We left Horta on Friday, 6/7 for a day sail over to Terceira and docked at Angra do Heroismo – one of the 3 capitals of the Azores. A walking tour took us around the city to see the gardens, the farmer’s market, gardens, and the sidewalks that are all laid out in different, intricate patterns.
We also stopped at a shop where linen handiwork is still created by hand using 80 year old designs. The lacework is magnificent.
Our city walking tour ended with a hike to the top of Monte Brasil which overlooks the city. It wasn’t Pikes Peak, but it was definitely a “hill climb”!
On our last day in Terceira, we watched the “running of the bulls” – touradas a corda — or bull on a rope. The bull runs are a regular of summer street festivals held in villages throughout Terceira. Wranglers, or pastores hold a rope as the bull runs around the city streets.
The event begins with a single canon shot that indicates the bull is about to be let out, so move to safety (not everyone does…). The bull runs around the streets (with the Pastores holding the rope) for about 15 minutes while people are shouting and taunting the animal. After ~15 minutes, the bull goes back in the pen and 2 canon shots are fired, indicating it’s safe to move about. Another 15 or so minutes passes as the next bull is readied for release, followed by a single cannon shot.
This series is repeated about 4 times using 4 different bulls.
Now of course, many people don’t like this sort of thing, but the streets were crowded with food trucks and music, and the whole village was out chatting to each other and having a great time!
We left Terceira late Sunday afternoon (6/9) for an overnight sail to Ponta Delgada – our final stop in the Azores. Getting out of the marina was the toughest part because our “parking space” was blocked by 4 other catamarans (also part of ARC Europe) so we had to wait for them to move first. It was a lovely procession out of the harbor. The sail was fairly uneventful and we arrived Ponta Delgada around 9:00 am Monday morning (3:00 am MT).
After clearing in, our first stop was breakfast! The food is absolutely delicious here and so inexpensive compared to the US and particularly compared to Bermuda! Next stop – the lavandaria. We could have used the marina facilities, but after our experience with Broom Hilda the laundry warden in Terceira, and seeing only a single dryer, we took it across the street and paid a little extra for someone to do it for us! She even folded it and it came back smelling so nice. Such a treat!
Once the laundry was sorted, the next task was to forage for food…. there are lots of small grocery stores, with limited selection, but we found a SolMar (the logo looks a lot like Walmart) that had everything we needed – and some things we didn’t need! Eventually we also found a fabulous farmer’s market!
We had a bus tour of San Miguel highlighting the volcanic formations of peaks and craters that are lush and beautiful.
On Wednesday evening, we had the prize-giving dinner! The video says it all!
And now it’s on to the 3rd leg – to Lagos, Portugal – ~804 NMs. The weather forecast looks good and estimates our arrival in 4 1/2 days. However, we must navigate across “Orca Alley” and we don’t want to do that in the dark, so we’ll probably slow down. The most recent attack was in late May that sunk a 50 ft. yacht.
For now, we’ll just focus on the Race – which has just begun!
There are 2 ways to track us:
- Download the YB Races app for the App Store, add the race “ARCEurope2024”, select and then choose the San Miguel, Azores to Lagos leg.
OR
2. Go to the World Cruising Europe website, click “Fleet Tracker” and select the San Miguel, Azores to Lagos leg.