No room at Horta

[trialframe]

I recently visited Horta by ferry from Sao Jorge partially to check out the situation for a few days berthing for my friends 20m boat there.
Unfortunately there was no space available according to the HM.
A huge proportion of the harbour is taken over by around 12 USA sports fishing boats of about 22m.
They bring these over as deck cargo along with 'Bad Company' - a 45m chase boat plus a 55m superyacht called Vida.
Both these massive vessels are taking up huge amounts of quayside of the marina rather than being made to use the commercial port near the ferry terminal.
Not good......

 

[webcraft]

Wonder if there would be space for our 9m boat . . .

20m is a pretty large boat, I prefer something small that most marinas and harbors can tuck into a corner.

 

[srm]

Hang on, your friend's boat is 20m and you are complaining that the space is being taken up by twelve 22m boats plus some bigger ones? I remember a marina manager in the Azores telling me "the marina is like a church, once you find a place you can stay as long as you want". They usually operate on a first come, first served basis for visitors and are reluctant to take bookings. From memory 20m is probably too big for any Azores marina berths so he is restricted to piers/quays for walk ashore berths anyway. Surely your friend can do as you suggest for the others and use the commercial quay or what everyone else does when the berths are full, as they so often are in Horta, and anchor off.
There is also a reasonable anchorage off Angra marina and a good anchorage off Praia marina, (or anywhere in the bay to suit wind direction) both on Ilha Terceira with a much better range of onshore bars/eateries/shops than Horta.

 

[geem]

There is space to anchor. That's what we did whilst we were there. I much prefer it to the marina.