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.

Last stop in Europe

We left the lovely Marina Lanzarote and sailed a short distance down the coast to Rubicon, where we were meeting some other friends from home - Jeremy and Chrissie.

Lanzarote - not a lot grows here!

It was great to catch up with friends from home for a couple of days on the beach, and not only were there some great restaurants around Marina Rubicon, but there were some great walks along the cliff tops near the Marina

The marina.

Papagayou Bay, about 30 minutes walk from Rubicon - great beach, well worth the walk.

These are the works of an Artist whose studio overlooks the marina - they all look rather tragic, but that's probably not surprising as the models are cast in concrete and the resulting figures frequently then exhibited underwater!

We had to wait in Rubicon for a weather window before we set off for Gran Canaria and when we got there the marina was packed - Gran Canaria is a major point of departure for several organised rally's across the Atlantic The ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) alone is a fleet of 200, and most of them were already in the Marina so there was no room for us.

Las Palmas Marina, Gran Canaria - standing room only for one man and his dog!

We are anchored somewhere in this crowd outside the marina - the swell was quite bad at times, it was incredibly busy as it's the entrance to a huge commercial port but there are very good Chandlers there.

And also a busy sailing school - this was a frequent occurance, the Oppies head out of the harbour past one of the many cruise ships in the port

And being towed back in at high speed after the morning lesson.

As soon as conditions permitted, we set off for Tenerife.  In order to be sure of arriving in daylight we set off in the evening and had a very peaceful and enjoyable overnight sail, arriving at Santa Cruz at first light.

Santa Cruz harbour is again a commercial port, and clearly the harbour entrance is a major refurbishment centre / parking spot for oil rigs

We were completely dwarfed by these bits of floating machinery.

We were joined in Santa Cruz by our daughter Clare and Jamie so we hired a car and set off to see the sights ... Firstly Santa Cruz itself.

The marina is being refurbished - and no doubt it will be lovely when it's finished but at the moment there are a few hazards!

Once off the boat, it's a 20 minute walk to the town centre, however a pedestrian bridge over the road is nearly completed and will greatly reduce the distance to the city centre.

It's worth the walk to see the Auditorium, a huge wave of shiny white mosaic and very similar in feel to the Arts and Science Centre in Valencia.

The Auditorium is on the waterfront and the breakwater rocks have been decorated in an appropriate manner.

 

There is a splendid market in the town centre where you can buy a huge selection of fresh produce, again worth the walk.

A fine bronze outside the market but it did seem a bit out of place to have what appeared to be a milk maid on an island where we have yet to see a cow!

This one seemed more in keeping - fishermen pushing their boat up a beach.

The island is completely dominated by Mount Teide, which at 3718m is the highest mountain in Spain. The whole area is a National park, there is a cable car that takes you to within 200m of the summit but you need a guide and permit to go to the top, and no permits were available during our stay.

The volcanic landscape, it took us 2 hours to queue for the 8 minute ride in the cable car - the queue wasn't big, just very slow. The other option was a 5 hour walk, which was beginning to look like the best option by the time we got in the tiny cable car.

The views from the top were spectacular, and the path through the lava challenging!

Clare and Jamie, with Mt Teide in the background.

I'd decided that you can never see too much of a Volcano, so we went on another walk in the lava fields a few kilometres south of the peak to see the Roques de Garcia, ancient pillars of lava left behind after the surrounding land has eroded away.

Apparently this used to feature on the 1000 pesos note

Ancient lava spikes, with lava from much more recent eruptions flowing past.

It really is a harsh but beautiful landscape.  Surprisingly we saw quite a few people hunting (presumably rabbits) with dogs, but the only living things we came across were lizards.

They were very interested in our lunch!

Apart from the volcano, another Tenerife highlight is whale and dolphin watching. The straight between the western coast of Tenerife and neighbouring La Gomera is considered to be amongst the worlds finest whale watching areas and although we have frequently seen both whales and dolphins when we've been sailing,  the only way to guarantee a sighting is to take an organised trip.  It greatly exceeded our expectations.

Pilot Whales

A family unit - the youngster is apparently only about 3 months old.

The whales dive to feed on giant squid that live in these waters at a depth of about 1000 metres, so following the depth contour was a good way of getting close to the whales

The whales appeared completely unbothered by the presence of our boat and our driver had to take care not to run into them they were so close to us.

We also saw several pods of bottle nose Dolphins - again they seemed interested in us, not bothered in the slightest.

In the spirit of leaving no stone unturned (and acknowledging that maybe not everyone shared my enthusiasm for all things volcanic), we searched for other attractions on Tenerife - we discovered that the little town of Icod de los Vinos boasts the oldest and largest Dragon Tree in the world ... Apparently over 1000 years old.

                  The  Tree.  Show me a volcano any day!

Sadly our visitors had to get back to their 'Real Lives', so now it's time to leave the comfort of Europe and head South.  Next landfall should be Mindelo, Cape Verde - 800 or so miles and about a week's sail from here.