Training Log Archive: CleverSky

With Nancy, down to a spa that's adjacent to a small cove where the ocean water gets heated by volcanic activity to 40 C. Except the volcano seems to be broken, the spa is shuttered, and the water in the cove seemed to be ordinary temperature, so we didn't go in. (I was also not that tempted because there was a Portuguese Man o' War in the cove.)

Over to the spa area and out to some rocks by the water.

And back up to the car.

Down a crazy steep road looking for a lighthouse that seems to exist only on Nancy's map. And back up. Nancy went about halfway down. And then I forgot to stop the watch.

With Nancy, up to another viewpoint and back (nobody else wanted to join us).

The rental place had various craft, but most of them were already out. We decided that the "Hawaiian war canoe" was the best choice, he expected that it would be back in a half hour, which gave us time to grab some lunch. This was two fiberglass hulls held together with a pair of struts (if you have fewer people, he replaces one with an outrigger). On the port side we had Rachel, Julianna, Stephen, and Nancy, and on starboard it was Matt, Nicole, Danny, and me. (I think. Maybe in that order.) I had the rudder pedals, and I did a pretty fine job of steering. Some kind of weird glitch in the GPS track, I think I corrected the distance properly. It felt good to have a canoe paddle in my hands again, and I was working pretty hard the whole time, while the others paddled in varying amounts, according to their abilities and interest.

Up with everybody, then out to the turnaround with Nancy and Stephen, and back with Nancy (while Stephen hurried to catch up with Julianna, who had gone back with Rachel and Matt). It looked like there used to be a trail loop around Lagoa das Eguas, but there's a notch visible in the satellite phone at the eastern edge that we could see, a collapse of the rim that seemed like it would be impassable to many people. This hike looked like it might be near-zero visibility, but clear patches blew through when we were up there, and we got some nice views.

Around the caldera, the first part with the whole gang, then with Nancy, Stephen, and Julianna after the rest turned back, then Nancy turned around, went back to the start, and did part of the loop in the other direction to meet us (she did a substantial fraction of the distance that we did).

With everybody, out to the base of a nature preserve with nice views (including of a recently wrecked sailboat).