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Agua Dulce - Azores Cruise



We depart this morning from Santa Maria, the last stop in our Azores cruise. Again, the people of the islands have been nothing but friendly, warm and inviting. I definitely hope to return to visit here again someday. 


Terceira was yet another beautiful island with rolling green fields and beautiful hydrangeas, azaleas, and other flowers. The main town, Angra do Heroismo, has a very old world feel to it. There are no modern buildings - everything is beautifully maintained as it was built originally soon after it was discovered by the Portuguese explorers in the late 1400’s. The buildings are painted in soft colors and most have decorative iron window sashes lined with colorful flowers. We enjoyed some wonderful local “comfort food” called Alcatra, which is the Terceiran version of pot roast. 


Perhaps the highlight of the visit to Terceira was attending the Running of the Bulls. Apparently, they run the bulls every night during the summer months. It is a crazy event where the streets are lined with islanders and visitors and 4 bulls are let out one at a time to run up and down the streets. The bulls have handlers that have one extremely long rope (at least 100’ long) to keep him going the right direction, but other than that, the bull pretty much has the “run” of the place. Its a sporting event type atmosphere with hawkers working the crowds to sell popcorn, drinks, ice cream and donuts. A few brave, dumb or drunk souls entice the bull and run in front of him and appear to have a lot more faith in the line around his neck than they should have. No one was injured the night we were there, but we heard that 3 or 4 people die each year at the events. And that’s “no bull!”


Sao Miguel was next and it was the most modern and the biggest of the island chain. While the town wasn’t nearly as charming architecturally, the people were just as wonderful. We took a bus tour of half the island and visited a pineapple plantation where all the pineapples are grown in greenhouses. Of course, we all enjoyed sampling the pineapple liqueur as we “exited through the gift shop”, and brought some of that as well as a fresh pineapple and various pineapple condiments back to the boat - chutney, mustard and curry. 


Last Azorean stop - Santa Maria. This small island is the furthest south and east of the Azores. Because it is south, it is not always visited by cruisers who want to leave for Europe from farther north. But, they have missed out. It is small, but the people here have the biggest hearts of all! From the harbormaster who welcomed us and guided us into the marina to the Zumba teacher who led a class for sailors in need of exercise to the President of the Club Naval who hosted an incredible farewell BBQ to the wonderful musicians of Ronda da Madrugada who played at the dinner, we would have missed one of the best experiences in the Azores if we had missed Santa Maria! 


Again, I’m sad that we don’t have more time to explore the island, but Portugal is calling. Also, Bill’s wife, Rene, and Catherine, our baby girl, are flying in to meet us, so we must be on our way! We’re hoping for good wind and successful fishing on this last leg. The good news is that we only used a couple of our “freezer meals” on the previous passages as it was easy weather to allow me to cook every night. So now, I have every meal already made! The bad news is that I actually looked forward to cooking as it was something to do. Fortunately, what was potentially terrible news is that we thought our freezer had gone out a couple of days ago. It turns out that it was just a loose electrical connecter that we needed to replace. Losing over a week’s worth of dinners was really going to be frustrating! 


We’ll keep you posted!


Gretchen Cunningham

S/V Agua Dulce


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