We arrive in Horta - what a delight!

July 4, 2008 Friday Let's see - I believe I left you yesterday afternoon part way to Faial. Well, it soon became obvious that we were going to get there much too early since we didn't really want to enter a new harbor in the dark (although we could have if necessary). So we took down the jib. Well, that helped I suppose. We dropped to 6.5 knots from 8.5 knots. It was a lot easier sailing because we were nearly dead downwind which meant that the jib was getting blanketed by the mailsail and would flap around in the turbulent air - causing unnecessary wear and noise. Taking it down solved all that, but we were still making good time. We passed an easy enough night, but the seas were nasty. Not big, but coming from several directions producing a washing machine experience. We ate dinner out of bowls held very close to the mouth. Sleeping was a challenge. However, the island of Faial appeared in the dawn and it was a beautiful sight. The following video is a weak attempt to show you the beauty. The motion of the boat made the video a bit rolly and the resolution doesn't really show the cute little towns.



I don't know how the Azoreans do it. How do you maintain an island free of clutter and overcommercialization? Horta is much more developed than Flores. It's a real city with lots of cars and shops. But it still manages to have a purity and simplicity that boggles my California mind. These guys really have it together and I don't know how they do it! Human greed is always there (I cynically assume), but someone is holding the reins and saying "no".

So we arrived at Horta Harbor at about 8:30 and pulled up to the reception dock. The officials had an office right there so we got in line and soon were done with the official paperwork. We bought fuel for a Euro per liter. That is about 4 Euros per gallon or about 6$/gallon. Not that much worse than the States. It's probably the cheapest fuel we will buy for years.

Soon we were assigned to a slip and I got to satisfy my curiosity about European electricity. It is 220 volt, 50 cycle. A long time a ago I had a transformer custom-made that would convert 220V or 250V to American 110V. But I never got to try it out until today. It worked! We have electric everything again and are living in the lap of luxury. We have a slip right in the front of the marina, 200 feet from the bar. Here we are:

Then we walked into town to do some shopping and took some street shots. I won't narrate further.... just enjoy.