Flores & Corvo, Azores
In the early morning our captain slowed down for our pilot to come onboard and together they took the ship into the well-sheltered harbor at Lajes das Flores, at the south eastern tip of the island Flores.
Still as the ship slowly moored at the dock, we noticed a huge Atlantic swell moving into the harbor. But the deck crew and officers made good work to make it possible for us to safely disembark.
We had plenty of time for breakfast since the only buses available on the island are also used as school buses and the children of course had to get to school before we could lay our hands on these three buses.
Our morning drive took us to the most westerly point in Europe, at least by a political definition. Flores and Corvo, the island we visited later during the day, are both on the western side of the mid-Atlantic ridge. In the matter of continental plates they do not belong to “Europe” and are in fact drifting slowly towards US by 1-2 cm per year and part of the American plate.
The village of Faja Grande at the westernmost tip is an old whaling post, where you still can see a whale look-out on top of a cliff. It is also part of a huge caldera with several large waterfalls coming down. The scenery from the village is outstanding.
Later, we found our way to the village of Santa Cruz das Flores which gave us the opportunity to visit the local folklore museum. Whaling was of course one of the main themes. The techniques for whaling used at the Azores islands were brought in to the area by Yankee whalers and flourished until 1987. They used small boats and sailed them out to the hunting grounds, 4-10 miles off the islands.
Here they also keep a unique collection of scrimshaw. Everything is privately owned but kept at the museum. The town itself is also a great beauty to enjoy and sit down for a cup of cafe, a beer and feel the local atmosphere or just stroll around.
During lunch we repositioned the ship towards the island north of Flores, the smallest of all islands in the Azores. Corvo is only about 10 miles apart from Flores but still very hard to reach and make land. The wind and swell came from the northeast and made the little commercial harbor into a boiling area for the sea. But our expedition leader, Jim Kelley, went out for scouting and found a small ramp, well protected from the wind but still exposed to some large interesting swell. The ship got shelter behind the huge cliffs on the western side of Corvo and the challenge was now to get the Zodiacs into the island and land the guests. With support from the locals, only about 425 inhabitants on the island, we arranged an interesting but safe landing.
Everybody was able to get ashore, maybe not totally dry, but still safe and sound to enjoy this remarkable island. Local support by private cars gave anyone who wanted to reach the rim of the caldera the ability to make the trip up-hill. Some took the advantage to make a long hike down hill to the harbor along the only road on the island. To land at the island Corvo and visit this small community and feel the friendship is really a pleasure. Only one expedition ship has ever visited the island before, the Endeavour one week ago! Here are some of our new good friends at Corvo.
In the early morning our captain slowed down for our pilot to come onboard and together they took the ship into the well-sheltered harbor at Lajes das Flores, at the south eastern tip of the island Flores.
Still as the ship slowly moored at the dock, we noticed a huge Atlantic swell moving into the harbor. But the deck crew and officers made good work to make it possible for us to safely disembark.
We had plenty of time for breakfast since the only buses available on the island are also used as school buses and the children of course had to get to school before we could lay our hands on these three buses.
Our morning drive took us to the most westerly point in Europe, at least by a political definition. Flores and Corvo, the island we visited later during the day, are both on the western side of the mid-Atlantic ridge. In the matter of continental plates they do not belong to “Europe” and are in fact drifting slowly towards US by 1-2 cm per year and part of the American plate.
The village of Faja Grande at the westernmost tip is an old whaling post, where you still can see a whale look-out on top of a cliff. It is also part of a huge caldera with several large waterfalls coming down. The scenery from the village is outstanding.
Later, we found our way to the village of Santa Cruz das Flores which gave us the opportunity to visit the local folklore museum. Whaling was of course one of the main themes. The techniques for whaling used at the Azores islands were brought in to the area by Yankee whalers and flourished until 1987. They used small boats and sailed them out to the hunting grounds, 4-10 miles off the islands.
Here they also keep a unique collection of scrimshaw. Everything is privately owned but kept at the museum. The town itself is also a great beauty to enjoy and sit down for a cup of cafe, a beer and feel the local atmosphere or just stroll around.
During lunch we repositioned the ship towards the island north of Flores, the smallest of all islands in the Azores. Corvo is only about 10 miles apart from Flores but still very hard to reach and make land. The wind and swell came from the northeast and made the little commercial harbor into a boiling area for the sea. But our expedition leader, Jim Kelley, went out for scouting and found a small ramp, well protected from the wind but still exposed to some large interesting swell. The ship got shelter behind the huge cliffs on the western side of Corvo and the challenge was now to get the Zodiacs into the island and land the guests. With support from the locals, only about 425 inhabitants on the island, we arranged an interesting but safe landing.
Everybody was able to get ashore, maybe not totally dry, but still safe and sound to enjoy this remarkable island. Local support by private cars gave anyone who wanted to reach the rim of the caldera the ability to make the trip up-hill. Some took the advantage to make a long hike down hill to the harbor along the only road on the island. To land at the island Corvo and visit this small community and feel the friendship is really a pleasure. Only one expedition ship has ever visited the island before, the Endeavour one week ago! Here are some of our new good friends at Corvo.
