To Barbados

We set off from Mindelo, Cape Verde for Barbados on 1st December, a little convoy of Nautilus, Steve and Lynne on Aztec Dream and John and Eileen, plus crew member also called John, on Cara Mor.  

For those not familiar with Raymarine instruments, TTG is Time To Go, and DTW Distance To Waypoint.         It is a long way to Barbados!   

Conditions really were excellent - apart from the occasional minor squall, the wind stayed between 10 and 25 kts for most of the trip.  Perfect for us to fly our secret weapon, The Parasailor.

  

'The Beast' as we affectionately know it, the Parasailor really is a phenomenal piece of kit 

Another piece of kit that worked tirelessly throughout the journey was the mechanical wind vane auto helm - it uses no power, has its own rudder and sails to wind angle.

Harry the Hydrovane.  The only time we had to assist was when the rudder got clogged up with seaweed, which happened about 20 times during the trip.

We really did not expect the great rafts of seaweed.  Although at times the weed was so thick it clogged our Hydrogenerator (needed to recharge the batteries that run the navigation system and lights) it never became a problem as we ran the engine for an hour every few days to run the watermaker - so we had the luxury of showers.

During the trip we saw very few birds, and those we saw were solitary.

We think this was a red billed tropicbird.

What we did see a lot of was flying fish - they burst out of the water, skimmed the waves for a good 100m and crashed back in again, apart from the dozens that landed on the deck, the coachroof, the cockpit ...

One of the smaller casualties

We now know you can eat them, as flying fish sandwiches are very popular in Barbados but they do look very fiddly to prepare.

We only have a fridge, not a freezer on the boat so any fresh food had to be bought in Mindelo, Cape Verdes, and there really is not a lot there ... So catering on the boat was limited.  Breakfast of porridge and home made yoghurt, lunch usually a rice based salad and dinner something involving beans and pulses until the day we caught a fish! Great excitement.

The Amberjack - the only fish we managed to catch and land.

Cooking on board

Dinner!

It is dark for 13 hours at this time of year, and although the stars were fantastic there was very little moon and it really was dark. To see the sails at night we either use a head torch or turn on one of the mast lights (steaming light) but the bulb had blown, so it was a trip up the mast for Ian.

It takes two to change a light bulb - one with the bulb, and one holding the ropes in case he falls off!

The view from the top!  

The Parasail.

We take 3 hour shifts at night - although there is very little out there, the one ship we did come across seemed intent on running us over, and as it was 900 feet long to our 42, we were not going to come off well! Motor is obliged to give way to sail, and eventually he grudgingly changed course by a couple of degrees and passed about 300 metres behind us.  Anyone who has shared sea space with a ship will know that is far too close for comfort!

Sunrise over the Atlantic

Sunrise - and a squall in the distance.

And a sunset.

One of the excitements of the trip was getting in touch with Aztec Dream and Cara Mor.  We managed to stay in VHF contact with Aztec almost all the way, and also found a new member of our fleet - Blue Lilly, an Austrian couple sailing with their 16 year old son.

We were the only boat with a Parasail which meant we had to drop it to slow down to stay with the fleet - slowing down is not as easy as it sounds! Having spoken to Blue Lilly lots of times on the radio, it was time to meet them, we dropped the parasail but no sails at all makes the boat unbelievably unstable, so we kept a tiny bit of headsail up,threw out a fender and swum one at a time.

Swimming, if you can call it that, in 5000 metres mid Atlantic

It was quite challenging!

Blue Lilly caught us up - they took this photo, which shows our tiny sail and the boat hidden by the swell

Mid Atlantic meeting

Like most sailors, we do not choose to arrive in a new harbour or port in darkness, so we found ourselves having to slow down as much as possible on the last night of our crossing and sailing across the 'finish line' with Blue Lilly and Aztec Dream in the early hours.

First light, just off Barbados.  Still sailing with a very reefed headsail.

We arrived off Port St Charles, one of two Ports of Entry into Barbados.  We were instructed to anchor and enter by dinghy to complete the formalities - now we are no longer cushioned by the EU, we really are the foreigners - a good hour was spent filling the same information in on many many bits of paper.  As we were to learn, checking in is the easy bit ... it's the checking out that takes the time!

Back on the boat, we tried to set off for Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown only to find we had picked something up on our anchor

We removed the lump, and headed 10 miles along the coast to Bridgetown - anchored, had a swim then headed ashore to have a celebratory beer with our sailing companions, then an un-interrupted night's sleep.  Lovely.

Bridgetown by night.

Definitely no shortage of Christmas spirit here!

Bridgetown is the home of Mount Gay Rum - obviously we had to go to the visitors centre

And that was before we got to the Mojitos!!!

The town has an old colonial feel, and lots of street vendors

You can buy a goldfish in a bottle.

Some highly suspect wasp covered syrup drinks

Ian was tempted by the Bionic Shop for the latest in fashion.

And we did buy the best avocados I have ever eaten from this young man.

We have not come across begging here, and this lady seemed to be playing for her own enjoyment.

We spent an evening at Oistins Bay, famous for its Friday and Saturday night fish - there must be at least 100 BBQ shacks with picnic table seating all vying for your custom.  We took Trip Advisors recommendation and went to one called Mo's and it was good value and delicious - the outing involved a 1 hour bus trip for $1 to get there, but on the way back we discovered the delights of the private mini van.  A fifteen minute white knuckle ride with 16 people in a 12 seater van and we were back in Bridgetown.

