august, 2003 hi folks -- i have been in the azores for the last 2 months, sailing around, exploring the islands and their towns and cities and learning to park my boat. took a short side trip to new zealand to give a talk at a conference. leave in a few days for mainland portugal with peter from florida and fritz from zurich as crew. might go via santa maria, the eastmost island in the azores. should take us about a week. side trip to new zealand ------------------------ new zealand is a long way from the azores and arranging a ticket from new zealand for flights that originate in the azores is hard. theoretically, my ticket from the azores to london via lisbon was fedexed to the air portugal office in angra, terceira. so adam, who was left over from the bermuda to azores crew, and i sailed there, parked the boat in the marina, and went to the office to retrieve the ticket. that was friday afternoon. the flight left saturday about midday. no ticket, but they said they were open tomorrow at 9am. no sweat. but, tomorrow was saturday and in fact they were closed. after sitting on the curb in front of the office for half an hour i got a cab to the airport and tried to get my flight. but with no ticket, and even though they could see the ticket paid for in the computer, i had to buy another ticket. did that and with a nice 4 hour layover in lisbon, i explored the city for a bit before flying on to london. my next ticket was supposed to be in the hotel in london, and it was, but filed under the name of the person in new zealand who had purchased it, not under my name. i knew his name was roger but no last name. after about 45 minutes of searching and 4 or 5 instances of asking other clerks, it was finally found and i had a hotel voucher and a ticket london-hong kong (12 hours) and hong kong to auckland (11.5 hours) and a day to kill in london. took the underground into town and walked around all day, tried some truly good british beer and explored the st. catherines docks area where lots of rich sailboats hang out for the winter. got back to the airport about 1.5 hours before the flight and got in line. then found out that the flight was not going to go till morning because the pilot was sick and there was no backup. but if you hadnt checked luggage yet (i hadnt) and if you ran, you could get on another airlines flight and arrive in hong kong in time to make connections. so i ran. arrived in hong kong, tired and pretty wiped out, to find that i again didnt have a ticket. in the switch from cathay pacific to virgin atlantic and the rush to make that flight my electronic ticket disappeared and all that was left was the boarding pass to hong kong. the folks in hong kong looked in the computer and instead of an electronic ticket, i had a prepaid ticket and it had been issued in london and i had to have it. but i didnt. after a dozen calls back to london, searches of the airplane seat, searches of my luggage, etc. they finally admitted that they would have to issue me a new ticket and let me get on the plane. i am pretty tired by now, but dont usually sleep on planes well. finally arrive in new zealand wondering why in the world i agreed to come and subject myself to such punishment. get to the passport folks and they ask where i am staying. i havent a clue, wherever the conference is i say and they say something about me going to a conference that i dont know where is, i say someone is meeting me, they say who, i say roger, they say roger who, i say i dont know, ... finally they let me go, i go to the green lane and there am directed back to the red lane where i am asked the same questions again. an hour later i am finally out the door. and roger is actually there, and even recognizes me. yeah. now all i have to do is prepare 3 talks and get some sleep. somehow the flight back to the azores was every bit as long as going over, some 30 hours all together. was jet lagged for more than a week after getting back. sailing seems to leave you with no schedule and no deadlines so it was pretty easy to stay up all night and sleep the daytime away. bullfights, caves, and festivals -------------------------------- terceira is an island that has an event called running of the bulls. they take bulls that have been trained to chase and dislike people, put long ropes around their necks and protectors on their horns and then let them out of a box to run around the streets. every home in the area that they are running has boards out front to protect it. people stand on porches and balconys and anywhere they can to be out of the way. and the towns 20ish guys chase after the bull and play matador with umbrellas instead of red capes. it is quite a social event, anyone living in the section where the bulls are running invites all their family and friends and cooks up a storm of very yummy appetizers. at the end of the bulls range are trucks with beer and munchies and there are street vendors with candy and ice cream. some of the guys chasing the bull are quite brave, but most just run away whenever the bull comes near. they do 4 bulls per session and things last a couple of hours. i went to 2 such events, one in a neighborhood of angra where i stood on a porch and got invited upstairs to have a drink and sample all the goodies made by one family. it was quite interesting, almost like a sunday picnic at grandmothers, except there were bulls in the street. the other one was at a special place near the sea. first the bull truck got stuck in the sand at the beach, it took a bulldozer to pull it out. then when the first bull had seemed to run around a lot and get somewhat tired out, the bull handlers (guys who hold the end of the rope and sort of try to steer the bulls or at least slow them down) stopped holding the ropes and other guys got the bull and forced him out onto a pier that was about 10 ft above the water. they made the bull jump in the water. it was almost a dive. bulls can swim quite well and a couple of them actually went after the kids swimming at the beach. when the bull was not in the immediate area a soccer game was going on on the beach with the players occasionally scurrying to the rocks to get out of the bulls way. we had great seats right in front of the soccer game and the bulls diving place. you end up rooting for the bulls. terceira also has a neat