azores 2014 how safe is it?

[idylours]

has anyone have any experience getting to the azores from newfoundland, ie best time of year, sail time,

[CarinaPDX]

Atoll - Appreciate the rafting reminder. I (most) always found the rafting experience quite congenial. It was a great opportunity to meet new people. Even those who tended towards crash landings were usually nice, and rarely was there any damage.

Two matters of etiquette that weren't mentioned: first, as soon as the boat is secure in the raft, set fenders outboard for the next boat. Aside from being prepared, it serves as a welcome mat. Secondly, do discuss with the other boats the departure plans before the end of the evening - it makes things a lot smoother in the morning.

One of the awkward things about returning to the US is the lack of such rafting. It seems the attitude (as in other things) is "I got mine, too bad for you". Try tying alongside a boat here and you are likely to get a hostile response. Sad...

Greg

[Hud3]

You see rafting in some places in the States. Like in front of the Crab Claw Restaurant in St Michaels (Chesapeake Bay) on an Annapolis to St Michaels race weekend.

[CarinaPDX]

Yes, on occasion there is rafting, but usually for specific events. Go into a crowded harbor and ask to tie alongside and there is a good chance you will be met with a puzzled, or even indignant, look. It is not at all the norm. In Europe it is the norm, and boats are often seen rafted 4 (or more) deep at popular destinations or stops during the summer. And for specific occasions it can be positively breathtaking.

For a lesson in rubbing along well in high density partying, be in Skagen, Denmark, for Ascension Day. The flood of inbound boats starts mid-week and by Saturday you can, quite literally, walk across the harbor from boat to boat. By Tuesday morning the harbor is nearly empty. Quite something.

Greg

[goboatingnow]

Personally I never liked tangiers, commercial traffic, lobster pots, winds, the city, not my cup of tea

Dave


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[atoll]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Personally I never liked tangiers, commercial traffic, lobster pots, winds, the city, not my cup of tea

Dave


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

not everybodys cup of tea!

but a great place to stock up on the freshest vegtables,legumes and spices when heading south.

almost free to stop, which beats paying 70-80 euros a night at any of the marinas on the other side of the straights whilst waiting to get through against an easterly,and you are already on the correct side of the TSS when coming from the west.

first time i went there was at the tender age of 17 on one of my many overland africa backpacking trips,it will be a shame when it gets sanitized and turned into a marina for wealthy europeans.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by idylours

has anyone have any experience getting to the azores from newfoundland, ie best time of year, sail time,

i was hoping someone else would chip in and answer as newfoundland is foreign territory for me.

but i will have a go,looking at the routing charts i would say May is probably better than june as you are still a bit early for hurricanes following the gulf stream.

on leaving i would stay on a broad reach heading roughly SE till about 40N to get to the warmer weather,this also avoids areas with higher incidences of gales then carry on as you would if coming from NY.

Atlas of Pilot Charts for the Major Oceans of the World

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by idylours

has anyone have any experience getting to the azores from newfoundland, ie best time of year, sail time,

DO Tap fly that , that might be best

dave

[foolishsailor]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

DON'T BBQ in a European port. You will be pegged politically as a Yankee or an Aussie, depending on meat size.

OH and since we're here:

Cancer risk from grilled meat: Is it time to give up smoked and fried foods?

Bon appe-tits

..or South African, or Brazilian, or Spanish, or Argentinian, or....

There are many many cultures where grilling meat on a BBQ is a core part of their culture and one would not be alone having a grill on the back of a boat in many marinas in the Med. The Spanish love to grill their fish on the boat and do so outside on a grill...

[Blue Crab]

Hey Salty, I followed that link and drooled at the pic of steaks on the grill. Thanks. More importantly, I saw a link to a problem that also likely occurs throughout the Med (What's with that Med mooring anyway?) and likely the Azores too: Are your crêpes too thin?


Savory buckwheat crêpes recipe, and how to make crêpes just the right thickness (VIDEO).

