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09/04/12 - Lord Nelson
Dated: 10/04/2012
New voyage crew went to sea on the 5th April. Leaving Ponta Delgada, we inadvertently upset the port pilot by taking up the gangplank before he could board us. He had to an undignified return to his own boat and had to board from the side of the ship. He didn’t look very happy!
As soon as we could, we set the sails and the wind obliged by blowing up nicely, but the sea began to roll.
Once out to sea we gathered speed, but the waves became rather large resulting in a few green faces.
John provided us with lectures about the whales and dolphins we hoped to see and we were in luck. Dolphins were spotted playing with the ship, which excited shearwaters who swooped down to see what could be found. Some watches were lucky enough to see a whale whilst others just saw spouts.
The strong winds gave us some fine sailing with the sails playing their film star role.
As dawn broke we were greeted with the profiles of Faial and Pico. The sunrise provided the perfect lighting and glamour with cloud ringed around the summit of Pico’s volcano. The cloud formations were reminiscent of Stonehenge and thus named Cloudhenge.
Navigating into Horta was quite tricky, due to the winds and currents, but Captain Chris brought Nelly safely alongside.
We spent the Easter weekend enjoying the sights of Faial and Pico. We hired a whole convoy of taxis to take us to the crater of the old volcano and to the desolate landscape of the new, which last performed in 1957. We spared, Dave the cook, by visiting local restaurants, including a novel restaurant where one cooked on hot volcanic stone platters.
We frequented the famous Peter Sport Café and the Scrimshaw museum above it. The museum held fine examples of art and sculpture of whale teeth and bone.
One brave soul bathed in the chilly Atlantic ocean, despite the large numbers of Portuguese Man of War jellyfish spotted in the area.
This morning we helped those who use wheelchairs to climb the masts, before preparing to go back to sea, whale watching on our way to Terceira.
Julie Aft Port Watch