Guys we ont demandé d’écrire un truc au sujet de notre séjour sur le Raffût, alors voilà, un truc.
Permettez-moi de commencer par la fin, c’est plus logique.
Nous sommes repartis des Açores un lundi matin, tôt, encore tout ensommeillés après un séjour intense en émotions. Le départ aux aurores aura finalement été la bonne solution : la tête encore dans le brouillard, au radar, les jambes nous portent vers l’aéroport de Ponta Delgada. Le cœur, s’il avait été bien éveillé, nous aurait dicté de rester.
On avait imaginé des conditions de vie difficiles, nous avons trouvé le bien-être. On avait osé penser qu’ils mangeaient mal, notre séjour aura presque été gastronomique. Manu et Adrien devraient, plutôt que de devenir rugbyman professionnel pour l’un et expert comptable pour l’autre, ouvrir un restaurant aux Açores, avec une spécialité de « riz Raffût ». Et pour les grosses faims post-transatlantiques, de la « ressuce » à vau-l’eau !
Je déforme un peu la vérité, évidemment. Vous avez pu lire dans les pages précédentes que leur périple a eu son lot de difficultés. La transat retour, même si elle laissera sûrement les plus belles traces à ses valeureux marins, aura été un calvaire.
After exercise, comfort: the Azores are a paradise. We would not want too many tourists come to us to compete, especially so, do not talk too much about you. But there are whales (guys, if you can steal some pictures for tourists who really saw ...), Dolphin (guys, if you ... oh no, here it is really seen), and birds look like ducks but make strange noises, just the equivalent of a hyena, but with a beak and wings.
Paradise, because these islands are in the middle of the Atlantic, and it rains a lot, except in June and July, and so they have a lush vegetation. Hydrangeas giant to rival a gardener of the continent, banana and palm trees down, trees and plants at the top bizarre. We go from sea level to 1000m time of a song by Joe Dassin drive, of course without counting stops "waaah for the egg, egg trick, fall laisseu" needed at every turn. For
peaks, volcanic craters, some with lakes inside. No access, no house, nothing, just pure nature and the azure sea in the background. Not trivial all that.
On land, Time use was balanced between the world cup matches accompanied tosta mista and beer, for real sport (football, running), climbing volcanoes and visit small towns.
On June 16 we celebrated the birthday of Olive as it should, with a feast of tapas of all kinds, a magnum of Graves, and gifts: the two best books of the world, from the Azores cryptonite , and hair bands, because Olivier has now long and blonde hair. No kidding!
crossings between islands have been very quiet and we were able to try to souquage Artibus and écartage sloop. The vocabulary of sailing offers opportunities for puns in gold, and nine months on board does not seem to have tired guys. We have taken risk to raise the plate, and go downwind to the winch.
the day, the ocean sparkles, the sun's heat tempered by sea breezes. The islands flatten until it disappears into the horizon, we are alone in the middle of the ocean, birds and dolphins.
night, the stars make their appearance, we identify the constellations of the bear, dragon, scorpion, and the most beautiful of them, the swan, flying in mid- the Milky Way.
As we say: the heavy. The very, very heavy, even.
Perched on volcanoes, whale watchers that sent former whalers to their offices were converted into zodiacs cookies to tourists. We thought to try to capture their frequency to chasing whales, but we thought that the encounter with a whale was well worth it to be coincidental rather than caused, even to wait and risk not to see at all.
Good luck to fuss, to guys, and blessed staying there, the whales will eventually show the tip of their tail.
Barn
