Photoblog

Today we had a plan: we wanted to visit a cave. So fare the plan, but this day it should not work out twice with our plans. Anyhow the summary was a really realy nice day.

But from the beginning: In the morning we still did some repairs on the boat like putting some new teflon washers to the bearing of the connection between mast and boom.

After a sucessfull repair we ask the girl from the reception for the way to the cave. She gives a more or less explenation and we tried to follow the best we could. Instead of the cave we found a very nice access to the coast and we really enjoyed to go there. Besides it was the wrong way and we had to return the mood was really good and we were also able to call the girl from the middle of nowhere to get more precise information about the location of the cave. After this we searched for the right way and we found a quarry, but still no cave.
Slowly we get really thirsty and we decided to go back to the marina. We tried to return via hitchhiking and we had quite fast success. So the guy was taking us to a village where the road was blocked. After we stepped out of the car we realized was what going on: a bullfight. It was different from what you know from TV: The bull is controlled with a rope, so if a person is catched it can not really attack several times. Also the bull is not harmed – still this is not really nice for the bulls then, but at least it is not harmed.
Well is was quite interesting to watch and sometimes the bull was even catching some people (was quite happy about, poor bulls). It seems to be really the attraction of the day. All age groupes have been present. It is quite obviously that some people have been imigrated back from the U.S. – just take a look to the e.g. girls and you know which one is really from here…

Well back to topic: After the bull fight was over we tried again our luck with hitchhiking and we got a lift for the village “Vila do Porto”, close to the marina.
Since we were hungry now, we went to eat something and went then back to Biao II. After taking a shower we decided to look for a disko tht should be the mjeeting point of all local people here. Again we had no luck and the disko was closed, so we had only some cervejinhas and went then back. Well only almost.
On the way back we found the reason for the closed diskothek: a local open air festival with a (of course) local band. They played folk music, but one song was really really nice and it was somehow a nice ambience.
On the bullfight I already recognize three people what I met previously, on the festival it was already more then the double. Its really a small island – if you behave somehow bad I guess afterwards the hole island knows about. Since it was already a bit late we decided to back to the boat.
I do not know why, but while on the way we looked to a little pub and decided to go in. This was not the worst choice: a really nice girl (sorry, did not have my camera wish me) was singing Karaoke and of course we had our fun. Some other girls were also singin and I felt remembered to the time when I was still working in the main land and went to private parties were we also did Karaoke, but all together – portuguese songs of course. Well this was really a nice day and we finally went back to the marina in quite a good mood.

Finally back in Portugal…well not on the main land, but on the island.
In fact it the holidays start pritty well: I traveled by train since the it was free to go by train. So I catched the ICE (fast train, similar to TGV) and seeted my selfe in the restaurante. It seems that nearly all seets were reservated so it was a good choice and the breakfast was also quite okay (besides the price, but a reservation is also not for free). 15 minutes after I finished we already arrived near the airport. I was a bit shocked when I saw the long rows of people standing on the ticket counters of the airline. Some rows were 50m long.
In fact it was not so easy to find the ticket counter of SATA, the airline of the Azores since the are quite small (SATA international only have 8 planes). When I finaly found them it was really a good choice to fly SATA: only two people in front of me.
The service and food were also good, so I could really enjoy the flight.

The first thing you realize on the Azores is the high humidity. It sound uncomfortable, but it’s not.
I made a short stop in Sao Miguel to ketch the flight connection to Santa Maria.
And finally I arrived at the island. The hotel was easy to find and the rental car was quite okay – no s-class, but enough to have fun with

The big surprise was the sms that I got: Biao II only 90 miles away from Santa Maria away, so early arrivial the next day.

Of course I still to a lock to the marina and tried to get a francesinha, but unfortunately I did not get one.

So I went to the hotel and read still a bit in a book “sword of truth”.

After a really long time of very nice weather we catched in the regattas in October and November only bad conditions.
But the few wind was just enough to have an advantage compared to Mike Davis. So for the first time we were able to crossed a finish line before Mike Davis.

Compared to last year there was a lack of participation. Mostly due to bad weather conditions only three yachts start the race. Second day all of us had to give up: the time limit of 8 hours was not possible to achieve, even so we catched some wind outside. While beening in a fog bank we saw quite a lot of dolphins (unfortunatelly the did not push us).

First leg for us: La curuna – Baiona
In the morning we faced small winds that increased later on to over 25kn. Top speed with our First 40.7: 14.4kn

After this leg we stayed two days in Baiona and we used the time for shopping, repairs and of course: party!

Second leg: Baiona – Ria de Aveiro
Start was late in the afternoon with nearly no wind. It seems that far outside from the coast was more wind so we have been over 20 miles out from the coast to catch up to 20kn of wind during the night.
The last approach in the morning took quite long due to 3 till 4kn of wind. Luckily the waves pushed us a bit so we maintained a speed of 2 till 4kn. Mike Davis as usually (:-/) ahead of us: