Voyageur - Leg 2 - Log 12 Getting ready to go

2 June

We are only just recovered and today, Saturday, is our last day in Faial. David and I went for a walk to the islands best beach of black lava sand, Porto Pim, straight after breakfast hoping to spend some time at the sea centre museum but it didn’t open until 2o’clock. With far too much to do today we sadly did not have the time to go back. So it was off to the supermarket for some last minute provisions. We cannot believe how cheap the food shopping is here so we will stock up and bring quite a few products home with us. The islands are famous for their excellent cheeses, Sao Jorge recommended as the finest. The afternoon was spent in the most important task of all, our own wall painting. They say it is bad luck to leave without leaving your mark on the breakwater wall. We last did this in 2009 on the island of Porto Santo on our way to the Canaries four years ago and had kept the original stencil. Completed just before the rain came on, we felt proud that Voyageur’s painting was there along with the many hundreds of others.

We could see no good reason for leaving. Supposed to slip our lines at 6am for the 70nm sail over to Terceira, we took a rain check on the situation and believe me it was raining.... hard. Over and above that it was blowing twenty five knots in the marina. The visibility was poor, it was just a miserable day. We had a nice cooked breakfast and went back to bed. Eight boats left, the rest of us staying put. The marina staff say that it will blow over by the afternoon so we intend to set off on a night passage when things have calmed down. There is no need for us to leave in bad weather. Around midday the barometer bottomed out at 2009 but late into the afternoon the weather is still absolutely foul. We just don’t see the point in going yet and although we do see a couple more boats head out there the rest of us have decided to sail overnight. The fleet are now split, with some of us going to Northern Europe, the rest to Lagos in the south west corner of Portugal.

Susan Mackay