I was getting back to the islands I loved so much and this time me and my old collegue would finally get ourselves to visit the rest of the Azores islands.
Azores is an archipelago in the middle of Atlantic Ocean. It has its own autonomy but it is still under the influence of mainland Portugal. Azores consists of nine very different islands: São Miguel, Santa Maria, Terceira, Pico, Faial, São Jorge, Flores, Graciosa and Corvo. I was working on S. Miguel, the capital island of Azores with population of 150 000 of total 350 000 inhabitants and in the capital city Ponta Delgada.  It is not the population of the islands, but the spirits, atmosphere and the most amazing nature of the islands that pulls me back every year.
Each island once rose out of the ocean in a volcano eruption and the island’s peaks are formed into gorgeous craters with fresh water lakes. Other than that, on an island with width of only 20km one can hike in jungles, fish from lakes, swim with dolphins in Atlantic Ocean, play golf in cow fields, ride horses on moonlike, deserted plains, take part in feasts in Catholic churches build in the 1400’s and relax in natural, hot, mineral pools spurting from down under the earth. But I had done all that on S.Miguel and this summer I wanted to see more.
I stood by an old sailing boat in Ponta Delgada harbour in S.Miguel with my rug sack. Should I have taken my sleeping bag with me? Do we have some food and water on board for 7 days of sailing? And most of all: Does any of the crew member speak any English? As we stepped down to the hold I realized the looks can cheat: our yacht was fully renovated and furnished with latest technology and best of all, with two master bedrooms with huge double beds, own showers and toilets and clean, white, bed linen!
Our captain and the helmsman were funny looking, sun tanned, old men who had spend most of their lives on the seas. AS we never really caught their Portuguese names, we called them  ‘The Captain’ and ‘Mr.Potatoe’ which was close enough to his real name to catch his attention.
When the volcano peaks of S.Migues started getting smaller we popped open our first bottle of sparkling, put the music on on the deck and concentrated on what we were here for: sun bathing.. And sailing.
On our first night we were sailing past the islands we have already visited and kept going towards the most famous sailors’ harbour from the 1800’s, Faial. As the sun set the waves started getting bigger. The captain was excited. With this speed we would reach Faial in only 48h. I wasn’t excited. Only 48h left to be sea sick!
I don’t remember the full day of sunshine, dolphins jumping by the boat, the sea turtles or the anchoring to Faial. I was sleeping for over 24h in my master bedroom.
The trip turned out to be magnificent once I learned how to cope with my stomach. We had Gin&Tonics in sailors’-only pub Peter’s Café in Faial- we were real sailors now! We bought cheese from famous São Jorge’s cheese factory, we drank wine on top of the tallest peak Pico and stood on the remains of the latest volcano eruption of Capelinhos. Captain and Mr.Potatoe were real gentlemen making sure we never get hungry or thirsty, organizing us tour guides on every island and making sure we find our way back to our boat in the evenings. At nights we fell peacefully asleep listening to our father figures snoring in their single bedrooms. Early mornings they woke up to sail us to yet another island, and they sat guarding us to early hours in the local pubs.
When the last leg back to S.Miguel started I took my bedding upstairs on the deck and kept company to Mr. Captain through the night, taking the wheel whenever he needed the rest and Mr. Potato had snoozed off. And to prevent my sea sickness by staying in the fresh air.