{"id":454,"date":"2018-08-10T13:24:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T13:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/?p=454"},"modified":"2018-08-10T13:24:43","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T13:24:43","slug":"30-years-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/30-years-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"30 years’ progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 11th 2018<\/p>\n

You expect some things to change in 30 years \u2013 it\u2019s just a surprise when they do.<\/p>\n

The last time I visited Vila Island off Vila do Campo on Sao Miguel in the Azores was in 1987. With a couple of other competitors in the Azores and Back Race from Falmouth, we took somebody\u2019s boat the ten miles down the coast from Ponta Delgado and had a picnic in this crater of an extinct volcano.<\/p>\n

I remembered it as an amazing place \u2013 you had to anchor outside and then take the dinghy through an entrance no more than ten feet wide into a perfectly circular lagoon. There was nobody else there, the water was warm and clear \u2013 quite simply it was like something out of this world.<\/p>\n

So, obviously when the family flew out for a week to join me in Ponta Delgado, I was determined to show it to them.<\/p>\n

We sailed \u2013 the five of us, which seemed quite crowded aboard Samsara \u2013 the two hours along the coast and there, just as I remembered it was the island.<\/p>\n

\u2026except it was not as I remembered. For a start there was a quay where excursion boats tied up to disgorge parties of tourists \u2013 and they\u2019d built a breeze-block shack for the lifeguards (there are lots of lifeguards in the Azores now). Well, that can\u2019t be a bad thing \u2013 and obviously there\u2019s no reason why tourists shouldn\u2019t see this wonder of nature\u2026<\/p>\n

Actually, that is part of the problem. The island is now a nature reserve and, after making two trips in my very small dinghy to drop my passengers, a lifeguard rushed over waving his arms and blowing his whistle to tell me that I could not enter the lagoon with a motor even if I wasn\u2019t using it. After a bit of shouted negotiation, it was agreed that if I took the motor back to the yacht, I could row into the lagoon and haul the dinghy up onto the rocks.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, by the time I had gone to all the trouble of doing this, the lifeguard had spoken to his boss and, if I wanted to land and join my family for a swim, there were only two ways I could do it: Either (a}: Go into the local harbour and hire a kayak (which of course would mean I couldn\u2019t take anyone else with me) or (b): Take everyone back to the yacht and pay to moor in the local harbour, then buy five tickets for the excursion boat.<\/p>\n

In the end I returned to Samsara<\/em> and sat in the sun reading a book until summoned by mobile phone to pick up the shore party \u2013 after all, I\u2019d seen this place once already.<\/p>\n

It was only later, talking to the owner of our Airbnb apartment that one other piece of the jigsaw puzzle fell into place: Vila Island is now a nature reserve and visitors are limited to 400 a day \u2013 which means that in high season like now<\/em> you have to book several days ahead.<\/p>\n

I suppose we should consider it a small victory that on this particular day, there were 404 visitors.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Tf-uzDM-300<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 11th 2018 You expect some things to change in 30 years \u2013 it\u2019s just a surprise when they do. The last time I visited Vila Island off Vila do Campo on Sao Miguel in the Azores was in 1987. With a couple of other competitors in the Azores and Back Race from Falmouth, we … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}