We have now taken a bus ride to Bathsheba on the north east of the island.  Again, the transport is not for the faint hearted, the roads are narrow, the hills steep and the driver in a rush - but it did give an excellent view of the island.

The car is clearly more important than the house.

Bathsheba Bay - beautiful, great for surfing but swimming not advised due to rip currents

We walked to the far end of the bay where all the coconuts get washed ashore

The Bus Stop.

We have enjoyed Barbados, well worth a visit.  Our next destination is Bequia, 100 miles away, for Christmas, New Year and MIKE AND TARYN's wedding!

The Cape Verdes

Contrary to the forcast, the wind was against us when we first left Tenerife, then it dropped and we had to motor, then eventually it performed as expected ...  863 miles, 6 days later we arrived in Mindelo, Cape Verde.  Although we made a few sail changes early on, the majority of the trip was either with the parasailor or just the head sail and the only gybed once during the whole trip.

During 6 days we saw two yachts (apart from Aztec Dream) and three commercial vessel.  

The Hydrovane steered us beautifully, and kept a course much better than either of us would have managed in a large following sea.

There was quite a lot of boat movement on the swells, which did make walking around and cooking - especially opening cupboards without the entire contents fallig out -  quite challenging at times.

Heeled over.

Taking it easy on watch - very early morning.

And no change - still taking it easy later in the day once it had warmed up.

We saw a couple of huge pods of dolphins, leaping out of the water and playing in our bow-wave, and hundreds of flying fish, they pop out of the water, occasionally on their own but frequently in schools of about 30 or more.

In the morning we'd clear the casualties off the deck.

Apparently they are very tasty and we should have been frying them up for breakfast but we thought at the time that they looked rather small and potentially very bony!

We were basically sailing along about 350 miles from the African coast, and the prevailing wind carries literally tons of Sahara sand.  After a few days the boat was literally coated in orange desert sand and salt.

On the morning of day 6 we sighted land - we were heading for the North West end of the archipelago, to the island of Sao Vicente.

Sao Vicente, Cape Verde

First impressions were certainly not 'Verde'.  It looks very much like barren rock!

The perceived wisdom is not to approach the islands in darkness - looking at the waves hitting the rocky coast, you can certainly understand why!

The Commercial Port of Mindelo

Mindelo Marina, seen from the beach. Its hard to believe from this picture, but the surge in the marina is terrrible, in the week we have been here, our mooring line has snapped, our neighbour's cleat broke, another one was ripped out of the pontoon and several boats have sustained damage from either hitting the pontoons or each other.  On the positive side, we will definitely keep our sea legs while we are here!  

The Marina itself only opened in 2007, before that time there were really no facilities for visiting yachts.  You can still anchor in the bay, but care needs to be taken to avoid the large wreck lying on its side as it is unlit and awash at high tide.

The wreck - complete with some one fishing on it.

Much of Mindelo is fairly run down, there are a few small supermarkets with limited produce and several markets, including of course a large fish market.

The open air market.

Typical market clothes.

There are lovely old tiled murals round the market, giving it a bit of an 'old colonial' feel.

Although Cruise Ships are starting to make an appearance here, the island is largely untouched by tourism.  We took a tour round the North East of the island, first heading for the highest point, Monte Verde

Even without the views, it was worth it just to see the roads - apart from the very newest ones, they are all constructed from volcanic cobbles, the more major ones have white rocks set in for the line markings.  The view down to Mindelo from part way up Monte Verde.

The top of Monte Verde - there is at least some green here, and it is an impressive mountain top with very steep cliffs.

After Monte Verde, we set off for the fishing port of Salamansa

A typical Sao Vicente house.

Salamansa Town Centre

The Fast Food Van!  Sadly not open on the day we visited - almost worth going back again to see what's on the menu.

A lone fisherman in the shallows.

A typical wooden fishing dinghy heading back with the catch.

The fishing fleet.

We drove along the new (tarmac) road between Baia das Gatas on the North East coast and Calhau, the main town on the East.  There is a spectacular sandy beach, apparently well used by local surfers althoug there were none when we were there.  

Accoring to our guide, the road has been built in the hopes of encouraging development of this stretch of coastline, and obviously improving the links across the island.

Sao Vicente is a very dry island - although it was frequently cloudy during our visit, no more than a couple of milimetres of rain actually fell.  The rainy season is in August, but it is so windy much of the time that the moisture is quickly evaporated.  There is a small amount of subterranean water that is pumped up for agriculture, fresh water is produced by a desalination plant in Mindelo and trucked to the rest of the island.

Agriculture.

The produce is taken to the town markets daily, but there is not a huge selection of fresh produce.

It's been an interesting stay in Sao Vicente, the marina is very good but the constant surge means that it is not a very relaxing place to stay - although the Marina Staff are excellent and constantly monitoring the boats, we would certainly not choose to leave a boat unattended for any length of time here.

Our plan is to leave tomorrow, November 30th, and head to Barbados.  We are now sailing with Steve and Lynne from Aztec Dream and also John and Eileen from Cara Mor.

The Team - minus Steve, who was chatting to our Taxi Driver at the time.