In April 2025, the ORC57 Avel Vaez, its professional crew and passengers enjoyed a week’s cruising in the Azores archipelago.
In this article, read the account of this vacation by one of the passengers on board. We thank him for sharing the group’s sailing adventure aboard our catamaran!
The Azores are a volcanic archipelago located at the intersection of the North American, African and Eurasian tectonic plates. Located 1,450 km west of Lisbon, the islands have a population of around 250,000. The archipelago is an autonomous region of Portugal, with Portuguese as the official language. The climate is temperate, and the tourist season runs from June to September.
The Azores archipelago is located on the return route of the great cruisers – those returning from the Americas or the Caribbeans. In the middle of the Atlantic, it’s a meeting point where everything that sails this ocean will come one day. Horta, on the island of Faial, is the stopping-off point for sailing boats. Punta Delgada, on the island of Sao Miguel, is a stopover for the world’s largest and most famous yachts.
The history of the archipelago is a mixture of Viking history, piracy, European wars, whale massacres and travelers. It’s undoubtedly an ancient version that inspired the authors of Star Wars, where certain planets become passage places, where all the histories of the surrounding galaxies telescope, and where all the activities so precious to living beings develop in secret but can be annihilated by a threat of superior fire!
Normally, you don’t come to the Azores, you “pass through”. For us, it’s a little different.
We made a rendezvous in Punta Delgada, on Sao Miguel, to meet up with the voyage catamaran Avel Vaez: a comfortable boat capable of exceptional speeds. Leaving Le Marin on May 1st, she took thirteen days to reach Punta Delgada.
We meet on board on Easter Friday, to spend a few days together – six passengers and two crew. Our skipper is installed in one of the two berths in the starboard forepeak and our hostess/cook is in the starboard forward double cabin. The three couples share the three remaining double cabins.
The weather is cool, but the atmosphere on board is warm. After an excellent dinner prepared by our cook, we go to sleep with a common dream in mind: it’s whale-watching season!
The sanitary facilities in Punta Delgada harbor are practical, clean and austere. It feels like a soviet era blockhouse bathroom, under the road that runs alongside the port. We make the most of it before setting off. After a hearty breakfast, worthy of first class on an Air France flight, and formalities completed, we cast off.
In the Azores, you have to register with the authorities on each island you visit. Bureaucratic habits persist in certain cultures, and no one knows exactly why they were put in place originally… But this gives the locals a job to do and commands the respect of visitors.
Today, we’ll be heading toward Terceira.
As we set sail, we greet the crew as we pass alongside of the 127 m-long blue three-master “Koru”, owned by a well-known billionaire. At sea, young and old share the same horizontal space.
We’re skirting the cliffs to the south of Sao Miguel, only a few hundred meters from the shore, yet our depth sounder is already lost. We’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean…! The sea is calm, but the large north-westerly swell left by the recent gale is not very pleasant. There’s little wind, and the seasickness starts to show. It’s a long way to Terceira, 90 miles…
Dolphins come to greet us. They’re small and very colorful. They play at the bow for a few minutes, then disappear as quickly as they appeared. As the wind drops, we have to resign ourselves to starting the engines. In the early evening, we arrive off Terceira and decide to stop for the night at Praia da Victoria. We would have preferred to push on to Angra do Heroismo, but we’re already ready to relax and eat. Our cook has a tasty soup in the making, it smells delicious in the cockpit and we’re all salivating. The marina north of the huge port of Praia da Victoria has a free pontoon that will be perfect for our stay on Terceira.
The night is calm, and the music from the beach bars doesn’t prevent us from falling asleep. Avel Vaez’s cabins are comfortable and well-ventilated, and the foam in the hull sandwich prevents condensation. We sleep well.
The next morning, we set off to explore the island. We start with the small town. Then up to the Miradouro do Facho monument. Back to the boat for another extraordinary lunch prepared by our hostess.
In the afternoon, we look for a taxi to take us around the island. It’s hard to find what we’re looking for at the cab station on a Saturday. After a while, an old Citroen C3 pulls up at a distance and a young woman offers to take us to the Miradouro da Serra Cume. The C3 is in poor condition, but the driver is friendly: born in Terceira, she grew up in the USA and speaks English with a strong Californian accent. She explains she is trying to setup a famous online taxi service in Terceira, but local taxi drivers won’t let her do it.
The car is out of petrol, so we stop at the service station. To get going again, we have to push, as the battery’s dead too. The Miradouro is in the clouds, so we can’t see much, but what we can see is superb in contrasts: nature is green, the rock is dark, and the sea is blue.
We walk back down through the Terceira countryside. We stop for a beer at a bar along the way, where the customers are very friendly. Back on Avel Vaez, our cook has prepared a great dinner.
We leave Praia Da Victoria on Terceira and pass to the south-east of the island. Our skipper has some fun and passes through the middle of the Cabras islets. The cliffs of the Azores tower over us, and thousands of birds surround our mast. We continue under motor for lack of wind and head toward Angra do Heroismo. We confirm that the marina is more typical. We’ll come back another time.
We set off again towards the south-eastern tip of Sao Jorge. The wind is light and we alternate between motor and sail, to optimize our VMG. Sao Jorge is a long, narrow, high island. On the south coast, the high cliffs are lined with large waterfalls that emerge from the mountains and flow directly into the sea. In the late afternoon, we arrive at the port of Velas, on the south-west coast. The marina in this small port is narrow, but we manage to squeeze in and tie up to the quay at the entrance to the marina.
