It is dark and drizzling but a good day to get the chores done, that accumulate on a long passage. Ron has been trying his luck fishing with the pole from the boat. But then Catharine, with our new neigbors from Concarnon and Loctudy, brought us a beautiful chunk of fish from yesterday’s catch into Horta. Ron, who is also a practising Catholic, and I attended 11 a.m. mass at Sao Salvador. Very nice service. The gospel and sermon subject were about Bom Pastor (The good Shephard). The church was built in the early 17th century by the Jesuits and has a large monastery and grounds. Jose, who was visiting his birthplace and speaks fluent English and Spanish, from San Jose P.R., where he is the honorary consul for Portugal, explained to me some of the history of the church. There are very old paintings and relics exhibited. These treasures often became the plunder of the British and Dutch mauraders. Had lunch at Peter’s Bar. Horta is the cross road for so many different long distance sailors. On the North and South bound routes between Europe and Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope , East and West routes to the Caribbean and U.S. and as a destination for a vacation cruise from North Europe. Peter’s Bar is the gathering place and Horta is unique for the fact that it allows the crusing boats to leave their business/card grafitti painted on the sidewalks and bulkheads. Thousands of them. I have plentyof opportunities to use my language skills. The most predominant nationalities are the Dutch, French, Swiss ( for a landlocked country…), Swedes, Americans, English, Canadians. The third boat that sailed up with me
from Bermuda “Away we Go” arrived here last Friday. The professional skipper “Hubs”, James Hubbard, is a retired U.S. navy captain and used to be the flight captain on the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman, so, Jeannine, tell your Hub(by) if he wants to make some browney points with the “Old Man” to drop his name. They know each other. Polish last name. Scelinsky ??. We plan rent a car to-morrow to circle the island of Faial. And then leave Wednesday for the other islands.