Horta the Azores

Our second stop is the city of Horta on the island of Faial in the Azores. It is one of the nine inhabited Islands belonging to Portugal about 900 miles off the coast of Europe.

I booked a jeep tour with Tobago Azores for the afternoon. We see rugged coastlines, recent volcanic activity and lots of black and white cows. I hit an ATM for 40 euros. The local ATMs are free, but my credit union charges 1% for a foreign transaction fee plus $1.50 for the withdrawal. Within minutes, Mrs Phred has spent the euros on two umbrellas and a new purse, so I get another 40 euros from another ATM with the same results.

In the morning we have coffee in fort Santa Cruz, built in 1597 to protect from Spaniards. The fort now contains a pousada (heritage hotel) with a swimming pool surrounded by gun emplacements.  

In May, 1919, Captain Albert C. Read (U.S. Navy) completed the first Atlantic leg of the first transatlantic flight, when he piloted his Curtis NC-4 seaplane into the Bay of Horta..

There is a giant caldera in the center of Faial, unfortunately it was enshrouded in fog during our visit.

We did walk around the volcano museum which id underground near this abandoned lighthouse. The volcanic activity that began here in 1957 resulted in about half of the island's 30,000 inhabitants resettling to the U.S. and Canada.

Our room on the ship.

Bermuda

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We stumbled upon some things to do in Bermuda on a one day stopover. When you get off the ship the ferry is right there. The trip to Saint George costs $4.50 for a token. The buses on the Island use the same token so we bought four tokens.

The trip from King's  Wharf to St. George takes about 30 minutes. St. George is the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the Western Hemisphere and is a World Heritage Site. It was established 399 years years ago. I think.

We make our way to the town square and I buy a cup of coffee in the shop next to the information center while my companions get a walking map. We wander around and take in sights like the unfinished church on Church Folly Lane.

The World Heritage Center is next to the ferry dock...admission is a donation...

After that we take the 20 minute bus ride to Hamilton (asking for a transfer) and use our remaining tokens.

The National Art Gallery is next to the Hamilton bus station... Admission is free...We use our transfers for the 50 minute bus ride back to the cruise ship.

One of the stops along the way is Horseshoe Bay. The caves, pink sand beaches and food vendors would make this a nice place to spend an hour and grab a burger....

If it was a little warmer we would have spent the whole day swimming or snorkeling at Horseshoe Bay. The cruise line would have taken us there for $120 or we could have taken the bus for $19....typical cruise line tour markup....

Creating Offline Blog Posts

This blog post was created with an App that permits a user to create and edit a blog post in Windows 10 offline where there is no or poor Internet available. The App is called "Live Writer" and is available free from Microsoft. It works with Blogger, Word Press and other blog software.

This should be helpful on the upcoming 17day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Copenhagen. My writing skills may have atrophied with age, but pictures don't lie (unlike the orange-haired oaf-in-chief).

The VFW

I walk down to the to the VFW and back some days to attend the AA meetings. The meetings are called The Oasis which is counter-intuitive since you go to an oasis to get a drink. Two more days and I'll get my 30 day chip.

Instead of a fly decal on the urinals for a target, the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars)  has pictures of Jane Fonda....I'm working on a PTSD legend because Florida now has medical marijuana.

The walk is 4.9 miles each way, but my Apple health App only logs 4.1 miles. A little research tells me I need to reset my height from 5'4" to 6'0" to get a more accurate estimated stride length on the App. Lot's of demonstrations in Sarasota this year...some signs are funny...

We're getting on a boat Sunday for a 19 day cruise over to Copenhagen. From there we take a ferry to Poland for three weeks of wandering around. I'll miss out on the Polish vodka, I guess.Probably Mrs Phred will get her nails done before the cruise.

I've lost 20 pounds the last two months on a 1,000 calorie a day diet. Probably won't get my monies worth on the cruise food. 23 pounds to go.

Off to See the Lizard with Gordon and Ken

Aboard Blackbeard's Dive Boat

I talked Ken and Gordon into flying down to Nassau to spend a week on the Morning Star. Here they are eating cracked conch at the Poop Deck.

At dawn, on the day after we arrive, I take a walk by myself and see the local fishermen set up for business...

Our bunks are in the main cabin with a galley...one bad thing is that I put on ten pounds...now I have to lose them again....but the food was great and the rum was free...

Fruit for the week in a hammock..help yourself...

I think these railings are called lifelines? Maybe not....anyway they are mostly full of towels and dive gear....

The water temperature was 78 -80 F. I wore my two millimeter shorty wetsuit...it was plenty...the air temperature was about the same....it was the first week in December...

We did 18 dives including night dives, shark dives, wall dives, wreck dives, drift dives and just plain pretty reef dives...

I think I have the bends...my old motorcycle injury shoulder is really hurting....the shoulder is the most common joint to manifest the bends....maybe I'll stop laughing at the kids with the dive computers and get one myself? Real men have dive computers too?

Time to dive....

There goes Gordon...

Hey Gordon...hold this trident while I take your picture....

Ken is more enthusiastic about the trident...

Gordon checks his gear...

Sunrise? Sunset?

Sailboat...

Another sunset...

Bob with the trident...

Bahamas Blue

The.Morning Star...Carol and I dove from this boat in the 80s and 90s...

Endangered Bahama Iguana...
Bahama... Iguana...Madonna
Bahama ...Iguana...Madonna....Nirvana
Bahama ...Iguana...Madonna....Nirvana...Piranha

Gordon gives a grape...Why am I thinking of Gordon Gekko quotes as I snap the picture?
"If you need a friend, get a dog." or "if this guy owned a funeral parlor nobody would die!"

Want a grape? Some guy cooked one of these endangered iguanas and put it on Facebook. They extradited him and put him in a Bahamian prison....If I had Facebook, I would put all the stupid things I do on it instead of here ...

Finally! They put up the Bimini the last day....

May I take your picture, officer? Eventually, Gordon and I find the Cuba Tour Company and talk to the tour lady about Havana....High season for Cuba is December...

Daphne's on the Dock....we get Conch fritters and Junkaroo Kalik beer...."We're rushin', we're rushin', we're rushin through the crowd ... K-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, k-k-kaliking k-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, k-k-kalik, yeah."

Gordon and Ken at Daphne's...

Good companions....