After meeting at the airport on Faial Island and picking up our rental car, we immediately followed the route on Google Maps toward the top of the caldera; the road quickly veered into the countryside, climbing significantly in elevation. As we neared the end of the route, low clouds began to roll in more frequently, but they would break up, allowing us to enjoy the sunshine. The entire drive from the airport to the parking lot near the Caldera overlook took less than 30 minutes.
Since all our luggage had been packed for long-haul flights, we repacked our hiking gear in the parking lot to prepare for the climb to the summit. To the left, hidden in the clouds, was the summit. First, we looked out from the observation deck at the caldera in the crater of the ancient volcano, then began our ascent along a trail to the left with a slight incline. Soon the trail ended, and from there we had to climb on our own, taking long strides. The clouds moved very quickly, allowing us to enjoy a new view every time.
The summit of Pico Island, across from us, remained hidden by clouds the entire time. After a very difficult 30-minute climb, we reached the repeater antennas at the summit of Cabeço Gordo. Using the compass on our cell phone, we determined our location on the summit, with the open side facing northeast. After setting up our portable equipment: a simple 14 MHz vertical with radials, an FT-891 transceiver with battery packs—despite the cell towers—we encountered problems accessing the internet via roaming to send a spot to the SOTA cluster. In the end, we managed to send only with the registration call sign M0MSV but with the summit reference from Faial Island – CU/FA-001. After that, starting at 14:26 UTC, all that was left was to enjoy the pile-up under the call sign CR26RRC/p. After the pile-up became noticeably weaker, we tried operating on 7 MHz, but in the end, we got a very good pile-up on 18 MHz. Although the length of the vertical antenna’s radials was not at all resonant for this band.
At that time, the weather took pity on us, and the summit of Pico Island’s volcano was visible at times. Overall, during our stay at the summit, despite the wind and the sun peeking through, the grass was wet.
One of our biggest surprises after reaching the summit was finding a service vehicle near the repeater antennas, which apparently knew an alternative route to the very top. After making 125 QSOs at 16:00 UTC, we took several photos with the SOTA flag in the background, against the backdrop of the summit of Pico Island across the way, which had kindly cleared of clouds.
As always, the descent was a bit more difficult than the ascent, given the lack of a trail.
The weather, on the whole, had improved, and the sun was shining on us much more often. By the time we descended, it was already warm, and the number of people at the Caldera parking lot had increased significantly.