On the quay, a retired man prepares his fishing rods and tells us his story: originally from Sao Jorge, he used to work in Europe for major distribution groups. At retirement age, he chose to return to his island for the climate and tranquility. For the evening, he recommends a restaurant on the cliff above Velas. We quickly decide to check it out.
The streets are narrow and steep. On our way, we spot the island shuttle returning from Pico Island and we suddenly wonder if we haven’t docked at her space instead. We follow her on the AIS and she stops at the entrance to the port on the larger quay. We’re relieved, as going back down and up again wouldn’t have given us much pleasure.
The restaurant is indeed overlooking the sea. The view of Pico Island is breathtaking. The top of Pico is white, snow having fallen there above 2000m altitude the day before. The trip back to the boat is easier, due more to the down slope than to the nice local Pico wine we discover that evening.
The next morning, after another hearty breakfast prepared by our cook, we board the mini-bus of a recommended local guide. Together we tour the island, discovering viewpoints, the cheese factory and the Fajas. The contrasting colors of the landscape are extraordinary. Our guide is Canadian. He followed his wife who preferred to settle on her native island to care for her health… It makes plenty sense to us, the warmer weather in the Azores is more appealing to us than what we have been told by our Canadian family branch.
During our motorized tour of the island, we notice that the wind has picked up. Our hostess has prepared a meal “for the road”, and we set sail next, destination Horta – on the island of Faial.
Two things can be said about the wind ahead of us:
We take a reef in the main, furled the J1 genoa and unfurled the J2 staysail. The sea state is fair, the area being partially sheltered by Faial and Pico. Avel Vaez loves these conditions and heads upwind at high speed.
In the late afternoon, we arrive in Horta. We tie up to the quay, helped by the community of enthusiasts present in Horta. We get to know our quayside neighbors: they’ve just made landfall from the Atlantic crossing and are celebrating in style with some sparkling wine. A young sailor, in admiration of Avel Avez, climbs aboard and declares his love for our boat – it has to be said that we don’t go unnoticed with our colors and multicolored hull… it’s meant to be! The harbor master asks us to moor elsewhere the next morning: we’re on the diesel pump quay, but it’s broken down this evening. We’re going to moor behind a magnificent old wreck next to the fishing port.
In the evening, we have a beer at the world’s most famous sailor bar, the “Peter Café Sport”. The establishment’s success is undeniable, and the business has colonized the entire city block in Parisian “Vieux Campeur” style, offering a variety of services and goods to sailors and visitors alike.
In the world of “recreation” sailors, Peter’s is a respected venue with a worldwide reputation: customers disembark after two weeks at sea, sometimes in rough conditions, and come to celebrate the feat. To the untrained observer, these scenes are a mix of total decadence. For the amateur, it’s a source of endless amusement, heroic tales and tasty travel tales.
The next day, after a good night’s sleep, we take the boat to Pico Island. It’s always impressive to see these good-sized shuttles, maneuvering to the millimeter and at high speed to unload and load vehicles and people in record time – with the minimum of personnel. Pico is in the clouds today, so no visit to the 2350 m summit. But we have other interests: vineyards and local farms.
As far as the eye can see, low walls of black stone line up perfectly. Between each wall, a space of a few square meters is protected from the wind and warmed up by the heat accumulated in the black volcanic stones. The vine shoots grow on the ground. This produces a good-quality wine, mostly white with some red too. We test several of them, and the tastes vary greatly from plot to plot. There’s volcanic rock all around us, and the vines seems to like this environment. There are also a few arable lands, and they are all planted. We also come across several cattle farms.
While waiting for the shuttle bus back from Pico to Faial, we take a last bottle of Pico white, a souvenir of our walk and this discovery. We end the evening in a famous Horta restaurant, run by a former circumnavigator. We enjoy a superb swordfish grilled steak accompanied, once again, by a glass of Pico. It is delicious!
The weather is decidedly not on our side: the forecast calls for wind in the right direction for the next day, but nothing for the days after. We have to seize this downwind sail opportunity, otherwise we will be punished with engines on for the lengthy return journey to Sao Miguel. We set off again. Our skipper is cautious, and we raise the main and unfurl the genoa.
Once past the channel between Pico and Faial, we find ourselves in between two high mountains: Sao Jorge on port side and Pico on starboard side. The wind picks up a little and the direction is confirmed. We furl the genoa and set up the large 200m2 head gennaker. Downwind sailing on our ORC57 Avel Vaez is pleasant, with between 10 and 15 knots of wind and the same boat speed. The long tail swell propels us into impressive surfs. We swallow half of the 130 miles to go in a few hours.
As we leave this great wind funnel created by Pico and Sao Jorge mountains, the breeze disappears. Reluctantly, we start the starboard engine while its passengers stand watch duty. Three hours later, we switch to port engine while the starboard team goes to sleep. The sky is clear and dark, and we spend our watch recognizing the constellations. As day breaks, we arrive in Punta Delgada. We moor Avel Vaez to the marina pontoon one last time.
We have one more day in the Azores to visit Sao Miguel, before leaving our friends and this incredible boat.
Has this account of our Azores cruise inspired you to embark on your own sailing adventure?
Take a look at the upcoming voyages and crossings we’re offering with ORC57 Avel Vaez!