Grown Ups Gap Year

We left Horta for São Jorge at 08:30 to sail the 22NM. We knew it was going to be a slow sail as the wind was light and we also only had the genoa which when on its own isn't the ideal sail for an upwind sail. With her clean bottom however Mirage didn't disgrace herself and we managed the sail in just over 4 hours although we did have to motor the last 4NM as the wind died when we entered the lea of the island. We do now have our new main sail, delivered whilst in Velas, but due to the epic tail of the sails journey we gave that it's own blog update!

São Jorge is a long narrow island (54km x 7.5km) and almost all the coast consists of steep volcanic cliffs with relatively few places to gain access to the sea, but where it does these are known as Faja. Vila des Velas, our destination, is one of them. We decided to use the marina as we want to help give some income to the Azores wherever possible as this year it will be particularly hard on an economy that relies so heavily on tourism.

We radioed the marina and Jose, and as wonderfully helpful as everybody has said, replied he had a berth for us and would give us a hand getting in. Luckily for us that he did as we were right at the end of pontoon cul-de-sac tight between two local boats. However with little wind we successfully reversed into the berth with the help of Jose and another person on the dockside. This is definitely the tightest berth I have ever had to enter! The advantage of arriving early is that after a late lunch we had the opportunity to explore the town of Velas. Again in common with all the Portuguese Atlantic Islands, but not their mainland if you remember São Jacinto and our rubbish collecting, everywhere is very tidy and kept clean. The town is not particularly large but does have over 3000 of the 10000 islanders living here. The town is based around the central church and park and these lead down to the port and marina. The park had an aviary of budgies as well as typical flower planting of the area and seems to be the meeting place for all the local retired men of the town. Oh and everything is painted pillar box red!

One of the 'features' of the marina is every night at dusk there is are large numbers of Cory Shearwaters that return to roost in the cliffs behind the marina. These then chatter to each other for a couple of hours before going to sleep. Great to listen to but we are not sure how long it would take to become tiresome!

The second day was a cycling day with the aim of going to the Lighthouse of Rosais. This is located over spectacular cliffs, over 200 meters above sea level but a 15km each way cycle with some very steep climbs and descents. The final 4km was an almost straight dust track road starting at 492m ASL and ending at the lighthouse. The lighthouse of Rosaia is operational (LED, solar and batteries now) but surrounded by the derelict building that the lighthouse keepers lived and worked in to keep the original lighthouse operational. When built it was considered to be one of the most advanced in the world and consisted of the main tower and living quarters for the five families as well auxiliary buildings. These are all now abandoned and in ruins. There were also two large water collection and storage tanks that still partially function but are cracked due to the earthquakes.

Opened in 1964, it was temporarily abandoned by the keepers during a series of earthquakes and a submarine eruption which occurred nearby. After a repair it remained inhabited until 1980, when it was finally evacuated in the aftermath of landslides of the cliffs caused by an earthquake in 1980. The area forms part of the national nature park of Ponta dos Rosais due to the large number of breeding seabirds (roseate terns, common terns and Cory shearwater) and the indigenous plants such as Tree Heath (Erica Azorica) and the forget-me-not (Myosotis). We sat and had our lunch looking over the sea towards the islands of Pico and Faial hoping for a sight of a whale but no luck. On the cycle back up the track we stopped at a whale watching station, originally used for their hunting but now only used for spotting whales for the whale watching boats on the island. We saw nobody else during the whole cycle up and down the track other than a farmer in his tractor cutting a field.

After the climb back up the track we carried along the north-east coast towards towards an area known as "Parque Florestal das Sete Fontes". This area of the island contains what is left of the original forest that covered the island before the majority was turned into agricultural land. The Sete Fontes Forest Park covers an area of 12 hectares and is thickly wooded with trees and ferns and had many footpaths and trails leading to different areas such as the children's playground and a picnic area. Along the way are lakes, streams and various springs all having a resident duck or goose family. There is a great range of plants that are to be found here, such as cryptomerias, ferns, fuchsias, azaleas and climbers as well and many bird, some cheeky enough to come and almost steal your food! Strangely inside the park and a small zoo with deer, Vietnamese pigs, rabbits and parakeets all non-indigenous species. The cycle back to Velas was fast and almost down hill all the way right back to the marina for a shower and dinner.

