Land Ho!!!

07/02/02

I'm viewing land for the first time in almost three weeks

    It is still calm this morning at 0600 as I begin my watch.  Eric will be making pancakes for breakfast, to use the last of the eggs.  We are now 50 miles from our waypoint south of Flores island, and once we reach that point it will be a couple more hours before we anchor at Porto das Lajes.  We are hoping to get there in time to clear through customs, so we can have dinner ashore.

    Yesterday, in the calm weather conditions, we spotted several schools of dolphins jumping at different distances from the boat.  Unfortunately only once did a school get close enough to the boat for a good look.  One dolphin in particular came very close to the boat and jumped out of the water a few times, but he had moved on by the time I had my camera ready.  We also saw the closest ship that we have seen so far.  This was a bulk carrier, distinguished by a pair of large derricks, which are used to load bulk cargo such as iron ore.  This ship approached from our stern, and continued in a parallel course to ours, passing us a little less than a mile off of our starboard.

    I  am quite excited, as today we will see land for the first time in almost three weeks, since seeing Block Island fade from view.  It is true that the time seems to have passed quicker than I expected.  I find myself focusing on when my next watch will be, and not really thinking about much else.  I am really suffering from homesickness, and I hope I can get over it.  Hopefully, a long phone conversation with Sue at Horta will help.

    At 1150, Eric came into the cabin and shouted “Land Ho!”.  The island of Flores was visible off the bow, though to me it looked like a dark cloud at this point, and I would not have recognized it as land.  We now have 20 miles to our waypoint at the southwest corner of the island.  Our destination,, Porto das Lajes, is just north of the southeast corner of the island. 

    We are beginning to prepare for our arrival.  We put away the staysail this morning, and Eric collected our passports and made up a crew list for clearing into customs.  The way it works is the boat comes into the harbor flying the yellow “Q” flag on the starboard spreader.  We anchor, and the captain (Eric) goes by himself with the crew list and passports, and checks in with the local authorities.  Then he comes back and replaces the “Q” flag with the courtesy flag of the country we are visiting.  In this case, I believe it will be Portugal.  At that point we are all free to go ashore.  I am hoping we can clear this afternoon so we can have dinner in town.  The problem is that this town does not have a bank, so we won’t be able to exchange any money until we go to Santa Cruz (the capital of Flores) tomorrow.