We hired a car to view the island and walk around the Caldeira which is an extinct volcano.which we walked the 8km around the top with some lovely views across the island. The Capelinhos volcano was quite an interesting stop as in 1957-58 an underwater volcano erupted increasing the island size by abut 2.5km and buried part of the lighthouse. It also created a lido but was a bit rough the day we visited with some large surge of water coming in.

From Faial we sailed overnight to Terceira and the port of Angra do Heroismo which is a UNESCO world heritage site because of the amount of old buildings. All are well preserved and may have window boxes overflowing with pretty flowers. After spending some time wandering around the town and admiring the building we headed up to the highest point only to be shrouded in cloud and very windy. The tour through the caves was extremely good one of a few volcanoes that you can walk into without the need of lifts. We also visited praia da Vitoria which is the second town and also has a marina and large anchorage with a lovely sandy beach.

Our time here in the islands soon ran out as to get back to the UK we needed to watch the weather and leave early to get to the UK before the stronger winds set in and make for uncomfortable passage. We would have liked to visit more of the islands of the Azores perhaps we will have another chance to visit.