The other day, my mum and I went to the Horta museum on the island of Faial in the Azores. The museum was about the history of Horta including the building of the port. Horta is the main port in the Azores with a marina, fuel, water and a very sheltered anchorage it is a great place to stock up on the necessities. The Horta museum had an exhibition about a man who’s name I can’t remember who creates the most amazing sculptures out of the wood inside of the fig tree. The wood is very light and delicate so when he was creating his art he had to tie a cloth around his mouth so his breath wouldn’t break the sculptures.
Examples of fig tree carvings.
There was another exhibit about the pipes under the sea which where used to relay morse code from England to India stopping of at islands where the code would be tapped down another pipe on its journey to reach its final destination. This was a good and fast way to send messages as mail could take up to 6 weeks. Dashes and dots took the same speed to travel so it gave a clear morsecode message to the people who needed the information.
The process of writing was long as you had to first perfect the message then write it into morse code on a thin strip of paper after that they had to punch in the holes the holes are read by electro magnetic feelers. Which would read the message and give a clear answer. And that is how important long distance messages were transported I hope you have found this blog post interesting. Dora
Cherubino's Atlantic 
Hi Dora, this is Mrs Rea from Kyson. I have spent the morning sorting out paperwork at home and in the midst of my desk drawer there was your lovely card and link to your blog, so I’ve spent some time catching up on your amazing journey! The fig tree carvings look incredible- so delicate. I’m so glad that you’re having such an incredible time. One question from me:- are you singing any sea shanties? I have researched them in the past and found some wonderful recordings of different ones. Looking forward to reading more about your travels. X
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Mrs Rea, the carvings where very delicate they had to be displayed in extremely thick glass. Daddy has been listening to some sea shanties by Ewan McColl ( Curstey McColl’s father) and it’s rather jolly to have some music we are currently sailing between Sao Jorge and Graciosa. A blog post should be posted over the next couple of days.
Dora x
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Thank you Dora, it was really interesting to hear about the delicate fig tree wood sculptures (and to see those extraordinary photos) and the Morse code pipes x
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