Corvo
Flores
Azores
Graciosa
39°N
Horta
Faial
Terceira
Pico
Sao Jorge
38°N
A
T
L
A
N
T
I
C
O
C
E
A
N
Sao Miguel
•
Ponta Delgada
60°W
40°W
20°W
0°
Canada
50°N
EUROPE
Santa Maria
Azores •
Bermuda
Jensen Beach
AFRICA
Paul Mirto
0 1,200 600
Nautical miles
proudly held for almost a week, until a larger
power yacht arrived from England. Having
made short work of the formalities, we were
anxious to stretch our sea legs and began
exploring Horta in search of breakfast.
Located 1,800nm east of Bermuda and
about 750nm west of Portugal, the nine
Azorean islands make up an autonomous
region of Portugal. The islands’ strategic
location between Europe and North
America has long made them a favored and
appreciated waypoint for boats traveling
across the Atlantic. Officially discovered
by the Portuguese in the early half of
the 15th century, Faial, formed close to a
million years ago by volcanic eruptions, is
small, roughly 13 by 8 miles, with a current
population of about 20,000. The town of
Horta, with its protected harbor, quickly
burgeoned with boats stopping to both trade
and take on provisions. Its beauty and access
drew such famous sailors as Sir Walter
FAIAL, THE BLUE ISLAND
The weather on our crossing from Bermuda had been
gloriously benign. For a woman with considerable fear
issues, I had been grateful for the long, slow moving
3-foot rollers that passed us by every seven seconds,
reminding us that we were actually in the Atlantic,
not on a lake in North America. As the town of Horta
came into view with its white buildings meandering
up the green hillside, I recalled that poet Raul Brandao
had named Faial Ilha Azul, or, Blue Island, in reference
to the masses of blue hydrangeas that bloom in spring
and early summer. From a fair distance offshore, we
had smelled their sweet fragrance and had interpreted
it as a welcoming gesture. As we entered the harbor,
we felt the relief of a thousand offshore passagemakers
and this emotion intensified as we tied up alongside a
large Swiss sailboat at the reception quay to wait for the
customs office to open.
The marina in Horta has been conveniently designed
so that immigration, maritime police, and customs are
all in the same building adjacent to the marina office.
The staff spoke very good English and it took little time
before the four of us had stamps in our passports and
a berth assigned to us. From our slip we had a lovely,
clear view of the island of Pico and the majestic Ponta
do Pico rising over 1 mile above sea level. The marina
boasts 300 berths, each with power and water, and for
the duration of our two-and-a-half week stay every one
of them was full, many boats rafting together, creating
conviviality among crewmates along the docks. At the
time we checked in, we were the only private, foreign-flagged power vessel in a fleet of sailboats, a role we
Top: The dual hulls of a catamaran help provide a safe
and comfortable ride, something we appreciated on our
transatlantic voyage. Above: Passagemaking with teenagers
boosts their education and exposes them to the world.