[SaltyMonkey]

Oh there are TOO many polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in crepes! Eat bananas!!

[atoll]

thanks salty for getting those taste buds working,i do reccomend trying bacalhau if it is on the menu!

A Guide to Azorean Cuisine

What is Azorean Cuisine?
The short answer is: cooking that is native to the Azores Islands, an Autonomous Region of the country of Portugal. Azorean cuisine is a rich, hearty and peasant-based style of cooking. Its flavors sing of seafood, spicy stews, sweet desserts and rich dairy products, among many others.

The exact answer, however, is a bit more complicated. Most people, if they have even heard of the Azores before, likely assume that the foods of these islands are the same, or similar to, Portugal’s. And while the language is the same, and some of the dishes are even the same, they are actually quite different cuisines. Azorean cuisine is the food that I grew up assuming was Portuguese food, since half of my Portuguese family hails from these islands.

Geography and Food
First, a bit about the Azores and its history: the Azores is an archipelago of nine islands of various sizes. The largest, Såo Miguel, is about 747 square kilometers and the smallest, Corvo, weighs in at a mere 17 kilometers. They are in three “groups,” geographically speaking, with Såo Miguel and Santa Maria being the eastern-most group. Terçeira, Faial, Pico and Graçiosa are the middle group and Flores and Corvo make up the northern group.

The islands are geographically isolated, both from the mainland and even from each other. They lie in the Atlantic Ocean approximately two-thirds of the way between the United States and the coast of mainland Portugal. It is believed that they were discovered by the Portuguese navigator Diogo de Silves around 1427. There is no evidence that they had ever been inhabited prior to this.

This is one of the main reasons that the food of the Azores is so little known. It isn’t easy to get to them and, in fact, it isn’t even that easy to get from one to the other! Even today people who live on one of the islands are more likely to have been to the mainland, or traveled to other parts of the world, than to the other islands in their archipelago.

History
The Azores also had a history of rampant illiteracy—although this has, of course, changed in modern times. For this reason many family recipes got lost. They simply were not written down. Although some got passed from generation to generation, many did not. During the big wave of immigration out of the Azores in the early part of the 1900s, written recipes and records of cuisine did not leave with the inhabitants.

As chef and author David Leite notes, these were not a people who went to restaurants. The island’s residents were hard-working farmers and fishermen. Many families struggled with extreme poverty and over-crowding. When they left the islands and moved to other countries, such as the United States, opening restaurants and cafes is not something that occurred to most of them. Why would people come to eat their food when they usually made their own at home? This is another reason that the cuisine is so little known.

What Distinguishes Azorean Cuisine From Portuguese Cuisine
So, what is Azorean cuisine, and what distinguishes it from mainland Portuguese cooking? Again, the answer is not simple, particularly since cuisine changes depending on which Azorean island, or even which part of any given island you visit.

As a general rule, Azorean cuisine tends to be much more country rustic than mainland Portugal’s (this is not a hard and fast rule, but is generally true). The foods are rich with the flavors of the main ingredients, rather than created with sophisticated blends of flavors.

A good example of this, as David Leite also points out in an article about Azorean cooking , is the Kale Soup. The hearty version I grew up with is full of big chunks of kale, potatoes and linguiça, whereas the Caldo Verde made on the mainland is creamy and smooth, with thin strips of kale and maybe one or two slices of linguiça in each bowl.

The Azores are famous for their rich dairy products. Cows tend to be used for that purpose, rather than as meat (pork is the main meat used in cooking). At breakfast you are likely to be served a small glass jar filled with local yogurt, breads spread with rich butter and a coffee with lots of steamed whole milk. The cheeses are also very good on the islands and the Queijo da Ilha from the island of Såo Jorge can be found in a few top quality cheese stores around the world.

