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.