Ponta Delgado, Sao Miguel, the Azores, Portugal: For the past two days we’ve been in port at two different islands of the Azores, owned by Portugal. Yesterday’s island, Terceira, has the large but mostly inactive Lajes U.S. Air Force base and today’s island - Sao Miguel - has the capital of the Azores.
The weather has been dreary, expectedly so. The Azores’ location in the eastern North Atlantic isn’t a great neighborhood for warm, balmy weather. We had strong wind yesterday and have fog today. Last time we were here the weather was like this too - gray skies.
I think of this as Irish weather, sort of windy, damp, and raw like the California coast mostly is when you get north of L.A. If you want warm beaches, you want Florida, not California.
Beach towns in CA are picturesque but the water and air tends to be in the 50-60° F range a lot. The Chamber of Commerce didn’t tell you that, did they?
It’s the reason West Coast surfers wear wetsuits. It is also the reason as high schoolers we’d go to the beach and build a bonfire to huddle around while drinking and waiting for the grunion to come ashore to spawn.
I understand why Azores Portuguese who farm in CA’s hot Central Valley go to Pismo Beach on holiday. It has the same cool seacoast climate as back home.