cave that was formed by gas bubbles in the lava ages ago. its pretty spectacular to walk down into and has several interconnecting rooms. at the bottom it goes on down to another level and little lake but that section is closed off. the closure is just a red rope across the stairs but no one seems to remove it and go on down. is the US they would have a guard and locked gate, but here its just a red rope, not even a sign. the portugese love their festivals, which seem to be like the county fair in the US, but often with a religious or historical flavor and occur almost continuously in one town or another all summer long. they feature several kinds of music, a parade or two, temporary restaurants or bars that make money for local non-profit organizations, booths of mostly junky asian souvenirs, and sometimes a theme. the best was in praia de vittoria on terceira where the theme was food, with representatives from all areas of portugal and even from other countries in europe. there were 3 different music venues every nite and it was all centered at the harbor and marina. needless to say we didnt get much sleep at night. the music tends to start at 11pm or maybe midnight and go to 2 or 3 in the morning. little kids in portugal must take power naps in the early evening because you see whole families with babies in tow out enjoying the festival and eating dinner at 10-11pm followed by the music till the really wee hours. sailing, crew, and boat chores ------------------------------ i sailed single handed (alone, not with one hand tied behind my back) from terceira to san miguel about 100 miles away, so i could meet my friends russ and jody from ft. lauderdale who were coming to visit for a couple of weeks. it went fine and i had a nice sail and even parked myself ok at the reception dock when i arrived. then i went to look at the dock i was going to really park in and it all looked fine, the dock was on the left side, there was enough room to get into it, there wasnt too much wind, someone would meet me there. i can do this. then i got there and the guy meeting me was motioning me to come to a different dock that was on the right side. so all the lines and fenders were in the wrong place. i had already turned down a narrow row of docks by this time and had to back out, drift around in the middle till i got the ropes changed to the right side and the fenders moved. finally got it all done and went toward the dock again. by this time the whole harbor is watching me, but i went in really slowly and parked just fine. the space i had to fit in was only 2 ft wider than the boat and there was another boat there already that i didnt want to hit, but somehow i made it. russ and jody came the next day. we rented a car and drove around the island. ended up in a town that was having a festival that we didnt know about, we kept getting directed by the police to a parking place at a campground. we didnt want to park or to go to the festival, but were kind of trapped. at one point we just wanted to go home, but they had decorated the road with hydranga blossoms and you were not allowed to drive over them. so i drove (dumb american woman) and backed up the wrong side of the street to a place where the flowers had not yet been scattered in the center of the street and we escaped. got hopelessly lost on the way home and it took an hour to get unlost and find the boat. did boat chores after arriving in the azores. patched the sail, bought a new fire extinguisher, fixed a bilge pump, started to replace the engine thermostat that acts like it is stuck open and keeping the engine too cool, but local wisdom (lots of other sailors) said if it aint broke and overheating, dont touch it. but at least i found the thermostat, figured out how to change it, unfroze the bolts, and am ready to do it when i dont have a week long passage looming. for the fire extinguisher, i had been directed to one of two stores and advised to price them both before buying. i got to the first store and asked for a fire extinguisher to replace my empty broken one and the guy disappeared into the back muttering ABC and came back with one whose brand name is "UNIX". i decided immediately that this was the extinguisher for me and didnt bother to price them at the other store. i then took it to the local fire station and they tested it and put a sticker on it so now i am legal here in europe. not legal in the US, of course, because it doesnt say "US Coast Guard Approved" on it. have been catching fish in the azores, 3 so far, a dolphin (mahi mahi) that was about 10 people-meals, a bonito (6 people-meals) and a baracuda-like fish (6 people-meals) that they call a bicuda. made wonderful sashimi and cervice out of the dolphin and bonito as well as having several meals of yummy filets sauted in butter and lemon. i am getting better at cleaning and fileting them thanks to lessons from russ. always seem to catch them just before dark or just before arriving at port, so cleaning them is not always super convenient. haircuts are a problem for me. my friend ingrid in boulder has spoiled me into the mode of getting an awesome haircut for free every few months. but since boulder doesnt have an ocean and i am not there much anymore, i have had to improvise. at xmas time in the bahamas, my niece susha and crew member tobi cut it. tobi the left side, susha the right, me sitting on a rock getting it from all directions. that one was pretty good. next, in late may a couple of days after we left florida for the bermuda, it was so long and straggly that i sat in the cockpit and cut it myself by feel. that one was less good. but now i have found the way, all boaters need haircuts, most are on budgets so dont go to the hair dresser or barber shop, and most can be arm twisted to do it if you arent fussy about the results. just got one on the dock in san miguel from allison on the boat shadowfax (gandalf's horse) that will do fine till my nieces join me as crew and can take over the chore. short hair is a feature on a boat. long hair plugs the drains and the bilge pump and you find it forever after the long haired person leaves. changed crew in the azores, from one macho guy (john) to another (peter). think it was wise not to have both on the boat at the same time. have my captains t-shirt so it should all be ok. hugs. -evi