Is it James Bond or Games of Thrones? The marina of Horta is one of the prime stop-over harbours for smaller vessels crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Most ships using Horta’s port are sailing yachts either mooring over the winter or just restocking and resting for a couple of days before continuing their voyage to either side of the Atlantic. Sometimes though, we do also have more interesting guests. Be it sometimes naval vessels or huge cruise liners pouring out their travellers for a couple of hours. Last week, I had some business in town and when parking at the harbour quay, I was at first not sure if I was still asleep or just landed in the middle of a film shooting. I spotted a mysterious dark grey spaceship alike huge boat in the ferry terminal named after the Game of Thrones character “Hodor”. I am not a Game of Thrones expert, but for me it looked rather like the secret headquarter of Ernst Stavro Blofed, the eternal evil counterpart of James Bond. A quick internet search unveiled part of the mystery, it was a 66m (sic!) support vessel, having a heliport and carrying amongst others a submarine, to an even greater yet to be launched yacht, apparently commissioned by some mysterious Las Vegas billionaire. The “Hodor” has been completed earlier this year in Spain and was performing sea trials while stopping in Horta. Despite their secludedness, the Azores were and are home to some of the world’s less known technology and military infrastructure. Since 1893, Horta was hosting the relay station of telegraph cables linking Europe to America. By 1928, fifteen cables had their switchboard in Horta, making it one of the world’s hotspots for communication, long before satellites and the internet. International telecommunication companies had their offices in Horta, giving the city a cosmopolitan touch. With the ascent of new technologies, the last of the offices closed its operations in 1969. On the neighbouring island of Terceira, the British set up an air base during World War II, which was later taken over by the Americans operating it until today, although massively scaled down over the last years. Lajes Field, as it is called, would have been in case of need an emergency landing strip for the Space Shuttles, but storage of nuclear weapons and potentially linked pollution as well as allegedly being a place for the secret detention of suspected terrorists cast their shadow over the camp. Technology did not end for the Azores, by 2021, a special spaceport will be opened on Santa Maria by the European Space Agency dedicated to launch small satellites into the orbit. The answer to the mystery of the “Hodor”, whether it will be part of the next Game of Thrones, the James Bond episode or some other conspiracy might have been revealed by the aquanaut sneaking suspiciously on the deck of the vessel. But have a look at the pictures and make your own decision.
