The Açores!!!!

We are here! We made it through the longest leg of our Atlantic passage and have found a comforting Portuguese oasis in Horta, Faial. I will update you on our adventures and return email as soon as I have more time. Charles and I have been extremely busy eating and sleeping. The last 48 hours of our trip consisted of an uninvited, unpredictable low pressure system. We were surrounded in storms, but never got much of the rain or lightening, thank goodness. However I am not sure the wind and waves appreciated us much. We were 100% safe and Gertrude won in the end. Our poor autopilot struggled to keep our course so we were manually steering a majority of the time. With only two of us were we pretty tired by the time we docked at customs yesterday. Our autopilot is our third crew member!

AND despite my internal compass experiencing magnetic anomalies since birth, our charts and tools we have aboard helped us find the islands. Gertrude surfed large breaking waves right into Horta harbor where we docked safely at the customs dock. Thanks to Captain Charles and some great boat wrangling ala First Mate Megan.

We have our boat in the marina as there is limited anchoring in Horta and we have a list of minor repairs. Our poor Genoa was beat to hell in the wind. She looks like a sail for a pirate ship now. At the customs dock an older couple from Virginia (the only Americans we have seen) approached us with questions about the storms we went through. They noticed the shredded UV cover on our sail, as well as the jerry rigged boomvang (Shock absorbant rope that holds the boom to the boat). We think it looks cool, but don´t want them permanent features of our boat.

The Azores are beautiful. The geography reminds me of Hawaii and the Aran islands of Ireland. Maybe the pictures will confirm this. Thanks for all your prayers. We love you all and can´t wait to share our stories as soon as we have had our fill of sleep, wine, bread, fruit, vegetables, fish, ice cream, milk, and exercise. After a month on a boat we lose our breath very easily on these hills!

































1st. Horta Harbor through Gertrude´s eyes
2nd. The entrance to the Harbor and farms on the hill
3rd.Charles after our first meal. Don´t fret. This was before sleep. He was inwardly extremely happy after a huge meal of fried mackerel, garlic potatoes, fish kabobs, local cheeses, bacon wrapped dates, chcolate crepe, ice cream crepe, and local wine from pico. 10 minutes later we were passed out!