The immediate surroundings of the water front at Ponta Delgada are not particularly beautiful, due in the main, to relatively recent additions. However, the town behind the largely modern front is much more attractive with many gems to please the eye....
Our less than serene arrival and rush to get the Genoa to the repair shop, was I think, partly responsible for the lethergy that set in over the next couple of days. Tuesday disappeared before I realised it had arrived. Mick explored the town and I did a little too. Wednesday we did the laundry and not much else, until that is the evening when we had Percy and Onya our new Irish friends round for drinks. Thursday was the day we should have made much better use of because we had to stick around on Friday to collect the Genoa. The trouble is, that only occured to us after we got up late! We did however manage a bus ride to Riberia Grande on the North coast of the island and spent a couple of hours wandering around. Very attractive it was too....
The most striking experience of the day though, was the bus ride itself. The bus driver drove the full sized coach at what felt like 40 mph through the narrow streets of Ponta Delgada and Riberia Grande with only inches to spare on each side. Any front door or window shutter, thrown open carelessly by the occupants, would have been ripped off its hinges without a 'by your leave'! The locals, however, both those on the bus and it seemed, in the various places we sped through, seemed entirely unconcerned by this phenomenon. As for the bus driver he seemed on automatic pilot. The only time he had to engage 'manual' operations' was when another bus came down one of the narrow streets in the opposite direction and too boot, had to get round a parked car. Our driver simply reversed nonchelently down the hill for some 1/4 of a mile to allow the other bus to pass.
That evening we had a very good kebap from a stall in the harbour front with great view of the moon...
Friday was a jobs day. Mick did an excellent job sealing the sink area in the loo and stabalised the platform on which the loo itself is fastened. Previously, time spent on the loo at sea was apt to make the occupant even more sick, because in addition to the boat rolling and pitching, the loo would rock backwards and forwards on its mounts!
I collected the Genoa from the repair shop and and fitted lee cloths to a couple of the bunks.
Later we did some shopping for boat stuff at the local Chinese shop and finished the day with a good fish meal at a local restaurant.
The rest of Friday remained quite windy (a feature of the last few days) and so we left bending on the Genoa until Saturday morning.
I got up 'early' for once (0830) to a perfectly still morning. I woke Mick and the first thing we did was to move the boat to another berth which would be easier to get out of with any wind blowing. Then we bent the Genoa on, did some shopping, had a shower and emerged just in time to greet the boys as they arrived at the marina. Mick, meanwhile had been cooking dinner - a great chicken curry. Afterwards we went round to Pery's and Onya's boat, 'Hell Raiser' and had a most enjoyable evening with then and more than a few glasses of G&T 😁!
Today, after rising moderately late, we had breakfast ashore. The boys then went exploring and Mick and I did more provisioning.
Tonight we'll eat ashore and we plan to leave early tomorrow morning for the central group of islands with either Velas on Sao Jorge or Horta on Faial as possible destinations.
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