Last day all together!

We take advantage of our morning, more quickly this time, to see a Bavaria 46-foot sailboat come up to dock on a nearby quay. I love seeing sailboats moor, it's always a dance, a ballet for me. I hope not to lose this feeling over time.

The longer the sailboat, the more complicated/technical it is to maneuver. This unless it's a larger and newer boats which has a little joysticks to help the boat maneuver more easily.

On our sailboat, when the boat is in reverse it tends to pull to port (the left of the boat) which can complicate things. this is commonly called "prop walk". This is why we try to enter the quay most often from the port side at an angle, front in first, so that once we put the boat in reverse the back moves in towards the dock.

Still, I happily watch the Bavaria attempt to go shoulder to shoulder with another sailboat and forget that little extra help from the joystick (this until I see some swirls under the boat that tells me they're using it). The skipper will have to pull himself together a few times before he gets there, but I think he is learning. And I send him all my support, because I know that the day the captain leaves me the helm to dock, I would like the support of all the people around. But we are not there yet. I prefer to be the shipmate. The time when I entered the dock with my Mirage 24 is long gone. At least it seems very far.

We then take the taxi to join them at their hotel and we all go together to see the fortress of São João Baptista. In fact, we take the road and we park near the ramparts. We walk towards the fortress (poor Louis who is still walking) and see some birds with a particular song. I can't tell you their name but their song is so unique that you will know if you go to the Azores. We watch these birds in the sky being attacked by a predetory bird. Attack is a very big word because this bird does not have the time to be threatening for very long, the smaller birds start chasing it in groups until it leaves. A species to see, I tell you!

We continue to climb the hill and see workers on the side of the trail tending to its maintenance. Arrived at the top of the hill, we see a man turning a concrete barrel horizontally and pouring it into his wheelbarrow to lower it along the slope to some colleagues. It doesn't seem so simple, let's say. Kudos to them!

We arrive near the ramparts and notice these huge holes/empty spaces made by man at the bottom of the ramparts and we wonder their purpose. We are sure it is a defense system to prevent invaders from getting too close, but we wonder how. We also see circles on the exterior walls and wonder what they mean. We arrive at the front door and it is closed. So we say to ourselves that we will go around the rampart to see if there is another entrance door. There is indeed a very steep path to climb and when we get there there is a soldier who explains to us that we cannot pass, that we have to go down the hill and go to the museum to get tickets. Oh brother, we don't want to go down and go up this slope again in this heat. Climbing/walking Mont Brazil would have been a good option but with my knee having been acting up for a few weeks, it is not an option.

So we show some courage and go to the museum, Núcleo de História Militar, to be told that the reservations for today are full, which ends our hope of seeing the fortress all together because they leave tomorrow. We will try Louis and I to come back in the next few days. We still take the opportunity to see the exhibition of the military museum. Several quotes on the walls make me think.

We then hit the road again and are treated to a memorable moment. We are 5 in a small car. Louis' brother, Jacques drives through the back streets of Angra. We have no fixed route, we wander by car. He takes a street to the left and climbs the hill, at least he tries to climb it, but the car doesn't want to. He tries again and tries again a few times without success. So we go down a few meters backwards to gain momentum and … no, nothing to do. We laugh, we laugh so much. So we go back down what remains, backwards and we take another path.

Hills: 1, 5-passenger tiny car: 0

With all this good humor, we go to a beautiful garden, Jardim Duque da Terceira, filled with various flowers, paths and places to sit. Then we are going to eat, on foot, in a small restaurant. Again, it was excellent and for dessert, I go with Christiane to choose desserts from a window. She loves those with pistachios, I like less, but okay if she likes that I'll get her one for later. We ask the server which are the most beautiful beaches. He tells us to go to the one near the shrimp restaurant (Caneta), but we have already been there. This is where Louis and Jacques jumped into the water. He tells us that his 2nd favorite beach is the one next to the hotel where they are staying (Terceira Mar Hotel). We prefer not to go there because we saw several physalies not far away and it is surrounded by a concrete wall. There were a lot of people when we saw it from afar though, it seems popular. We ask him for a 3rd and last choice and that's where we'll go. Before leaving I have a coffee. Yes yes! It's that after eating, I feel fatigue showing up, I know it's our last day together so we'll fill it to the end. So I add sugar and presto… here we go again!

We go back to the car and I get accosted by a drunk man. It's always special when it happens because you never know what can happen. I was very polite, everything ended well.

We continue to the server's 3rd beach choice but have to stop on the way. There are lots of people on the street. We get out of the car to see what's going on. There are carts, animals, princesses, or at least women dressed in beautiful dresses. I can't tell you what that parade/gathering was but it was really nice to be among all these people, in a totally unusual event for us. A complete surprise!

We go back to the car and they tell me that I have had too much coffee because I tell them with confidence to follow the other cars to get out of the rally. I just have a little energy, that's all.

Arrival at the beach: a vast space of natural water basin surrounded by concrete. Less visually pretty than others, but pleasant. We will understand why a few minutes later because after settling down and deciding that we would probably not swim, it started to rain a little. As soon as the sun hides in the Azores, it is chillier with the wind so with the rain in addition, we were completely refreshed. We still took advantage of it a bit to relax and some even dozed off for a few minutes.

So we decide to go back to the hotel swimming pool and its deckchairs. We stop on the way to see Monumento Alto da Memória. We start to feel the day and we are a little more tired so I have fun with the signage of the cities.

The heat returns with the sun so we rush to go to the swimming pool. At this point I've been on vacation for many days but have only hit my stride for the past two. It's unfortunate as our groupe is separating this evening.

Last supper together, we go to “O cachalote” delicious restaurant of Frank and Peter (a father and son). What fun we had with them. Jacques and Louis had a steak on volcanic stone and I had the tuna served the same way. Ab-so-lu-tly sublime! We all loved the meal and the service.

Since most people there drink strong alcohol with tonic, we must specify each time that in our family, we take it on ice. Yes yes, just ice. No tonic. Oh that we had to repeat it often during the trip, but the owner quickly understood. He even made the sign of venerating us and asking who we got that from. Louis even got a kiss on the head from the waiter. So he started calling him "papa". We laughed so much. The kind of perfect evening: the good company, the exquisite food, the perfect wine and the excellent service and the party atmosphere. Memorable evening!