STRESS RELIEF Visiting six islands in the Azores Sao Jorge Sao Jorge would be the fourth island we wanted to visit, and which port to sail to on Sao Jorge now became the question? Seeing we were to continue to Terceira next, we choose to sail toward the harbor in Calheta, which is situated in the middle of Sao Jorge. Our Maptech chart showed anchorage at that harbor, but almost as soon as we arrived, we knew it was a mistake. They did not have a breakwater wall, so the swells made it impossible to tie up to their pier. We tried once, but after our boat bounced and scraped the wall, we hurried and cast off. Instead Dan threw over our anchor a bit out. The anchor caught a rock immediately and with a jerk we stopped. It was not a very secure feeling, and our boat was bouncing back and forth, up and down! Dan sent Tom and Maria ashore in the dinghy, to see if they could find out, if maybe we could tie up to the pier and hang off it. While they were on shore, a small and rickety ferry arrived from Terceira with party goers, as of course there was a festival going on in Calheta that weekend. That made tieing up to the wall and hanging off not feasable for us. After we had discussed our options, we all agreed that going back to the harbor at Velas was our best bet, because there they at least had a breakwater wall! Just as we were about to pull up the anchor, the engine started sputtering and wanting to quit! Dan thought that maybe we had gotten water in the fuel from filling up on Flores, as the same had happened to us while at anchor in Flores. By slowing down the rpm's we were able to finally get away from the harbor and set course northwest towards Velas. That ment motoring into the winds and waves, but anything was better than staying at Calheta. After about three hours we finally arrived inside the breakwater wall and found a mooring to tie up to. I think we all were happy to be in a safe harbor, and also exhausted from all the exitement! The island of Sao Jorge is the longest and narrowest island of all the nine islands in the Azores. It is roughly about 40 miles long, but only about five miles at its widest point. It is quite steep also, but at the port of Velas, the land dipped down to the ocean. In every new island we came to, Dan had to go ashore to clear customs and immigration first, before the rest of us could go ashore also. To take our dog Duke ashore in the Azores was not a problem at all. We had his health certificate stamped at the Portuguese Consulate in Providence before we left, but most of the time the customs and immigration people on the islands didn't even look at it. While Tom, Maria and I had a tour of Sao Jorge, Dan and Duke opted to stay on the boat. Dan felt he needed to take a look at the engine, to see if it was anything he could do to fix the stalling problem. The three of us found a taxi driver, who spoke only Portuguese, but by putting Maria in front with him, they had long and informative conversations, which Maria in turn relayed to Tom and I. The northwestern part of Sao Jorge was covered in heavy fog, so we didn't see much there, but along the northern coast the fog lifted and the sky cleared up a lot. Beautiful high cliffs with gorgeous views were ours to behold and of course both Tom's and my cameras were whirring constantly. Even with a movie camera it is hard to capture the beauty of a place; only ones own eyes can do that, but at least this would be our memory and reminders of all that we had seen! From the northern shore, we were able to glimpse the island of Graciosa, which was one of the three islands we didn't get to visit. The other two were Corvo, north of Flores, and Santa Maria, south of Sao Miguel. Driving through one small town on Sao Jorge, we came upon local people decorating a strip in the middle of the street with flower petals of different colors. The border was made of sawdust and they kept spraying everything with water, so the flowers and sawdust wouldn't blow away. The flower decoration looked very nice, but as it was only for one religious ceremony, it seemed a lot of work to us foreigners. On all the islands there seems to be a lot of involvement in church and religious activities, as most of their festivals has some kind of religious meaning. Their traditions are still very much part of their lives! On Sao Jorge they make delicious cheese also, and we were fortunate enough to stop at one factory, where we got a tour of their cheese making facility by the owner, who spoke some english. Two batches from 150 liters of milk each, seven days a week, 365 days a year they produce cheese. That also includes milking over 60 cows twice a day to get the milk, then transporting it to the factory, which never lies close by. The people have congregated along the coast on all the island, so farther up along the mountain sides are the fields for the animals. That means that the milking machines have to be portable, and the cows are milked outdoors. Most of the cheese produced in the factory where we stopped is shipped over to Europe, but some stay on the island. After we had a sample of their cheese, we bought a chunk for future consumption. I took a picture of the owner with a wheel of cheese, we thanked him so much for showing us around, and soon we continued on our tour. Along the southern coast we stopped at one seashore town, and caught up with the "bread man". A small van beeped its horn and stopped here and there, people rushed out to it and walked away with fresh bread. That's how the people get fresh bread on Sunday, as most of the stores are closed then. And by the way, every store on all the islands close at least for one and a half hour in the middle of the day for lunch. We forgot about that a lot, as we are used to everything being open all the time. Consequently we waited often for the stores to open! Our tour of Sao Jorge ended with one last glimpse from high above the harbor at Velas, where I took a picture of Stress Relief snuggled in among other boats. Soon we were back onboard, supper cooked and plans for the following day were discussed. |