/3 of the distance away from Fort Lauderdale.
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| Dramatic cliffs all around the Islands.... |
Ashore in Horta, arriving in a stunning brand new Marine Terminal, which was still under construction on my last visit in May 2012, I armed myself with open umbrella and headed for Porto Pim just at the far end of Horta and separated from it by an Isthmus leading to yet another little extinct volcanic cone. A peaceful, but rock strewn bay, gave shelter to whalers ages ago. An old whale oil factory still stands, and the large 'launch ramp' of smooth rock still shows, where the unfortunate marine mammals were dragged up into the factory and rendered and into lamp oil and converted and corset stays.
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| Porto Pim |
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| Old whaling factory, note the tunnel to the right, where whales were dragged up into the factory |
Today, the annual whale migration from Northern to Southern Seas serves as one of the many tourist attractions of the islands. Eco tourism ranges from caving, mountain hiking, fishing, diving to golfing and camping. Of course, the cross Atlantic sailing community fills the marinas to the last docking spot during the weather window for travelling across the Atlantic.
The climate is mild year round, plant growth is definitely abundant. The landscape reminds one of Ireland with the many shades of green, emerald green being one of them. As well, local farmers have divided and terraced their fields with walls of volcanic rock, giving the hill sides a checkered appearance.The lush flora turns the islands into colourful paradises of flowers during July and August. Faisal is called 'the blue island' as blue Hydrangea hedges cover all these stone fences creating a striking composition of green and blue. Black and white Holstein cows compete with the black and white colours of local houses, churches as well as mosaic pavement.
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| There is an observatory on top of one of the volcanoes, dedicated to Prince Albert of Monaco |
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| Typical architecture of Horta churches |
Porto Pim seems even more laid back than Horta, which is somewhat 'cosmopolitan' with its shops and restaurants. Porto Pim is plain fishing town, where many houses are so small, they consist of one floor with one door and one window.
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| Horta cat taking in the view.... |
The town is picturesque and unspoilt, locals standing in their doorways, and attired in aprons chat across the narrow streets, cats fight amongst the stone fences, and little gardens sprout amongst the tightly packed buildings.
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| Porto Pim sea side and beach |
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| One window, one door - a house! |
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| Basalt, Lava, Pumice....all building materials |
A happened to run across three ship mates, busily bartering with a taxi driver for a turn around the entire Island. The invited me to join, and we all squeezed into Paolo's Mercedes and set off. Up and down the many cliffs we went, along gently inclined and field covered slopes, along basaltic shore lines, over many steep sided arroyos where waterfalls tumbled into the verdant depth and took in the village like atmosphere all around. No crime here, not much movement of people either. Many stay their entire lives on one island with an occasional short working stint one one of the others.
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| Porto Pim harbour, peaceful but treacherous |
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| Horta from a neighbouring hill |
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| Downtown Horta |
It still drizzled, then poured, then burst into bright sunshine, then back to drizzle again. It did not dampen spirits nor the appreciation of the island's undeniable charm and beauty.
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| Peters Bar |
After a short obligatory dip into 'Peter's Bar', the iconic hang-out in Horta for locals and sailors alike, I took the last land based walk back along the beautiful sea side promenade to Horta's new Terminal.
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| Brand New Terminal |
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| Sea Side Promenade |
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| Holsteins and Hortensia |
Pico, the neighbouring island was misted over, and its several thousand feet high perfectly sculpted Volcanic peak invisible.
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| The peak of Pico. |
Horta's Terminal - what an imposing structure...paid in part by moneys from the European Union. Who knows, maybe on her next journey Prinsendam will be able to tie up to the - not quite completed - commercial dock. But - even for small Prinsendam it will still be a tight squeeze.
Six sea days await us, and we will be cruising through the Sargasso Sea, a sea without shores within the Atlantic Ocean. Sargasso originates from the word 'sargaco' - grape, and this area of the ocean between the West Indies and the Azores teems with grape like sea weed.
Anchors Aweigh....and off to Fort Lauderdale.
