The voyage of Sarah and Sébastien is drawing to a close. Here is the account of their stopover in the Azores aboard their Sun Légende 41 before returning to their home port in Lorient, France....
Familiar Encounters in Horta
“We have not been bored since our arrival in Horta! We needed at least ten days to recover from our trying transatlantic crossing. Since we arrived, we have run into the same crews that we met on Cape Verde. This led to a long series of evenings gathered together at Peter’s Bar, exchanging stories of our adventures in the Antilles, around their famous gin tonic!
Then, we met up again with friends from France who were spending the summer in the archipelago on their sailboat.
Headed to the Island of Sao Jorge
Side by side, sailing to Sao Jorge, some 25 nautical miles from there, we took back to sea after 15 days at port.
There again, the islands were not far from one another, and we enjoyed the comfort of the marinas after several months at anchorage. Sao Jorge is magnificent: hiking, swimming in natural pools, green cliffs and thousands of blue and white hydrangeas border the roads and the fields.
We had a bit of a thermal shock on our first swim, but the landscapes are so exceptional that we easily overcame it!
At the end of June, some friends from Lorient joined us for a week. We departed for Pico in a passenger boat, just four nautical miles across from Faial. We spent the day with Flaminio, a native guide from Pico who shared the beauty of his island with us.
The Charm of the Azores
Each stopover has had its particular charms, and this stop in the Azores before our impending return has been filled with warm people and flowering, green volcanic landscapes. We also appreciate the very reasonable cost of living, after the Antilles!
We will fully enjoy these last precious weeks of our voyage; the return to Lorient is scheduled for the beginning of August. This will be the last great cruise of The Love Boat on this fabulous year of freedom sailing around the Atlantic!”
