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down town Horta, Faial
Well we have arrived in Horta, a day later than expected. The overnight sail from Flores turned into a 48 hour sail as there was little to no wind for most of the trip and we couldn’t motor because of our engine concerns. But we are here now and trying to find a solution to our boat woes. A mechanic came today and confirmed that we need to change the water pump – at least that’s what we think happened. He was a man of very few English words and our Portuguese is non-existent but Adam and I both walked away feeling fairly certain that he probably felt that the pump should be replaced. We still haven’t been able to track down the actual pump but we are now looking at pumps for tractors which are apparently the same thing without the “marine” price tag. We will see. In the afternoon we walked up the hill to the sail maker who will come out to see the sail and bring us new slides. We also visited the marine supply store and picked up a new winch handle to replace the one that we lost. To top it all off Adam found a pizza place for lunch and had a slice of cheese pizza. He claims that he will need to go back a second time to confirm the quality because the slice was small but all-in-all it was a successful day.
From what we have seen of Horta so far it is very different from Flores. It’s a lot less rural (we found a shopping centre/box store area just up the hill from the waterfront) and the marina is the second most visited in the world as it is a stopping point for most boats doing an Atlantic crossing east or west. Having said that, we looked into taking public transportation around the island to do some site seeing and found that there is one bus that leaves Horta at 11:45 am and goes around the entire island – once. Apparently the bus does the single trip in 2 hours and that is it for the day so we could technically take the bus, but we wouldn’t be able to get off at any point or we’d be stuck there until the following day; not the most convenient way to travel. We’ve decided to stick closer to home base for now and are busying ourselves with boast repairs and work on our mural. The sailing superstition in Horta is that before you depart you must leave the mark of your boat or you will not make it to your next destination. It has become a tradition for people who visit the marina to paint their boat name on the walls and we were really surprised when we arrived and saw that every inch of the marina is covered in colourful paintings. Some are very simple with just the date and name of the boat, others are large elaborate paintings, and some people have sealed clothing, painted tiles, and pieces of their boat into the concrete. There is so little space left that people have even started painting the rocks around the wall. We have decided on a modest design as neither of us has much of an artistic flare and the queen of the harbour is a humble vessel. Pictures to follow.
From what we have seen of Horta so far it is very different from Flores. It’s a lot less rural (we found a shopping centre/box store area just up the hill from the waterfront) and the marina is the second most visited in the world as it is a stopping point for most boats doing an Atlantic crossing east or west. Having said that, we looked into taking public transportation around the island to do some site seeing and found that there is one bus that leaves Horta at 11:45 am and goes around the entire island – once. Apparently the bus does the single trip in 2 hours and that is it for the day so we could technically take the bus, but we wouldn’t be able to get off at any point or we’d be stuck there until the following day; not the most convenient way to travel. We’ve decided to stick closer to home base for now and are busying ourselves with boast repairs and work on our mural. The sailing superstition in Horta is that before you depart you must leave the mark of your boat or you will not make it to your next destination. It has become a tradition for people who visit the marina to paint their boat name on the walls and we were really surprised when we arrived and saw that every inch of the marina is covered in colourful paintings. Some are very simple with just the date and name of the boat, others are large elaborate paintings, and some people have sealed clothing, painted tiles, and pieces of their boat into the concrete. There is so little space left that people have even started painting the rocks around the wall. We have decided on a modest design as neither of us has much of an artistic flare and the queen of the harbour is a humble vessel. Pictures to follow.