A very unique type of food that comes from the island of Såo Miguel (the biggest island) is Cozida. This is a sort of one-pot meal that is actually cooked by digging a hole in the ground near the famous caldeiras (hot geysers) of Furnas (which, not surprisingly, means “furnace” in Portuguese).

Alcatra is another popular Azorean dish that hails from the island of Terçeira, where my grandmother comes from. This pot roast style of dish can be made from pork, beef, or another animal and is slow baked with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a bit of clove.

These are islands, after all, so it is no surprise that seafood figures heavily in the cuisine. As in the mainland, bacalhau (cod) and other fish figures heavily in the mix, but there is a heavier use of polvo (octopus), lamprey and limpets.

Ananas, or pineapples, are grown on the island of Såo Miguel and are exported heavily to mainland Portugal. It is frequently seen on the menu of Azorean restaurants for dessert and is the rare exception to the richly sweet dishes that characterize most of the Azorean repertoire of desserts.

Massa Sovada, or Portuguese sweet bread, originated in the Azores and is a ubiquitous part of Christmas and Easter for both Azoreans and mainland Portuguese. For Easter it is often baked with hard-boiled eggs in the center of the loaf. Malasadas are round balls of dough that are deep fried and rolled in granulated sugar, almost like a donut, that are supposed to have originated in the island of Såo Miguel.

This gives you a taste of the hearty and rich flavors of Azorean cooking. The visitor is unlikely to go hungry on these islands. Whether you are eating in a restaurant or in someone’s home, the portions will be large and the food filling, and you will be encouraged to have seconds or thirds. It may not be easy to find this food anywhere else in the world, but if you are lucky enough to have it, you will be satisfied!

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by atoll

thanks salty for getting those taste buds working,i do reccomend trying bacalhau if it is on the menu!

A Guide to Azorean Cuisine
...

This gives you a taste of the hearty and rich flavors of Azorean cooking. The visitor is unlikely to go hungry on these islands. Whether you are eating in a restaurant or in someone’s home, the portions will be large and the food filling, and you will be encouraged to have seconds or thirds. It may not be easy to find this food anywhere else in the world, but if you are lucky enough to have it, you will be satisfied!

Uh oh, you've done it now Alex. Americans will now invade the Azores. We don't need no stinkin reason! but this is a perfect one. We will eat, eat, eat. That's what we do!

Now, how do we get around this pesky Schadenfreude Agreement thingy?

[atoll]

some real gems out there!

take the time to look through the link of dishes passed down from ana teviera's grand mother dating back to 1892,all the ingredients i found are available at the local market,near the park in horta,try for yourself!

Ana Taveira's Azores traditional recipes



Grouper São Miguel
(Garoupa de São Miguel)

Shoping list:


•
•a grouper with about 2 pounds (1 Kg)
•1 onion
•1 parsley sprig
•80 grs. of lard
•3 spoons full of olive oil
•salt
•1/2 cup water
•2 eggs yolks
•lemon juice
•+-140 grs. of fried bread slices

Heat the lard, olive oil, parsley and onion. Place the salted fish over the hot oil let it slightly fry on both sides, add the water and cover the pan.
Place the sliced fried bread over a table dish and the grouper when it is ready (25 minutes).
Take some of the gravy stir in the egg yols and the lemon junice, pour over it and let it boil a few minutes

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Captain Ludd

Atoll
I might be worth a mention to pull your mooring line (bowline) through the other lines from the bottom.
I'm sure you know what I mean and can explain it better than me.

It's called "Dipping the Eye"

Dipping the eye allows boats whose dock lines share the same piling, cleat, or bollard with yours to depart when they wish, without disturbing the dock lines of remaining boats. To dip the eye, pass the loop (eye) of your line up through the eye of the other boat’s line, and then drop it over the bollard, pile, or cleat. Though the eye of your line is above the other boat’s mooring line, its position is below theirs; when the other boat is ready to leave, their line will easily lift over yours. Since your line is below theirs, the other boater simply takes their line in and departs.