Sao Jorge

July 17, 2008 Thursday
Yesterday we sailed over here and it was more sailing than we have done in a long time - by that I mean we actually did things with the boat instead of just riding on it. You see, Vila das Velas harbor was directly upwind from Horta.

For those of you who haven't completed Sailing 1A, I'll point out that sailboats cannot sail directly into the wind. On a good day with everything working perfectly, we can probably sail at a 45 degree angle towards the wind, meaning that by zig-zagging back and forth, we eventually arrive at a destination that was directly upwind. But good days are rare - usually there are currents and other problems that give us more like a 50 degree angle. And that makes the trip take longer.

So when I said we did a lot of sailing, all that tacking upwind means pulling the jib from one side of the boat to the other every half-hour or so. So we did more tacking yesterday than we did to cross the entire Atlantic Ocean (on the passage, sometimes we didn't touch any of the lines for several days). I guess I'm complaining because my hands are sore. Some folks wear gloves, but not us machos!

So here we are! Yet another lovely Azorean harbor. This one has some commercial stuff because it is the main harbor for the whole island. These islands are about the same size as Catalina and its sisters. All their supplies have to come by ship and then they send back to the mainland the legendary Sao Jorge cheeses. Sorry we can't share some electronically. Here is a video of the harbor - if you just see a white space, wait a while; then you will see a picture of Andi - click on the play button and you will see the word "buffering" - that means it is putting the video into your computer's memory - if your computer is fast it will only take a minute, otherwise go make a drink. Once it is buffered in you can replay it at will:



Tomorrow I'll put up some pictures. I guess you have already figured out that we still have internet access. There is wi-fi in the harbor. I'll digress just long enough to talk about the officials here. We have been dazzled at the courtesy and cooperative spirit we have found here. There are quite a few officals, but when they come to the boat, they help plug in the electricity. Usually we go see them in an office close to the harbor - they fill out a few forms and off we go. They usually have good advice for things to do and see or good places to shop. The officials in Central America were officious and unpredictable... and not very helpful. The officials in the US are bored, uninterested, officious and unpredictable. Generalities I know, but the overall impression. Just another plus for the Azores.

Here is Saeta at home in Sao Jorge

Here is the main church featuring the ornate stone mosaic on all the sidewalks.

Here is the sidewalk in front of the church. Friends told us that this is all new work - it wasn't here last year.
Here is a little shopping street (no cars) with the mosaic sidewalk. The next entry will have my comments on how they can afford to do all this.

We have a lot of pix of the volcano on Pico - here it is as seen from Sao Jorge. These islands in the middle group are pretty close together.