28 - No longer just a bridesmaid!!!!

You've heard the saying always a bridesmaid, never a bride.  Well, we finally did it!  We're members of a group called Ocean Cruising Club (OCC).  Full membership in this group requires a port-to-port non-stop passage of at least 1000 miles.  We joined the group as associate's members with the understanding that we would be moved to full membership soon. Despite the fact that we had logged over 7000 nautical miles since we upgraded our electronics in 2016 (we are showing 8762 miles), we had yet to complete a single passage that would qualify.  We finally did it with our 1600-mile (16 day) passage from St. George’s, Bermuda to Port das Lajes, Flores, Azores. 

If you remember, our friend Roger Mayfield accompanied us from St. Martin to Bermuda.  We had a delightful sail of 7 days and still liked each other after the trip so that definitely counts as a success.

During our stay in Bermuda, we met up again with our wonderful friend Mary Malone who arranged an amazing garden party dinner for us, our other friend Tania Stafford (a fellow Bermudian) and our 2 buddy boats – Equus and Rockhopper.  Her garden is so pretty and is only surpassed by her culinary skills.  We were able to host her on our boat one other evening and went back to her house a few more times (I think we were invited back but I’m positive it doesn’t matter at all with this amazing lady).  Our last night in Bermuda was spent again with Mary and we left with the hope that she would travel to England to visit her sister so that we could easily meet up again.

For fun, we took the ferry ride over to the Royal Naval Dockyards.  It was fun to be on a boat where you didn’t have any responsibilities. 

We also met up with several other OCC boats for parties on various boats – we hosted a rum tasting party aboard our boat as we’d amassed quite a collection in the past few months –, one party at the home of fellow member who’s based in Bermuda and another get together at a local yacht club that makes really good Dark and Stormy drinks and allowed us to set up tables for appetizers that everyone brought. 

Because we happened to be in Bermuda on the full moon, we were able to witness the mating of the Glow Worms.  This occurs only from April until October at exactly 57 minutes after sunset on the 2 nights immediately following the full moon.  We took our dinghies over to a protected and calm area and waited.  The females lay the eggs in a perfect circle and the males shoot across the water through the circle (all are glowing at this point) to fertilize them.  Mother Nature at her finest.  We obviously didn't get any pictures but it was fascinating to see!

We moved our boats over to the town of Hamilton (the Capital of Bermuda) to refuel and to also spend a few days exploring this town in more depth.  Mindy and Reinhart aboard Rockhopper who’ve been to Bermuda many times in the past, showed us all around town and took us on a tour of Fort Hamilton.  Mindy and Reinhart even indulged MaryAnn by going to lunch at her favorite Indian restaurant (twice)!   We were also able to attend the weekly summertime street party complete with famous Bermuda Gombey's (these are elaborately costumed dancers of all ages who perform equally elaborate dances).

The day before we were planning to depart, we were all walking around (touring more forts and the old Club Med) when we met up with a gentleman who happened to have a farm.  He invited us onto his property and dug up carrots and onions that he gave to us – he refused to let us pay him.  Again, Bermuda hospitality!

Finally, the day came and it was time to say farewell to our beloved Bermuda.  Not sure when we’ll ever be back but we definitely know we’ll be welcomed when we do.

We left Bermuda about 11:00 on a Wednesday morning with a mostly favorable weather forecast.  Our first couple of days were uneventful and we were able to log over 120 miles per day.  We were sailing along nicely on the third day, when we realized that our jib sail (the large sail in front) was dragging in the water.  We discovered that the halyard (line that pulls and holds the sail up) had come undone.  We were able to pull the sail back onto the boat – no small feat as it’s a large sail and holds water really well.  Luckily, we have a spare halyard already rigged so we were able to reattach and then re-hoist the sail and we were off again.

