Horta Azores

It’s been awhile since my last blog - I didn’t have good internet connection in Horta, Azores.

Bermuda was really nice, and the residents here are very well to do and the streets are lined with high-end shops.  Bermuda was one of the parent ports, but my parents didn’t come to see me, so I hung out with the other “orphans” and enjoyed few days of freedom. As you heard, I hurt my back part way through this port, so I don’t have much to report other than that it was a really nice island!

The Atlantic crossing went really well. I was on the 6:00-9:00a.m. watch, so I got to see some amazing sunrises every morning. The sail across started off really calm; the water was just like glass on some days. It wasn’t good weather for sailing, but it was really beautiful. It got really rough about halfway through the sail - we reached a force 7, and  we were heeling over and pitching so much that the main deck was closed and we had to stay below. There were some fun events during the sail once again.  We had themed dinners, Crepes Afloat, and a dance. The dance was such a blast! We used headlamps as strobe lights, and everyone kept falling over when the ship rocked.

We also had a snow day on March 12^th!  We were allowed to sleep in, while the teachers covered our watch shifts in the morning. In the afternoon we had watch group challenges. First we had to make an ice sculpture - my watch carved a whale tail and we won! Next, there was an egg drop - if our egg survived, we were able to use it as one of the ingredients to make cookies next. The watch that won the ice contest (us!) got the largest amount of ingredients to choose from. That meant that since we had the egg, and we won the ice contest, we had six ingredients to work with!  Needless to say, our cookies were picked by our Cook as her favourite, and so we won this contest as well! I’ve got the best watch group this semester – we are having so much fun together :) 

We saw a sea monster during this sail. I call it that because no one could quite figure out what it was. We’ve got it narrowed down to a sail fish or a basking shark. My money’s on the basking shark. 

We sailed into Horta, Azores  on March 16th. Horta is a beautiful port!  Although it rained the entire time that we were there, it remains one of my favourite ports so far because of the beautiful scenery. Every ship that docks there is supposed to leave a mural; it’s really interesting to look at all the murals that have been done in the past. I found the one done by the Concordia last year, and the one by Class Afloat when it was on the Frededrick Chopin! 

The Sorlandet in Horta

The first thing we did when we docked was to find some land food after so many days at sea – I sure missed land food!  We found a Chinese restaurant where we stuffed our faces – then found some yummy chocolate cake at Peter’s Cafe. Peter’s Cafe was really cool - ships that come into port can leave a flag from their ship, so the restaurant is really nautical and decorated with lots of flags. Upstairs we found the Scrimshaw Museum filled with scrimshaw art (like painting on whale teeth); there was a massive collection, and it was amazing how much detail can be painted onto such small objects. I found scrimshaw of a tall ship, lines and all that was carved out of a whale bone!

Our second day in the Azores was a port program day.  We mainly walked around the island exploring: we went along the beach and along the coast, and the scenery is so beautiful! The island is volcanic and there are some incredible cliffs and plants. We also visited the whaling museum, all about the sperm whale hunting that used to be a major industry in the Azores. It wasn’t banned either until the 80s, so there are some really recent video footage. I found it to be horrible and did not enjoy this museum at all – did you know that they only killed the whales to extract oil? I didn’t like watching movies of innocent whales getting brutally murdered. 

Beautiful view of the island

That evening I went for supper at this really neat restaurant. We were served a plate of an assortment of fish and meat (steak, pork, chicken, prawns, octopus, squid, swordfish, tuna and trigger fish) and dipping sauces. They then brought each person a burning hot lava rock! We were supposed to cook the food on the lava rock - it was a lot of fun!

Our third day in the Azores was another port program; we took a bus to the volcano that exploded only just over 50 years ago. We visited an interpretive centre all about volcanoes.  We climbed up a lighthouse that had been hit by the volcano and partially demolished. From the top of the lighthouse all that you could see for miles was ash from the volcano - it was an impressive sight. In the afternoon, the bus toured us around the island and we stopped at a few places such as a national park, a natural swimming pool, and a few incredible lookout points.

Lighthouse by the volcano

Fields of volcanic ash behind me

A nice lookout - a rainy day

On the day that we left port I went scuba diving. I only did one tank and it was cold! I was in a full wet suit with booties and a hood - and yet I was still freezing! It appears that the Atlantic is NOT warm in the spring! We saw a ton of fish, really cool sea slugs, an eel and a few massive octopuses which was really neat.  The dive was really good and so was the rest of the port. It was definitely one of my favourite ports and I would love to go back.