Horta Marina

Horta sits roughly halfway across the North Atlantic and has been a stopping point for sailing traffic for centuries - whalers, then the transatlantic telegraph cable stations, then the Pan Am flying boats, and now yachts. Between about April and September, boats crossing from the Caribbean and North America to Europe put in here in numbers, and the custom is fixed: each crew paints a mural on the marina's walls, breakwater and pavements with the boat's name, crew, dates and a design, and the superstition holds that a crew that fails to do it will have bad luck on the next leg. The result is thousands of paintings layered over each other across every flat surface, the oldest from the 1970s, repainted over as space runs out. Peter Café Sport on the waterfront has been the sailors' bar since 1918 and holds a scrimshaw museum upstairs.

What you'll find

• The painted quays - thousands of crew murals layered across walls and pavements.
• The superstition - the belief that not painting brings bad luck on the next crossing.
• Peter Café Sport - the sailors' bar since 1918, with a scrimshaw museum above.
• The crossing season - boats putting in between about April and September.

When to go

April to September, when the crossing traffic is in and murals are being painted. One to two hours walking the quays.

What to expect

Out of season the marina is quiet and no painting happens. Murals are painted over continuously, so specific ones disappear. Faial's flights and ferries are weather-dependent. Peter Café Sport is busy and touristic in season, though it remains a genuine sailors' bar.

Nearby

The Caldeira do Faial is inland; Capelinhos is at the western tip.

Key facts