Date: Sunday 06/15/2008
Weather: mostly sunny
We woke up Sunday morning to discover new, old neighbors. Several boats that we had met in Horta or Scott & Eric had met earlier, had come in during the night. Marcel and Martine from France had arrived, as had Mike and Linda and their friend Ray.
Scott first met Mike and Linda in St. Augustine. They had followed the ARC route but had not officially joined. So their paths kept crossing, in Bermuda, in Flores, in Horta, and now here.
Mike & Linda are a fascinating couple. Mike is retired from ATF (in the field) and Ray from DEA, so they had some very interesting stories. Mike looked a lot like Al Pacino so it was easy to imagine him in the role.
They sold their house in California three years ago and bought a brand new Hylas 49. It is a beautiful boat with 3 cabins, 2 heads (bathrooms) and even a washer and dryer!!
They have been living on it for the past three years. This was their first Atlantic crossing and they plan to stay in the Med for a couple years, then perhaps do the Pacific. We will be sure to give them Lewis’s number if they make the Cook Islands.
In the slip next to us we met George, a Scotsman who was single handedly doing what Scott is doing, sailing around the Atlantic. He left Scotland last October and spent a lot of time in the Carribean. He was now on his way home.
One of the best parts of traveling is the people you meet.
The marina from the breakwall.
Eric on the breakwall.
"Stone Face"
Fisherman's dighny.
A village dog.
Robyn and Eric headed for the swimming beach.
Scott and I headed to town for coffee. We found it at a lovely outdoor café. As we enjoyed our coffee, we started talking to a Portuguese couple from the neighboring island, Terceira. Terceira is where the American airbase is. The man spoke fluent English because he worked on the airbase. Although Terceira is only 40 miles from Sao Jorges, this was the first time this couple had ever visited Sao Jorges. They had come with their car by car ferry.
They had only been here 3 days and were already homesick. The man talked about the bullfights on Terceira. He said he used to fight the bulls when he was younger and his legs were stronger.
He said the bulls were honored in Terceira because centuries ago when the Spanish tried to invade Terceira the villagers moved the bulls to the beach and hung candles from their horns. The Spanish, invading at night, thought that there were hundreds of men on the beach and backed away. In the morning when they realized they’d been tricked, they came ashore. The confused bulls started charging the Spanish and drove them away.
He told us there were 52 villages on Terceira and they had 47 festivals a year, starting in May and going until November. Terceira was definitely on our agenda.
That night we had dinner at a restaurant recommended by Mike and Linda. We asked George to join us. The restaurant had a good selection of entrees listed in Portuguese with English translations. Things like “Laminated Chicken” (or could they mean Marinated?). I ordered the fried scallops. When I received a plate with 4 deep fried,battered pork chops, I asked the waitress “Scallops?” She nodded and said “Yes, Scallops.” Is there such a thing as scaloppini that is batter fried? Something was lost in the translation.
After dinner we headed back to the boat for bed. We were going to try to get an early start the next morning.
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