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Writer's pictureCindy et Louis

Arrival in the dark!

Updated: Mar 19, 2023

Louis wrote to me that he would arrive around midnight, I looked at the forecast and it said 3am since almost no wind. Finally, he paired sails and motor for the last 2 hours of sailing.


I don't know if you remember, but he was almost out of diesel. So, to get there as quickly as possible and prevent him from running out of it, Louis even cut the hose from the heating tank (which incidentally didn't work during the trip) to get as much diesel as possible. He was looking forward to seeing me it seems!


So I had dinner with Louis' family who came by plane with me and then I went to wait for him on the dock. They wanted to leave us this moment alone and would see us the next day.


I chatted with the sailors on the dock and

found a place for Louis to dock. Generally, as customs are closed, it should remain at anchor until the next day. The sailor beside whom I had found a place for him, Dan, told me that he should go to anchor but holding the anchor could be difficult in the bay. So we agreed with Louis, on the phone, that he would dock to get me on board and that we would then go to anchor.


To give you a bit of a shorter story, when he arrived in the bay, we used a flashlight to let him know our position. He told me he couldn't dock on the starboard side because when the engine is reversed the stern of the boat goes outward and so he was looking for another place to tie up, I I didn't know any and couldn't see anything so I ran down the platform to where he seemed to be heading. And I ran, I could only hear the sound of my sandals on the platform.


Arrived on the other side, I was looking for a way to get to him, I did not see how to get there, until I realized that he was trying to tie up at the place I had designated for him. Boy, I don't have the cardio of an athlete... but I started running on the other side to get to him as quickly as possible. The sailors around were able to help her dock without any problem, on her port side.


Someone told us that we could stay at the dock for the night, since we were going to run out of gas quickly. I came on board to stay on the boat and we talked for a long time.

I looked at my feet in the sailboat, they were blue. During my running around, I stepped in paint, knocked over by a car, which a sailor had started to paint to leave a trace of his crossing to the Azores. I will tell you about this custom in a future post.


This morning, we were woken up by a guy from the marina who told us we couldn't stay there. So we got up quickly and went to fill out the documents for the marina, customs and immigration. They told us where to moor: at the shoulder with another boat because there is a lack of space at the marina. They are receiving more than 70 sailboats in a few days for a mini transat which leaves France today, I believe and arrives in Horta towards the end of the week.


We also took the opportunity to walk during the day and have dinner in a small restaurant. The owner has been around the world, solo, in a sailboat. He enjoyed chatting with Louis. His restaurant is very well decorated with what he picked up during his travels. Very nice discovery as a place.


We now relax on the edge of the swimming pool before supper. We are so tired. Tomorrow will be another day, I don't know if I will write to you tomorrow, but I will do so soon to let you discover what we will see of the Azores, there is so much to see and say.




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