Never one to fully rest the following day we went for a walk around the "Miradouro do Morro Das Velas" to the north of Velas. This has a small fort at the top overlooking the bays around Velas and into the crater of the volcano that formed this area of the island. The crater is another national park and the temperature significantly increased as we dropped down into it and the area appeared much drier and dustier. We also found the remnants of another whale watching station on the headland but now covered in foliage and tree heather. The area is actually 2 volcanoes, the original one has almost completely been destroyed by the sea and weather whilst the newer one formed the crater area to walk around and down into. The drops from the old volcano into the sea were several hundred meters and sheer cliff edges.

We have also produced another piece of wall art whilst in Velas on the harbour wall. We didn't do it in Horta as the wall are so full of motifs that we would have got lost in all the others. The harbour walls are not as full as other places so it was easier to find a space to paint. Lets hope it last along time so when we come back it is still here. We started by cleaning the wall of the algae then painted a white background using masking tape to create the edges for the square. We added a red border after a couple of coats of white before adding the motif in the middle giving the boats name, our names and a year. This was much simpler in design than our previous one in Porto Santo and may become our standard for the future. We have also met a couple of boats who remembered seeing our Porto Santo art work!

We hired a car for a couple of days to enable us to explore the island to the full. Using the car we did one of the main walks on the island from Serra do Topo to Santo Cristo. Starting at the top from a car park we did the walk with a couple of other couples from other boats. The disadvantage of parking at the top was the second half is all up hill! The road to the bottom of the hike is currently closed due to rock fall. The hike was well sign posted with a mixture of terrain ranging from fields, wooden paths, and rocky areas and even passing a couple of small waterfalls. However the views were not at there best as we had a low cloud base on the way down which only slightly lifted on the way back up. We still had great views of this area of São Jorge and the Atlantic Ocean. We took 2 hours to get down and as we dropped near the bottom we started to see the Caldeira do Santo Cristo in the distance as you walk the last section of the trail. We partially walked around sea water lake at the bottom in Santo Cristo famous for the clams that live in this sea water lake.

At the bottom is the small hamlet of Santo Cristo. This is not your ordinary town though - the only way to make it here is either by foot or by ATV. There are no roads and no cars throughout Santo Cristo. The sea-water lake is one of the highlights of the town but we didn't swim in it to cool down as we still had the Up. The town was empty and no open cafes due to lack of visitors and now has a very strong surfing influence with the waves on the beach.

The walk back up took us just over 1.5 hours with the first part being the steepest. We stopped at the waterfall on the way back up but we again didn't swim in it as there were actually other tourist there!

Having previously visited the light house at the north of Sao Jorge we also visited the one at Topo and whilst there we walked to the natural swimming pools and had a short dip to cool ourselves off along with the obligatory ice cream! The Topo lighthouse is manned by the team that perform all the maintenance on the navigation lights for the island including the lighthouse at Rosaia.

São Jorge is famous for cheese and we visited 3 different co-operative factories to sample and buy some cheese. Each factory has a slightly different taste and different maturity of cheese up to 36 months old could be sampled and bought. Cheese isn't good for the figure though so it was good we were doing lots of exercise. The only cheese manufacturer, the smallest single person operation, we didn't visit didn't want to let us in as I guess he was worried about COVID when phoned by the local shop we visited immediately afterwards he said there we too many of us.

One cheese factory we stopped at actually turned out to be an art gallery which was unfortunately closed. However the owner came out to us and welcomed us in to have a look around even though he was mid-refit. Pieter Adriaans, who is also a Professor at Amsterdam University, gave a wonderful guided tour around the converted building showing us the main gallery but also his own personal space where he had other paintings, a drum kit and a music room. We spent a good hour with Pieter whilst his poor brother was left alone outside doing the cleaning. Hopefully we weren't an excuse to get Pieter off of the cleaning!

We have spent our time on São Jorge generally doing plenty of walking as well as swimming in the natural pools near the marina. These pools replace beaches and aren't the most comfortable place to sit but are very popular all over the island. As this was our last of the bigger islands we also used it to provision for the return sail to the UK.

São Jorge has been a wonderful place to stay and visit and although broadly similar to Faial it has its' own charm and unique character and it is a place we shall return to.