The Azores

We left St Georges, Bermuda, on 28^th May expecting to be at sea for 18 days. Our destination was Horta on the island of Faial in the Azores. We changed our destination to the nearer island of Flores, when Jeremy developed toothache. We had some out of date antibiotics on board and Jeremy started taking them along with ibuprofen.

North Atlantic swell

 The weather window was good and we made good progress with the wind between WSW and SSW. It died away on the second night and we became a little concerned as the barometer continued to fall. Sure enough, it soon came back rising to 24knots. We reefed the sails. The weather was mixed – everything from continuous rain, to showers, to sunshine and thunder and lightning. The swell did not always follow the wind. Sometimes there were two swells, one behind and one hitting the side. At other times the swell was from the opposite direction from the wind. The barometer dropped to 1008mb before it started to rise and we began to wonder what had happened to the Azores high.

Running repairs

Waves broke over us from time to time or went thundering past like a waterfall after heavy rain. As the wind turned SSE we had a force 7 blowing with gusts up to gale force. It rained hard. Three times the dolphins came and rode our bow wave and three times the weather worsened. We began to believe the old sailors’ tale that the dolphins come to warn us of bad weather.

Look out behind

We had some lovely sailing days as well with full sails on fairly calm seas. Jeremy sealed one of the saloon windows that had started leaking. He began drying out lockers and a bunk that had taken on water through the front cabin hatch. The off switch on the engine broke and, for a time, we had to switch the engine off inside the engine compartment (a bit like having to get out of your car, lift the bonnet and find the place where you can stop the motor running). Jeremy managed to wire two switches into the circuit which do the job of the broken switch, but this meant emptying all the clothes out of our wardrobe and climbing inside to get to the control panel. All the time, Sal Darago is being bounced along on a rocky, rolly swell.

Land ahoy! Flores

To sum up, the passage took us 14 days. We motored for 29 hours in total. The AIS picked up 10 ships, some of which we called up on the VHF to ask for a weather forecast. We saw one yacht and kept in contact for two days. Jeremy’s toothache began half way through and by the time we arrived in Flores, he could only eat mashed or liquid food. Chewing was agony.

 Flores

At rest behind the new breakwater

We were delighted to find that a marina had been built in Lajes, Flores. Our friend, Guido, had advised us to avoid Lajes as the swell comes into the anchorage making it very uncomfortable. He didn’t know about the marina. We tied up alongside Quintessa, moving to the berth left by Pilgrim (the British catamaran from Saba).

Lajes Marina, Flores

Local transport

 Everyone was friendly, the port captain spoke English and the next day we caught the bus to Santa Cruz to see the dentist at the hospital. She would not treat Jeremy until he’d taken a different antibiotic for at least 5 days. He saw a doctor, used his E111 card and paid 4 euros for the consultation and a further 4 euros for the prescription. Oh, it’s so good to be back in Europe!

Leaving Lajes

Flores is a beautiful island unspoilt by tourism. The views are fabulous, the flowers plentiful. Agriculture is apparent everywhere. We even saw a small field being worked with a horse drawn harrow. Fruit and vegetables are grown wherever there’s a patch of ground and the island is so green with pasture and trees. We would have stayed longer, but we heard there was a good dentist in Horta, Faial, 133 miles away, so we left on Saturday 14^th June.