After 850 nautical miles and six days at sea, we are now tied up at Mindelo Marina.
This was a great introduction to ocean sailing. The wind wasn’t too strong, the sea state no more than moderate, and the wave height stayed at less than two metres all the way. The days were sunny and each evening brought a sunset painted in rich oranges and reds.
The watch system worked well, we all got plenty of sleep, and nobody died. You can’t get better than that.
There is a fishing competition in place for the entire voyage from Tenerife to Barbados. Frankly I don’t think we are going to fair that well given that the water generator precludes the use of a fishing line in the water. But we have been assured that our catch of two flying fish will count in the competition. Chris remains optimistic, however, and has invested in 100kg line and a pair of lures that have potential to snare a big ‘un. So we may be swapping the water generator line for the fishing line from time to time.
During the day we took a bus to visit SOS kids, a charity that hoovers up kids from the street and offers them, and their families, education in the hope that they can make a future success of their lives. In Tenerife we each bought a bag of supplies they needed – things such as bedding, towels and toiletries – and delivered them today. It’s an interesting place. They are being taught technical skills as well as art, and there is clearly some latent talent here. At the moment, the charity only has a licence to house boys, but they are working on getting permission to build a unit for girls too.
An arrival dinner is scheduled for this evening. Fortunately, our livers are well rested after six days of abstinence – so we are ready.
Apologies for the formatting of our previous posts, by the way. I used the satellite phone and a smart plugin on our website that allows us to email posts to it. Unfortunately, it has stripped out all the line breaks, so I’ll fix that.
And the Internet is incredibly slow here, so we might not be able to post as many photographs as we would prefer.
So happy you made it!!!! How long will you be there?
Wonderful news about the sea sickness, Maria!!! And all the beauty of the stars, phosphorous and magical night visitors.
.Chris sounds like a great guy and sailor (drunken or otherwise)!
Big hugs to you…
You are inspiring…and Allen, I know I’ve said this before, but your writing is wonderful… I wish more people could see your blog.
We are in Cape Verde until the 24th November but will be leaving Mindelo tomorrow and will be back on the 16th.
I know, he’s a brilliant writer…. I may be a little biased!