Well, we bounced out of bed the earliest yet so that we could head off to Ponta Delgado the capital of the Azores for the day. The Azore islands which are five islands in total are part of Portugal and we were quite excited as this is a new country for us.
So into the shower and dressed in warmer clothing as we have been heading in a northerly direction and it is starting to cool off. Alas, Captain W(R)oger got on his blow horn to tell us that although the pilot had been on the bridge for an hour, he was unable to get the boat into the harbour due to the rough seas. Sad but a fact of life. Oh well, this just means we will have to come back another time. Think he is concerned he is going to have a mutiny as we will now have ten consecutive sea days.
Below is a photo of the bridge from our cabin with Captain Woger and the pilot.
This is what Ponta Delgado looks like from the ship. It has two volcanoes on the island that are dormant and a very high rainfall which makes it very green. Sue, Steve and ourselves had organised a hire car for the day to cruise around as the island is only 40 miles x 10 miles so very doable in a day. Should imagine the islanders are very disappointed that we did not get in as they would have lost a lot of revenue from the 4,000+ people who would have made land fall.
The modus operandi was then to continue cruising towards Brest in western France which is three days away. There is no guarantee that we will be able to get off in Brest either.
Curious to know how we will cope when we hit land fall as we will have the real wobbly legs syndrome. We now have to get very creative as to how we fill in the next three days!!!!! No further blogs for three days as it is pretty much the same.
Di is a little concerned with Fraser’s state of mind as she has been finding him in these various stances on a number of occasions – think this is the beginning of boredom.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 
So sorry to hear that your crossing was rough, the weather is cool, and that you couldn’t get off the ship for the Azores. It makes me realize how lucky we were to have sunshine and smooth sailing on our cruise! When we were on our ship, another HAL ship that left Florida the same time we did couldn’t make it to the Azores either. Experienced cruisers on board told us the Azores is often too rough to land 😦 so I guess it’s not that unusual.
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Really? Our experience with another cruise line has been that they can “thread the needle” pretty much anywhere they are and at times you feel you can reach out and touch the adjacent land that is going by. Perhaps they needed a ” new driver” sign on the back end, much like we see driving in Calgary!
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