Hello at home

Well its day two of our trip to Portugal from the Azores and everything is going well. We left Horta at 11-30 Thursday morning after a last pleasant evening in Peter’s Bar were we court up with a few more newly arrived ex ARC crowd. We were intending to have an early night but as usual things didn’t work out. Never the less a good time was had by all and we said our goodbyes to the staff at Peter‘s who have looked after us so well over the last week.

The following morning we intended to get fuel from the dock side in Horta after we had slipped our lines from the main quay. This ended up as a bit of a nightmare. The fuel dock is always four deep with boats and no one seems to move boats off after they have been fuelled. We circled the harbour for half an hour and then gave up. Decided to leave and call in at the Island of Sao Miguel which was about 140 miles away to the east and on our route to Portugal. The pilot book told us that it had a marina and fuel dock.

So it was an over night to Sao Miguel in light winds and we motored most of the way. We arrived in Ponte Delgado, Sao Miguel at around 14-00 today. it’s a large commercial port with a very nice new marina. Fuelling was easy and although we were tempted to have a look around the town, which also looked interesting, we needed to push on to Portugal, We were made to clear customs again even though we only stopped for fuel.

So we are now steaming for Portugal. Around 900 miles to go. We are expecting light winds for the first two days and then we should hit the trade winds which blow from the north down the side of Portugal which should give good sailing conditions for the rest of the way.

Malte is currently practicing his guitar on the front deck. Ready to charm the Girls in Portugal….. That could be interesting. We are looking forward to the first performance….

Love from the Crew of Tioram