We again had a few days of mostly gorgeous sailing when the winds shifted and we were forced to sail either in the wrong direction or very uncomfortably in the right direction.  Dan, aboard Equus, suggested that we “heave to” for a few hours and wait for the wind to change directions.  At first, this seemed like a ludicrous idea.  We are sailing on a passage and have to get somewhere.  Why would we basically stop and wait 24 hours?  Well, it turned out to be a great decision!  When the boat is “hove to” it still drifts with the wind and waves so you don’t get beat up but the boat is relatively calm and the crew gets a chance to relax, shower and regroup.  The next morning - as predicted – the winds shifted around and we were off in the right direction with a refreshed and happy crew.

The remainder of the passage was relatively uneventful.  We did have a few repairs as one of our reefing lines (these allow us to shorten the main sail when we get in too much wind) broke and we had to sew a spot that had come undone on our brand-new main sail where it attaches to the mast.

At 16 days and 1680 nautical miles, we spotted land!  The island of Flores in the Azores was right in front of us.  What a site!  The island is gorgeous and green with waterfalls visible everywhere.  We found an anchorage near Equus (they beat us by about 2 hours) and dinghied ashore to celebrate both our crossings and Dan and Alison’s 33^rd wedding anniversary!!  We had a really good bottle champagne that we’d been saving for some time that was a gift from our friend Angie Sherwell in Florida.  Couldn’t have been a more perfect combination

We spent 2 days touring Flores by car and foot. The island is so aptly named. Flores is the Portuguese word for flowers and they are literally everywhere. They are most famous for their hydrangeas which grow wild everywhere on the island. Every road is lined with some sort of flower. The island is also home to well-maintained walking trails everywhere and gorgeous waterfalls. It’s an amazing place.

 In addition to smelling the flowers, we also found time to taste the local cuisine.  In celebration of Dan and Alison’s anniversary, we made a reservation at a restaurant just outside of town.  We walked up to it and were able to deduce (they only spoke Portuguese and we only spoke English) that they were open with reservations only.  We made a reservation for the following evening and again were able to understand that our choice of dinner would be meat or fish.  We elected 2 of each.  Dinner was spectacular.  We had port, appetizers, wine, main course, side dishes and aguardiente – i.e., fire water (a grappa like after dinner drink) all for about $20/person.  Delicious!!!!

Our other culinary experience occurred when we were driving back to the town from which we rented the car and noticed that the road was blocked for a street party.  We decided to park the car and explore.  They were grilling whole sardines by the dozens (4 huge grills going at a time).  We asked about buying lunch and were told “this is Portugal not the US, if you stand in line, you eat.”  They would not allow us to pay for anything.  We had sardines, bread and wine.  It couldn’t have been more perfect.  The grilled fish was delicious, the bread was so soft and sweet and the wine was amazing.

It's a tradition among cruisers to the Azores to paint your boat name (or whatever else you want) upon the walls surrounding the harbor so we decided to celebrate our buddy boating.  Pedro, Dan and Alison did all of the painting but MaryAnn kept a close watch on them the entire time.  We're pretty pleased with the results

.

Finally, we’d explored all we could of Flores and were ready to move on.  As we were picking up our anchor, we realized that it was stuck (presumably the chain wrapped around a rock as the boat swung to and fro during the 4 days we were anchored).  We tried pulling the boat in various directions but with 150 feet of chain out, we really couldn’t tell where to go.  Since MaryAnn had the only wetsuit (trust me it wasn’t thick enough), she was the logical person to jump in the water for a reconnaissance mission.  Initially, under snorkel, it was apparent that yes, the anchorage was nothing but huge boulders and the chain was defiantly wrapped around at least one.  Unable to do much in the 40-foot-deep water with just snorkel, she went back to the boat and donned scuba gear.  

Thankfully, George and Christie (formerly of Christina Sea) had given us a small 50 cc scuba tank which stows nicely down below.  Equus volunteered gear as they have full size tanks but we were able to make due with ours.  MaryAnn was able to free the chain from not just one but four boulders (it was wrapped around 2 and wedged in between 2 more).  We would have never gotten the anchor out without the scuba gear.

We are both back on the boat (MaryAnn took a really long hot shower) and sailing towards the island of Faial and the town of Horta.  We are meeting back up with Rockhopper and plan to spend a few days exploring this next Azorean island.  We’ll let you know all about it!

Until next post!