CANARIES TO CAPE VERDE ISLANDS.
Day 0
(As a fact, couple of days)
Meeting with the crew, boat and rules. Sails, lines, food, jokes – ordinary preparation for a long passage.
Day 1. November’11
Departed from Santa Cruz at night on 10th. Set reefed mainsail, set watch system, and off we go! Trade winds carry us away, Canaries shelter from the waves. The boat is flying 10 knots, inverted moon is shining. In the end of the night we were far enough from the islands to have all the waves. 3-4 meter high long waves. Wooohooo! Surfing!
Me and Alex on watch, cheerful, singing songs, full of energy. Decided not to wake up guys a little more and see the first ocean sunrise.
In the morning the wind eased a little bit, we set full sails. The boat goes perfect – strong, reliable, you can feel that it was designed for round the world racing. But it was rebuilt to have more comfort inside, so we have big enough cabins and huge galley/saloon.
Day 2. November’12
Dolphins! Came several times. One made a circus performance jumping very high.
Sand haze in the skies, titanium ocean. In the evening the wind died, according to the forecast. Engine on. But then we caught first mahi-mahi! Golden fish. Ate half of it immediately with soy sauce, salted the other half.
In the night passed by some white blinking light. Thanks got didn’t hit it, it was very close! While we were discussing, to check what was that or not (we had all the sails up, not easy to maneuver immediately), the light disappeared in the night.
There’s more and more plankton in the water, the boat leaves a glowing line behind her. Looks like a fairytale 🙂
Day 3, November’13
The haze gone, the wind came, and we’re sailing again! At the sunrise we caught one more mahi-mahi so had a nice stew for lunch.
The guys are swimming behind the boat with a bosun chair attached to the long line on the winch. They are surfing the waves, pretending they are dolphins:)
Were going to hoist the spinnaker, good that we didn’t – at the evening the wind risen up to 25 knots, and the boat started to fly 9-10 knots again surfing the long waves. Approaching Cape Verde islands very fast.
Saved dying avocados by making guacamole for dinner.
After midnight the big cloud came and the wind increased to more than 30 knots. The boat flies 13 knots, wow! but scary! And very hard to steer (by the way, we don’t have autopilot). Furled in jib. Less stability with only mainsail up, but easier to steer.
Day 4, November’14
Switched on just on time for my shift. All same – port tack, reaching. Flying fish came.
The ocean is kind to us – some haze in the skies, so it’s not hot. Comfortable temperature to wear swimming suit. Water temperature 26°.
In the afternoon the wind decreased to 10-12 knots, and for such a heavy boat and waves the result is flopping sails. So sails go down, start the engine.
Red sunset and dolphins. No stars in he sky, but enough stars in the water. 06:00 UTC, out!
Day 5, November’15
Now we feel tropical sun. When it comes out of a cloud, it burns. In spite of my tan I got sunburnt a little bit. Ok, it’s time for long sleeves and buff.
Still no wind, motoring with the staysail. 40 miles to Sao Vicente island. Almost all kinds of clouds in the skies, but still a lot of sun. Saw the island only 10 miles from it – moderate visibility. The shape is very interesting – flat hills on one side and sharp rocks on the other.
Mindelo meets us with creoles on the small boats, herons on the jetty and colorful colonial architecture. Sigh of relief, tidy up cockpit, check the rig – and we are free to go to the town to find famous caboverdian music.
We had dinner in a terrible place pretending to be fancy. But they had no octopus, the meat was bad and the musicians were singing Cezaria Evora songs so horrible that it looked like special appeal 🙂
And then we found a small cafe with perfect music, good menu and just in a couple of minutes walking from the marina! Were drinking local red wine, teasing scraggy kitten, laughing with the waiter and feeling amazing!
