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Thursday, June 30, 2016

Hike São Jorge, Serra do Topo to Caldeira de Santo Cristo and Faja dos Cubres

0900 hrs Wed 29 June 2016, taxi picked us up at Velas Marina and took us eastwards to the Serra Topo (700 m ), arriving there at 0935 hrs. The weather was not terribly inviting as we and our friends prepared for the 10 km hike down to  Faja dos Cubres (at sea level)!
 
The information board at the start of the hike

 

 
Entering the low cloud - our elevation 700 m above sea level
 
Unfortunately, visibilty in the cloud and drizzle was very poor so we missed out on probably superb views

 
Natural shelter
 
Almost below the cloud
 
Many Hydrangers en route
 
Who's going to give way?
 
Luckily, they did!
 
One of the many rustic gates
 
One of the many waterfalls
 
A much larger one
 
Our first objective, Faja da Caldeira de Santo Cristo comes into view with its large sea lake
 
Awesome coastline
 

 

 
Jeannette feels at home - a dijk!

 
 Faja da Caldeira de Santo Cristo
 

 
Our lunch restuarant
 
Which was amazingly crowded considering there is no car access, only quadbike 
 

 
Our final destination, Faja dos Cubres
 
Arrived at 1550 hrs at Faja dos Cubres and called for our taxi to take us back to Velas Marina after a thoroughly enjoyable hike
 
On the way back, the island of Graciosa was clearly visible form the taxi

 

Hike São Jorge, Morro Grande Velas

Tuesday 28 June 2016 had a short walk from Velas marina to the top of the 161 m high Morro Grande hill.
The last time we made the walk was in 2012 - see below link :-

Morro Grande 2012

On the way we passed this rock arch
 
Morro Grande
 
The ruins of the old windmill on the top of Morro Grande
 
Looking back over Velas
 
Trail under the low bushes betweem windmill and cliff view
 

Impressive cliff

 

 



 


Monday, June 27, 2016

Sailing Santa Maria to São Jorge 25 to 26 June 2016

The Grib files indicated that we would have a NE 4 for the next couple of days,perfect for a fast passage from Santa Maria to São Jorge, 180 nMiles to the NW.
So at 0715 hrs we left Vila do Porto marina on Santa Maria and motored westwards for 1/2 hour until we were out of the wind shadow of the island 

 



 

At 0745, engine off and we were charging along at 60 degrees to the apparent wind in a NE5 Bft wind at over 7 knots on our course of 305 degrees with one reef in mainsail and two reefs in the Genny. 

 

Santa Maria still visible

 

 

 
Still had the Marinetraffic.com AIS plot on line via 3G , showing our position and the positions of other ships in the area
 

 



 

 


 
Just before nightfall, at around 2130 hrs, an ominous band of black clouds appeared before us. So we put a second reef in the mainsail, and felt much more relaxed about the coming night

 


 


 



 
By 0720 hrs, São Jorge was clearly visible, some 25 nmiles ahead of us

 
As we approached São Jorge, the wind became a bit fickle and we motmored for a while then sailed then motored , sailed, motored

 
Sailing between São Jorge to Starboard and


Pico on Port

 
 




Getting close to Velas
 
1450 hrs Porto das Velas just ahead of us

 

We called up the marina on Ch 16 and were very pleased to hear that our very friendly harbour master was waiting to take our lines on the hammerhead of A pontoon

 

Total distance covered, 181.7 nMiles in 32 hours of which only 5 hours on the engine. Average speed 5.67 knots.