Whales!

Up at 05:15. Ouch. But the sky lightens, the blackbirds in the bushy trees are wide awake, chirping away. As we slip our lines, glide out of the sleepy harbor.

It's a motor-sail. "Sedna" and "Babette" have light winds on the nose out the Canal de São Jorge, between the islands of Pico and São Jorge. Heading towards Terceira.
The Pico crater towers over us, momentarily free of its mantle of clouds. Rugged and bare in the day's first sunlight. A merry gang of dolphins cross our path, rolling over the waves, like water-wheels spinning.
São Jorge is topped in a woolly cloud cap, terraced fields, white, red-tiled villages glued to the steep slopes. Below them sheer cliffs straight down to the frothy sea. Waterfalls pour over these huge cliffs in free fall.

Just before the entrance to our harbor at Angra do Heroísmo, is Mt. Brasil, a volcanic outcropping. And just before we round this headland we spot a cloud of steam, a long grey rounded form and a hooked black fin. Just port of dead ahead. A whale! Oernulf's grabs the wheel, now hand-steering. Hope this fellow's moving to port! On our way in we spot three more whales surfacing. This is the season for whale traffic in the Azores.
We can verify that!