Base Story

It was a sunny and windy day some years ago, and I was on vacation in Terçeira, Portugal with my family.

That day, my parents had planned a field trip, to Pico, which is an island that is very close to the one that we were staying on. I thought that the trip was going to be lovely because we weren’t just going to visit the island and learn about its history, we were going to make the one hour crossing on a boat so that we would have the opportunity to see dolphins.

But when we got into the boat and set out, everything started to go wrong. A storm was approaching and it arrived earlier than the ship captain thought that it would. The waves quickly became amazingly big, rocking the boat and making progress slow. At the same time, it was raining cats and dogs. We all sat inside to weather the storm, but still almost everybody onboard became dizzy and some people got sick. Finally, as we arrived at Pico three hours later – two later than planned – and we all happily got off the boat, relieved to be on firm ground again. Some of the passengers were so affected by the journey that they decided to spend the night on the tiny island and leave the next day by plane.

As the day went on, the weather improved and we actually had fun and enjoyed the visit. Luckily, my family decided to return to Terçeira the same day and, during the return crossing, we had good weather and were able to relax. Luckily we also had the opportunity to see plenty of dolphins.