As Bob and Tania prepared to move on to the other islands in the Azorean chain they had some final fun times at their second home of "Horta".....

•    As the days turned toward summer the harbor got busier with many daily arrivals from all over the world.  One morning one the "school" ships left with the kids hanging from the yardarms!  Bob and Tania were finally able to break away from rafting up against other ships and take me out for a spin.  It was a great day with the Corys Shearwaters playing in the waves just south of Pico.

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•    Bob and Tania sure are going to miss some great friends they have made on Faial.  Here the Van Opstal's (John and Joke) as well as Raquel Vieira who took them to dinner one evening at the Hotel Faial.  John. who is the pre-eminent artist in the world for Scrimshaw had rendered a wonderful drawing of Saretta's Dream on a whale tooth and also duplicated the effort for Tania on a necklace - special friends!  They put the Gulf Harbour burgee up at Peter Cafe Sport as tradition dictates.  Bob checked out the large mooring ball field near Monte Guia.

• They went to view the local whale factory (which had been shut down since the 1980's).  It is now a great museum about whaling in Porto Pim.

• They spent a day on Pico where the spring flowers were just making an appearance and the cows were heading home...

• Tania got a great picture of Cachorro ( Puppy ) outside of Madalena on Pico.  "Lady Penny" was a neighbor for a few days until the big "splash" as she missed jumping from our boat to hers (fortunately her dad was there with a fender to pull her up).  They went sailing with dock neighbor (and photographer of the great pictures of Saretta's Dream sailing) Sergio Stefani on his boat "Quartet".

• A naval ship stayed in port for a few days and her helicopters would buzz the whole marina.  Tania got to enjoy the holiday "Festa Espirito Santo" ( Holy Spirit Festival with friend Raquel Vieira and was treated to food and wine at every village on the island of São Jorge as they traveled about by rental car.  The villages would have a parade of oxen pulled wagons decorated with natural foliage and flowers (this one had the American Flag as the lead wagon) then the entire village, along with any cars they stopped on the way would help themselves to all kinds of barbeque meats, bread, cheese, salads, wine, more wine, water, deserts, more wine, etc. while the men would set off firework rockets (until all hours of the night). Each village had it's own parade and it was a competition between some of them as to who had the best food, most rockets, best decorated wagons, animals, etc.  Lots of fun!

• Early June saw the worst weather in Horta in over 22 years according to the locals.  A storm arrived one night with 60 kts winds and destroyed the dock that I was on!  Oh no!  Now they will call me "Windy" instead of "Sparky" ( since I seem to have bad weather follow me wherever I go...).  Fortunately Tania and Bob were awake early, saw the dock breaking up and alerted security.  The marina personnel were there pronto and damage remained luckily minimal to the boats and docks.

• The collars on the main pilings had given away and the whole dock moved some distance from the land, as well as breaking in pieces.  After the winds subsided the collars were repaired and fortified.

•  The main gangway after temporary repairs (these were brand new docks, only 6 weeks old). Dr. Sergio Stefani and Fado singer Raquel Vieira were among the great friends they were privileged to know in Horta and all will be missed!

• Tania watched the marina personnel try to flip a racing catamaran (named with the racing captain's name; Jean Stalavan) back over (it had been floating in the Atlantic for 6 months before a plane spotted it and the owner chartered some of the locals to go retrieve it - the sailor was taken off back in November 2006).  It was so heavy the local crane could not complete the task and when the large container ship from the mainland showed up they were successful with their onboard cranes.  She painted the 2007 logo version on the new marina pier and it was time to say "Adeus Horta" and they sailed off to other adventures!