Land Ho!

I tell you, seeing an island on the horizon after more than two weeks
of sailing is a very exciting experience. I went up on deck this
morning, as usual, looked around a bit, and was about to go back down
below when my dad asked me what I thought of a small, dark, triangle off
the port bow. After a while it had grown to become a large, dark, lump
sitting there on the horizon. We got out the binoculars and took a look,
and decided that it must be Flores, the westernmost island in the
Azores. We were very, very excited to finally catch sight of land after
all this time we've been at sea. As of now, we are about ten miles out
of Porto dè Lajes, our first stop in the Azores. The island's features
are clearly visible, even without binoculars. I simply can't wait to get
onto solid ground again. This will certainly be a fun night.

(All references to "now" refer to 16:30 hours GMT-1, July 3, 2009.)

The clouds finally

Lift, and give us our first glimpse of Pico Alto, the highest mountain in Portugal.
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The clouds finally lift

Giving us our first glimpse of Pico Alto, the tallest mountan in Portugal, just across the channel from the marina.
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The clouds finally lift

Giving us our first glimpse of Pico Alto, the tallest mountan in Portugal, just across the channel from the marina.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The clouds finally

Lift, and give us our first glimpse of Pico Alto, the highest mountain in Portugal.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Faial

After all this time out on the open ocean, it seems impossible that we
are once again tethered to a safe dock. Juno is tied to another boat
that is tied to another boat that is tied to another boat which is tied
to the marina seawall. This technique for tying several boats to a wall
is called rafting. We will be in a raft until we can get a slip in the
marina. Hopefully that will be soon. I was a bit sorry to leave Flores
so soon, but I am looking forward to seeing Pico and the other islands
of the archipelago. Apparently the huge volcano that Pico is named after
has erupted several times since it was discovered. Horta marina is a
very nice place, that has a very powerful Wi-Fi signal, so powerful that
I am able to receive it all the way over here at the boat. I'm actually
connected to it right now. Hopefully we will soon be hooked up to shore
power, but we still need to wire in the transformer that turns 220 volts
into 110 volts. We are unable to use the European standard voltage, we
need 110 volts. There is also a water tap, so we don't need to worry
about that. There is even a set of bathrooms and a Laundromat, all
included in the marina charge. In all this is really a nice place to be
for the next month. I am really looking forward to climbing Pico.

OK ESN:0-7463744

Juno's latest position:
ESN:0-7463744
Latitude:38.5322
Longitude:-28.625
Nearest Location:not known
Distance:not known
Time:07/10/2009 11:12:53 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=38.5322,-28.625&ll=38.5322,-28.625&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1