Pirates! In nine years of voyaging we encountered our first pirate – unfortunately not in person. It seems that a pirated version of the book that I wrote with Yvon and Lance is selling well in many of the
bookstores of the Azores. Here is a picture of Twice Round the Loggerhead or should I say “Duas Voltas ao Logaiéte” as it is now called in Portuguese. This picture is of the book in the mall near where Vixen is berthed in Sao Miguel. I have even been asked to sign a couple of these illegal copies.


 

Twenty miles northeast of Horta is the island of Sao Jorge.  We sailed over last Friday and spent the weekend exploring the island. In the picture on the right is the village of Velas. Vixen is actually at the end of one of the finger piers in the marina at the bottom of the picture.

The island is surrounded by steep cliffs with little villages on the "fajas" or the rocky shelves that jut out into the ocean from the base of the cliffs. One village, Santo Christo has no road access -- you have to walk into it along the cliffs. There used to be a cable to send food into the village when the paths would wash out and the sea was too rough to get there by boat. It was a couple of hours to walk in with the girls. In the village (which, like any place without cars, is wonderful) was a cafe where we had a drink. I asked the man behind the bar how many people lived in Santo Christo in the winter. "Three," he said. "Me and two others."