São Miguel: It’s where all the famous pictures are taken

When we first decided to sail to the Azores, Maddie looked up pictures on Google and fell in love with the images.

The volcanic landscape with lakes in the craters were breathtaking!

Turns out, all these pictures were of Sao Miguel. We arrived in Faial in August, then sailed to Terceira where we spent the next 9 months! We had a 2 week excursion in Flores, which was beautiful, but still not the pictures we saw online.

After several months, we finally made our way to Sao Miguel and it was everything we wanted to see. The landscape is mind blowing and the scenery is better than the photos.

New Name!

Wisdom was repainted, and with the new paint means that our old name was sanded off.

The big question was if we should paint or do vinyl letters. I wanted to paint and Maddie wanted to do vinyl letters.

Happy wife, happy life! We went with vinyl, and I’m am very happy with the results.

On the bow, Maddie decided to add our Rigging Doctor logo, in addition to the name. We have a YouTube channel, so making the boat stand out makes it more videogenic.

On the stern, we decided to work around the issue of having a wind steering system.

The old name was written from one side to the other, and the wind steering obscured the whole name.

To solve that issue, we put the name and port on one side of the transom and the logo on the opposite. The goal is to make the transom look clean and neat, while also having the name and port visible from a distance.

Is this real?

The Azores are a wonderland!

Green fields lead right up to the cliff face which plummets straight into the depths of the Atlantic.  

The land is subdivided into small plots where each farmer grows a different crop. Some grow plants, some grow cattle to produce dairy products. No matter the crop, the land is divided into a grid that stretches over the landscape.

Green Wine

Northern Portugal and the Azores produce a special type of wine called “Green Wine”. Green wine varies in age, and alcohol content, but it tastes amazing! I am not a wine person (I personally prefer Scotch myself) so I don’t feel confident in giving a thorough wine evaluation.

When you think of wine country, you think of dry climates with lots of sun and warmth. The Azores are perpetually rainy and oscillate between cold and cool. In general, it is much too cold, wet, and windy for wine grapes to grow! The locals have found a way.

The grape vines live in a shallow hole in a pile of black volcanic rocks surrounded by low walls. The dark stones heat up with the sun and keep the plant warm through the winter nights. The stones also help drain water away, keeping the plants dry, and the walls keep the plants protected from the powerful winds that rage through the land.

The vines do not grow up, but instead sprawl on the rocks to keep them low on the ground.

Welcome to an Azorean vinard! Low rocks, and ocean views!

The vineyard is small, and only produces about 750 bottles per year. The bottles are only sold at a few local restaurants and I must say the wind is delicious!

Next time you think of “wine country’ and picture Napa, just remember that it could also look like this!

Solar Panel Upgrade

Our old stern panels were a whopping 50W each. One of them died and we decided that instead of replacing, we should upgrade to 150W each!

Going up in size three fold has its challenges. The panels are much larger but the strength of the panel isn’t. I needed to reinforce the panel with a wooden X and supply support struts to both sides of the panel.

Wind isn’t as big of a concern to the panels, but water sure is. High winds will present a lot of force on the panels, but a wave will impart many times that amount of energy and with no yielding. The plan is to avoid sailing in heavy weather and plan our ocean crossings for times when the winds (and seas) are not extreme. In heavy weather, the panels can be secured down to prevent damage to the boat, but the plan is to avoid those situations all together.